Just over a decade ago I got a call from Brian Wallace, an old family friend, who with his partners had just completed building Killeen Castle golf course with Jack Nicklaus in County Meath. He told me they wanted to bring the Solheim Cup to Ireland and host it at Killeen Castle and hired me to run the bid.
After decades abroad, they brought me back home to promote and run the tournament.
Little did we know at the time that this was the catalyst and beginning of the women’s professional golf movement in Ireland that has resulted in the success of what we have today with two full time players on the LPGA tour.
Winning the bid included a commitment for us to revive the Women’s Irish Open from 2007-2012. During those years the Maguire twins Leona & Lisa, prodigies at 14, were invited to play with legends Laura Davies and Suzann Pettersen, as was Stephanie Meadows a couple of years later. Both players recall those memories vividly and say it inspired them to follow their dreams to college in the USA and onto the LPGA Tour.
There were a lot of other young girl golfers in those days that were brought to those events by their parents that also inspired them to chase their dreams. Lauren Walsh remembers vividly as a 10-year-old meeting Lexi Thomson, then at 16 in the 2010 Ladies Irish Open, and ending up playing with her a decade later at the Women’s British Open as a professional.
It’s now only a matter of time before Lauren and Sarah Byrne, who both narrowly missed out on the LPGA qualifying school last month, follow Leona and Stephanie onto the LPGA.
In addition to this we now have a total of five other young women that have access to play on the Ladies European Tour in 2025. We had none a year ago!! This compared to only one full new full member on the men’s DP World Tour next year tells its own story in Ireland and confirms the emerging trends worldwide of the explosion of Women’s sports.
The Government and in particular the late Padraig OHuigin had great foresight in supporting women’s golf years ago and were way ahead of their time strategically.
The second revival of the Women’s Irish Open, thanks to the support of KPMG with Forefront Sports in 2022 and Sport Ireland, has contributed greatly to continuing this new surge in Irish female golf talent. The top Team Ireland Amateurs are invited to play every year giving them invaluable experience.
This is inspiring the next generation and will keep the conveyor belt of young Irish female golfers churning for many years to come. The vision and plans are in place and the talent is growing every day. There is a bright Irish future ahead in the world of women’s professional golf for our Irish girls and women.
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