Sara Byrne will be prioritising the Epson Tour as she views it as a better route to the LPGA Tour, where she hopes to have a full card as soon as next season.
Byrne has full status on the Epson Tour alongside Lauren Walsh this year and while she will play a chunk of Ladies European Tour events she is determined to fast track her way to the LPGA Tour by playing on Epson which is a direct feeder tour for the LPGA.
The top-10 in the order of merit receive full cards for the LPGA Tour while 11th to 15th receive conditional status, but even retaining her card would secure a spot in the Final Stage of Q-School so she feels she has more opportunities than the LET which only grants spots at Q-School via the top-10 on the order of merit.
“The main goal is to have ticked off is to try get in the top-10 on Epson and get a full LPGA Tour card for 2026,” says the Dromoland Castle star. “If I can go into 2026 with a tour card that would be the dream. Whatever happens I am going to take it all in. I think I might have found it tough going straight to LPGA Q-School, going in at the deep end. Maybe I would have loved it, but I am taking this year as a chance to learn a lot about pro golf.
“If you get in the top-10 on the order of merit you get a full card for the year, if you get in the top-15 you get fairly good status on the LPGA Tour then the top-35 on the order of merit get into the final stage of LPGA Q-School. You only get final stage of LPGA Q-School if you get into the top-10 of the LET Order of Merit so when I was adding it all up it just made sense.”
The 23-year-old is in the field for the Ladies European Tour season opener at the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco today after her passport finally arrived back to her home in Cork following some visa issues with the US Embassy in order to gain access to the US for the Epson Tour.
Byrne was outside the ropes watching the famous GB&I Curtis Cup side in Dun Laoghaire, 2016 and it’s fitting that she begins her maiden professional campaign in the same group as Olivia Mehaffey who played that week.
“If I want to be on the LPGA Tour this is the way to do it if I have to sacrifice one or two European Tour events that’s what’s going to happen. When the Epson is on breaks I will play in Europe.
“There are five weeks off at times so I can go to South Africa if I want or go to Tenerife if I want. I still want to keep my European Tour card and play in Europe, that’s a big thing for me, but if I want to make it to LPGA this is the way to go.”
Byrne turned professional after winning three points in a starring performance for Great Britain and Ireland in last September’s Curtis Cup and after making two LET starts and playing Q-Schools in the US and Morocco she is looking forward to taking a breath and enjoying professional golf.
“I want to settle into professional life, the five months I have been pro after Curtis Cup have been hectic and chaotic. Playing golf with so much consequences in the sense that it was Q-Schools I am just excited to settle in and have a full year of pro golf.
“I want to enjoy the experience a little bit more. I played four Q-Schools and I am looking forward to getting back to normal golf and three to four rounds, not five is going to be quite nice.“I have that rookie excitement about it all and just looking forward to getting out there and competing.”
There are five Irish girls in the field and by the time this article goes live, they may have already been treated to dinner with Pádraig Harrington who is playing in the Champions Tour event on the same course this week and offered to welcome the girls into the Irish golfing family this week.
Byrne knows what it’s like to be amongst her heroes having spent lunch with her idol Charley Hull at the Curtis Cup and she would dearly love to join her on the LPGA Tour next year.
“She was so cool to be around, Charley is obviously that little bit different in a lot of ways, she’s very cool. I idolise her, I love her, she’s one of my favourite golfers.
“She sat down with us and had lunch with us at the Curtis Cup, she was so cool. It was cool to hear her perspective on how she sees golf I had to put in my pins and stuff and she said “I never do pins, I never did pins in my life” and it’s just a different perspective on how she plays and she’s so confident and just sees the shot she has to hit and hits it.
“She was very cool to be around and I honestly love her. She talked about Solheim and how she handled the pressure.
“Her and Nelly broke the barrier of the traditional gentlemen’s game which is nice. It was going to come eventually but women’s golf has blown up at the moment and those are two very good advocates for it.”
Byrne credits Justin Rose for giving her a first start in professional golf on the LET Access at a rose Ladies event and the former US Open winner was also present in the GB&I team room in September where he gave the players some key nuggets of advice which she will keep with her throughout the season.
“Justin had breakfast with us on Thursday and prepped us for the final practice rounds. He had some good advice to take into the week. It was a bit surreal being around all these people, we had Collin Montgomerie come into us as well and it was just stuff like that where I was like ‘what is actually happening?’
“Justin is honestly a great advocate for women’s golf with his Rose Ladies Series and he got me my first pro start so shoutout to Justin Rose for that.
“He talked about how to deal with the cameras and the crowds so we had some ease at mind standing on that first tee so we knew what we were getting ourselves into.”
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