Mehaffey ploughing a lone furrow for Arizona State

Olivia Mehaffey, a student at Arizona State University, achieved her third consecutive top 10 finish and her seventh in all during the 2017-18 regular US college golf season in the Silverado Showdown at Napa, California.

Over a par 72 course of 6,202yd, the Northern Ireland player, pictured, a certainty for a place in the GB and I team of eight to defend the Curtis Cup at Quaker Ridge GC, New York State in June, had scores of 72, 69 and 72 for a T5 finish with a three-under-par total of 213. Olivia had a bag of nine birdies over the 54 holes as she finished five shots behind the joint winners Jennifer Chang (Southern California) 66, 72 and 70, and Patty Tavatanakit (UCLA) (71-69-68)

Olivia suffered from lack of support in the team event in which Arizona State (887) finished ninth in a field of 17 teams. Southern California (859) won the event.

With only four players instead of five in the Arizona State team, the placings apart from Mehaffey's T5 were T34, T34 again and T65.