Daddy’s girl
Close champion Sara inspired by father’s success.
IIRISH women’s golf is on the rise, and it has a new star in recently-minted Irish Women’s Close champion Sara Byrne.
The Douglas teenager (17) beat all comers at Enniscrone, clinching the coveted title by toughing it out to beat Malone’s Louise Coffey 2 and 1 in Tuesday’s rain-lashed final.
She had her father, Derek on the bag, which was fitting given that she was caddying for him when he won the Killarney Scratch Cup in 2011 was what inspired her to take up the game.
Now that she’s joined a long list of illustrious former winners of the “Close” she’s set her sights on joining some of them at the top of the game, pointing to players like Leona and Lisa Maguire, Stephanie Meadow, Olivia Mehaffey and Paula Grant as her role models.
“I really look up to them immensely,” said Sara, who burst onto the scene last year when she won the Munster Girls’ title and finished third in the Fairhaven Trophy to earn a call-up to the Great Britain and Ireland side for the Junior Vagliano Trophy in Italy.
“They are up there every week, playing fantastic golf all the time. And then there’s Annabel Wilson, who is my age and another really great player.”
Having played well in two amateur events in the US last Christmas, Sara believes she may have the game to earn a US scholarship by 2020.
She’s just finished her Transition Year, which means she’s had plenty of time off school to work on her game.
“The idea is just to keep getting better,” said Sara, whose father Derek carried out the caddying duties in Enniscrone, where he played in the Irish Close in 2009
“The thing that really helped me is that I am a real Daddy’s girl so when he was playing competitions, I went and caddied for him when I was six or seven and that kickstarted me,” she said.
“I caddied for him in the Killarney Scratch Cup when I won, and I thought, ‘This is the sport for me!’
“I got my first handicap in Douglas and eventually started to get my handicap down, and when I was 14 or 15, I was doing well in the girls’ events, and then I got picked for the Junior Vagliano last year, and that took me to another level.”
Moving up the World Amateur Golf Ranking is her next goal, which is why she was thrilled to grab her first big win this week and finally make the breakthrough
“It was really tough for me last year and the start of this year, doing well but not getting ranked,” she said of the quest for points.
“I have been putting a lot of pressure on myself, especially at the start of this year and that set me back a bit. So I forgot about it this week, and it’s fantastic.”
Coached by Muskerry’s Fred Twomey, Kinsale’s Ian Stafford and the ILGU’s Donal Scott help her with her putting while Douglas professional David Hayes has been ever present since she took up the game.
“The big difference this week was
my putting and ball striking,” she said of her winning run at Enniscrone, where she beat Beth Coulter, Lucy Simpson, Molly Dowling, Sarah Cunningham and Coffey on her way to victory.
“When my ball striking is good, I can hit all the greens, and it was really good this week. I have this low ball flight at the moment so that low, penetrating flight was really useful at Enniscrone.”
Golf’s gain is a loss for camogie, and Irish dancing and Sara is not complaining.
“I played a bit of camogie until I was 10 and did Irish dancing until I was 12 and then I decided that I’d give golf my full attention and see if it pays off,” she said.
She was selected yesterday on the Irish team for the European Girls’ Team Championship in Sweden in July, but she dreams of a senior cap and what might lie ahead.
“I’d like to go to college in the US and finish out my degree there and then see if it would be feasible to turn professional,” she said.
“I played two events in Florida at Christmas, and that was really good for seeing how I compared to some of the college players over there.” It’s been a great run for her so far and for Douglas Golf Club, which turned out in force on Tuesday night to welcome her home.
Her win in the ILGU’s 125th anniversary year came 25 years after her clubmate Eavan Higgins won the 1993 Irish Close in the ILGU’s centenary.
With Karl Bornemann now a success as a senior and Peter O’Keeffe winning last year’s Irish Amateur Open, Douglas can look to the future, and the women’s game, with renewed confidence.