Ireland are bang in form ahead of the Espirito Santo Trophy at Abu Dhabi golf club as they look to emulate the 2016 Irish team who claimed bronze at the World Amateur Team Championships.
Naoimh Quigg will lead a triple threat of Beth Coulter, Sara Byrne and Áine Donegan from Wednesday after the men claimed a top-10 finish in the Eisenhower Trophy last week.
Coulter (Kirkistown Castle) continued her upward trajectory this summer and was the leading stroke play qualifier at the Women’s Amateur Championship. She will be backed by the AIG Irish Close champion Byrne (Douglas) who recently won the low amateur at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open and US Women’s Open sensation, Donegan (Lahinch).
Byrne arrives in brilliant form after notching her maiden collegiate win last week for Miami while Donegan has registered two top-10 finishes in action for LSU this term.
Coulter is Ireland’s highest ranked player at 89th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.
“It’s always an honour to captain your country and especially Golf Ireland. We are really looking forward to this week in Finland and I believe we have a really strong team with many champions in our team,” explained Quigg.
“My role is to create the best platform for the Girls to play their best, express themselves and be focused on the job we are doing to help them achieve their goals and have fun!”
Quigg is excited for the week ahead but also for the future of women’s golf in Ireland with a series of standout performances this year.
“Aine at the US Open in Pebble Beach was a fantastic achievement, we had Sara Byrne on the LET Access Tour shooting really good scores. It gives the girls great confidence to know that these are the people they play golf with and they can achieve it.
“Beth Coulter and Aine performed well for GB&I at the Vagliano. We are in a great place with the women’s game coming through with plenty of strength and some juniors coming through who will keep these girls on their toes.”
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