Sarah Byrne gave her chances of making the 2024 Curtis Cup team a huge boost last week when she made it to the final 32 of the Women’s Amateur.  Portmarnock hosted the event, it was the first time that the women’s amateur was held in the Republic of Ireland, and when Portmarnock held the Amateur Championship in 2019 that was won by Corkman James Sugrue.

Aside from her performance, Byrne was aware of the presence of Curtis Cup Captain Catriona Mathews and the fact she was looking at many of the potential team for Sunningdale at the end of August.  Byrne is hoping to be the first Cork golfer to appear in the Curtis Cup in 20 years,  Claire Coughlan was the last local golfer to appear in the event in Formby in 2004.

Byrne has only a limited number of amateur events remaining this summer, and she entered the Women’s Amateur as the lowest handicapped golfer in the field, playing off an impressive index of +8.2.  She opened with a solid 74 on the opening day to sit within the top 20, and she followed that with a second 74 on Tuesday, to finish in eight position.

That gave her a first round draw against Sweden’s Moa Svedenkiold, and although she was never up in the match, she was able to grind out a win on the 19^th.  A seriously good par save on the 18^th forced the match to additional holes.  Byrne played the first in textbook fashion to win the match, and book a place in the second round.

The par putt on 18^th was a tricky bending 12 footer which Byrne slotted in with confidence.  “Seriously I have been waiting for a ball to drop,” said Sara after her second round in Portmarnock without a birdie. “I was like look if there’s ever going to be one it might as well be right now. I loved the look of the putt I could see the line, I told my caddie I had this. It was nice to see a ball finally drop.”

While her play was solid, it was steady and “It’s been 36 holes with no birdie, it’s getting really frustrating, I’ve made so many pars, I’m playing really solidly, the putts just aren’t dropping but the one I needed to will give me momentum and it will give me a lot of confidence heading into the next couple of days.”

While the win and the next match were the immediate priority, Byrne was also aware of the goal for late August and that Mathews was watching her on the 19^th.  “Curtis Cup coming up on the horizon, and I want to keep on performing. And obviously teams are teams; you never know what’s going to happen.  But getting a clutch win like that on 19 in front of her helps out a little bit I think.”

Unfortunately for Byrne, she came unstuck against a tough opponent in the second round.  She was up against last year’s beaten finalist Annabelle Pancake who got off to a great start.  Byrne next gave up, battling hard in the back nine but eventually lost on the 15^th.

Sara’s attention turned immediately to Lahinch and the Palmer Cup which tees off in Lahinch today.  Deferred from an original date in 2020 because of Covid, Lahinch is now centre stage for the annual event that sees 24 American college golfers take on 24 International golfers.

Today’s first day saw mixed fourballs and tomorrow there’s two rounds of foursomes and mixed foursomes.  On Saturday 24 singles matches take place on the concluding day.  It promises to be an exciting few days in west Clare and admission is free for anyone looking to attend and see some future stars.

As well as Byrne, who becomes the first Cork golfer to appear in a Palmer Cup, there’s further Cork interest with Aaron O’Callaghan appointed as assistant coach for the international team. O’Callaghan was recently appointed as head coach for East Tennessee, the college where Seamus Power and Cian McNamara both featured.

A dozen Cork golfers have made the cut to get on the start list for the South of Ireland which takes place at the end of July, with Douglas accounting for half of them.  Robbie and Jame Walsh are in the tournament, as is Sean Reddy who plays in his first South.  Jack Murphy and Peter O’Keeffe round off the half dozen from Douglas.  Dean O’Riordan, Joe O’Neill, Jordan Boles, Morgan Cain, Sean Desmond and David Howard are also in the field.