Fresh off winning her 15th New Hampshire Women's Golf Association Championship last month, Dana Harrity will return to the national stage starting Saturday.

A 53-year-old North Hampton resident who plays out of Abenaqui Country Club in Rye, Harrity recently qualified for the 2012 U.S. Golf Association Senior Women's Amateur Championship. Open to female amateurs 50 and older, the tournament is scheduled for Sept. 8-13 at Hershey (Pa.) Country Club. It will feature 132 players competing in two rounds of stroke-play qualifying, with the low 64 scorers advancing to match play.

With a 79 at Wellesley (Mass.) Country Club and a birdie on the second hole of a playoff on Aug. 15, Harrity qualified for her third USGA Senior Women's Amateur. She advanced to the match-play quarterfinals as an event rookie in 2009, missed the cut in 2010 while working on swing changes and did not compete last year because of a personal conflict.

Also a veteran of seven U.S. Women's Amateurs and 11 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateurs, Harrity enjoys the senior event's laid-back vibe.

“I don't feel the pressure the way I might in some other tournaments, because we're all around the same age,” she said. “It's a very relaxed environment. I feel pretty much at home.”

Earning her first NHWGA Championship since 2008 — she prevailed by a stroke at Hanover Country Club on Aug. 9 after leader and fellow Abenaqui golfer Tracey Marshall collapsed with a 10 on the last hole — has Harrity riding high as she heads for the chocolate capital.

“That's going to give me a lot of confidence going in,” she said.

- - - - - -

NO. 15 FOR PLEAT: On the men's senior side, Phil Pleat notched his 15th New Hampshire Golf Association individual title by winning the NHGA Senior Championship last Wednesday. The 56-year-old Nashua Country Club golfer chipped in for an eagle on the 18th hole at Country Club of New Hampshire in North Sutton before prevailing on the first playoff hole over nine-time NHGA State Amateur champion Bob Mielcarz of Concord Country Club.

Pleat's dramatic 70-foot chip-in put him a stroke ahead of Mielcarz, who had led by five strokes with three holes left but triple-bogeyed No. 16 and bogeyed No. 17 before tying Pleat with a birdie at 18. In the playoff, contested on No. 18, Pleat got up and down for par while Mielcarz missed a short par putt.

“I've worked on my short game a little more this year, chipping especially, and it paid off,” said Pleat, who is slated to tee off in the New England Senior Amateur in Rutland, Vt., on Sept. 11-12. In subsequent weeks he plans to defend his NHGA Mid-Amateur title at Lake Winnipesaukee (Sept. 17-19) and travel to New Jersey for the USGA Senior Amateur (Sept. 29-Oct. 4), the national championship for male amateurs 55 and older in which he was the runner-up last year.

- - - - - - - -

DERRYFIELD UPDATE: While Derryfield Country Club hosts Manchester's best male and female amateur golfers for a round apiece in their respective city championships over Labor Day weekend, city parks officials are eagerly anticipating the start of a project to improve drainage on several of the municipal layout's low-lying holes.

The city's Parks, Recreation and Cemetery Division recently selected engineering firm McFarland Johnson to formulate construction plans that will address drainage woes primarily afflicting six holes east of Mammoth Road. The division chose the firm from among nine that submitted proposals in response to a Highway Department Purchasing Division request (NH Golf, April 1).

A Binghamton, N.Y., firm with a branch office in Concord, McFarland Johnson will collaborate on the project with Mungeam Cornish Golf Design, a noted course architecture firm based in Douglas, Mass., said Peter Capano, the city's chief of parks.

“We liked (McFarland Johnson's) overall approach and experience in having done some more or less similar projects,” Capano said. “We liked the team that they pulled together, the golf (architecture) professionals and their drainage specialists too. We thought they were very well experienced and could really help us out.”

In recent years poor drainage has rendered Derryfield's low-lying holes — Nos. 2, 3, 14, 15, 16 and 17 — periodically unplayable during the spring and soggy after summer rains. The conditions have prompted the course to frequently operate either with some holes closed or with motorized carts forbidden, making Derryfield less attractive to golfers.

The parks division is finalizing a contract with McFarland Johnson and expects the firm's work to start within a month, Capano said. The city has allocated $250,000 in its fiscal year 2013 budget to fund the project's initial phases, he added.

With an eye toward securing subsequent construction funding, the parks division and McFarland Johnson plan to host public meetings to discuss the project this fall and next spring, Capano said.

“We are going to need some buy-in from the public and from the Board of Mayor and Aldermen,” he said. “Getting that will be a good part of McFarland Johnson's and Parks and Recreation's task.”

- - - - - - - -

Through the green: The Nashua Country Club team of pro John Wollen and amateurs Bob Lind, Tom Bouchard and Chris Flanagan (63) won the New Hampshire Chapter PGA Pro-Senior Championship at Pheasant Ridge last Wednesday. ... Atkinson's Cortney Tilley and Stephanie Wallace (74) won the New Hampshire Women's Golf Association Division A&B Invitational at Campbell's Scottish Highlands last Tuesday.

- - - - - - - -

Mike Cullity may be reached at mcullity@unionleader.com.