Abom defies inexperience to breeze into Irish Open weekend

Ronan MacNamara

30th August 2024

Anna Abom will return to Ashfield College on Monday to begin her Leaving Certificate year but she has already passed a higher level exam in comfortably making the cut at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open at Carton House Fairmont.

As it stands, the 18-year-old Edmondstown golfer is going to be the only Irish amateur to make the weekend and she is nicely placed in 31st place on three-under after a second round of 71.

“Yeah, I’m starting on Monday so I think it’s going to be a bit of a shock to the system!”

Abom never looked in danger of dropping outside the level-par cutline having carded six birdies and just three bogeys across her opening 36 holes leaving her as the second highest Irish player behind Leona Maguire.

“I haven’t even had a look at the leaderboard but yeah, that’s amazing,” smiled Abom who has aspirations of obtaining a Paddy Harrington Golf Scholarship in Maynooth University.

“I’m absolutely delighted, I really enjoyed the experience. I’ve had really good support from family and friends and obviously to play well has been really nice, so I’m really happy.

“I’m just going to keep doing what I’ve been doing, I’ve been enjoying the week as much as I can and yeah, it’s just a bonus to be able to play an extra two days.”

The Irish U18 Girls international only received an invite last week and certainly raised a few eyebrows after an opening 72 left her inside the cut mark on debut.

Teeing off on Friday morning looking to play her way into the weekend and prolong a dream week for an extra 48 hours, Abom opened with a birdie before giving it back on the par-5 6th.

Thing never looked like they would take a turn for the worst however, and Abom made the turn under par courtesy of a birdie on the 8th, the hardest hole on the course on Thursday.

She responded from a bogey on 11 with back-to-back birdies on 15 and 16 as she put nerves to one side and finished with a flourish to continue what has been a thoroughly impressive performance.

“My game has just been really solid. I’ve been hitting it in the fairways off the tee, driving it nice and I’m not missing in bad spots and then my putting has been very solid as well, so I can’t complain.

“Yeah, definitely, lots of nerves! I think it’s impossible not to be nervous, especially in an event like this but I think I did handle myself very well.

“It was harder because you’ve got the pressure of the cut and everything, but I’m happy to have got it done.”

Abom is probably the shortest hitter of the eight Irish amateurs competing this week but she has been steady and a hot putter is a big reason why she lies in a share of 32nd place.

“I haven’t hit too many bad shots and I made the putts I needed to, especially on the front nine today I missed a few of the first greens and had six-footers for par and I made them, and that kind of settled me into the round and I kept going from there.”