The first time Sara Byrne was ahead in her Women’s Amateur Championship last-64 clash with Moa Svedenskiold was on the first extra hole as she showed grit and determination to hang in and eventually pip the Swede.
Byrne who is now over 36 holes without a birdie at Portmarnock, finally got a putt to drop and it was a clutch par save from eight feet on the 18th to bring this cracker of a tie to extra time.
The Douglas star found the middle of the fairway on the 19th and with Svedenskiold only able to pitch out from the fairway bunker, she hit a dart over the flag to 20-feet. After cushioning her putt hole side, Svedenskiold missed her par attempt from 15-feet.
“Might as well be up at the end than at the start really,” beamed Byrne. “I made a worldie up and down on 18 to get it down 19 and thankfully made a nice par to take the win.
“Seriously I have been waiting for a ball to drop,” she said of her putt on the 18th. “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.
“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.
Byrne, cut a frustrated figure at times during her match, having been two down after three holes she battled back well to level affairs through twelve but handed her opponent the 13th and wasn’t quite able to capitalise on some openings until the 17th where a two-putt par was enough to take things up the last.
“I was two down through three, handed her two holes with sloppy bogeys after bad tee shots, kind of had to regroup from there and be patient with so many holes left. I had a few balls hit the lips and I was getting frustrated. I missed a short birdie putt on 14 that was a good opportunity but I got it level on 17 and just plotted my way in.”
A large crowd funnelled down the closing stretch of holes and Byrne will be relieved she doesn’t have to play her last-32 tie until Thursday morning but if there’s a way to win, this was it and she will be gunning for glory over the next few days.
“It was a massive sigh of relief honestly! Once I got the win it was massive. Coming down 17 one down and the finishing holes are so tough. I just stuck to my game plan and that’s honestly all I’ve done, just have confidence in what I’m doing and once the putts start dropping then we’ll be good.”
Elm Park’s Anna Foster has joined Byrne in the last-32 with a 4&3 win over England’s Nellie Ong while Annabel Wilson, Aine Donegan and Beth Coulter all exited the championship as did Elm Park’s Emma Fleming who lost out on the 19th to world number 45 and last year’s runner-up Annabelle Pancake.
Byrne will be hoping to flatten Pancake in the last-32 at 07:50 tomorrow.
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