Sara Byrne had her best finish on the Ladies European Tour last weekend, she took second place at the Ladies Open de France.  Byrne, who only just back from a four month injury lay-off, opened with rounds of 68 and 69 to claim a place in the final group on the last day.  Byrne wasn’t going to catch runaway leader Helen Briem, but held on to tie for second.

“I’m really happy with that week to be tied second, my best-ever LET finish and first time in the final group,” said Byrne. “Today was probably the best golf I played all week, unfortunately not one putt wanted to drop for me all day.  I gave myself so many opportunities. I’m so proud of how I handled myself out there and this has been a fun week.  It’s been really fun being back on Tour and putting myself in contention.”

Byrne suffered an elbow injury in early January which meant she missed the first three months of the season, but after returning last month, she made an impact in just her third event of the year.  The enhanced purse meant that the Dromoland touring pro took home close to €30,000 in prizemoney, in addition to equally valuable ranking points.  While the elbow has recovered, it’s still causing her some pain.

“It’s a little bit difficult, this is only my third tournament back. It feels good to get to the top of the leaderboard with that” said Byrne during the tournament.  “The arm is twinging this week, it’s hard because I’m trying to not take a practice swing because that’s where it hurts the most and then getting your subconscious to commit to it.”

“I am juggling that a lot more this week than the last two, it’s three weeks on the road now so it’s giving a little bit of kickback.  It’s holding up as good as it can be. It’s a learning curve, I hadn’t played competitive golf in six months so coming back and putting myself in a good spot is really cool.”

Byrne now has two weeks off before she heads for the Dutch Ladies Open.  Her performance last week has put her into the top 40 on the Order of Merit, and going into the busy summer season she will be hoping to continue in that direction.

James Sugrue was in action in Spain last week in the Challenge de Espana.  Sugrue opened with an impressive 66 which included an eagle and five birdies.  That put him within two of the lead but a level par 71 in the second round dropped him back in the field.  Sugrue comfortably made the cut but finished in 44^th after an uneventful weekend.  Sugrue moved up 38 places on the order of merit.  He is taking this week off and will be back in action at the Interwetten Open in Austria in two weeks.

John Murphy has had a busy few weeks on the Clutch and HotelPlanner Tours.  Murphy won on the Clutch Tour two weeks ago and went from there straight to Denmark for a Challenge Tour event.  Murphy started brightly with rounds of 66, 71 and 67 to put him into the top 10.  A disappointing final round 65 dropped him back in the field, but he’ll be happy with the return to form after two years of poor results.

Murphy’s win on the Clutch Tour in Essex came after a three-way playoff, and the Kinsale golfer was delighted with the result.  Speaking to Irish Golfer after his win, Murphy described how the sudden death playoff unfolded.  “I actually thought it was to get into a two-way playoff – I didn’t realise that OJ Farrell had finished with a birdie to make it a three-way – so that lessened the chances a little, but I pulled the number one card in the playoff and that first tee shot is very intimidating but I hit a beautiful one and the two lads didn’t hit really bad shots, they just pushed them into the trees a little which is so easily done and had to chip out and made bogey. They’d actually putted out by the time I hit my 25-foot birdie putt, so I knew I had two putts to win.

Importantly for Murphy, he has picked up over €10,000 in prizemoney, as well as ranking points on the Clutch Order of Merit.  He will be targeting a top three finish, which will give him HotelPlanner Tour status next year.  He’s back in action in North London in two weeks time.