Annabel Wilson, along with Anna Foster, Sara Byrne and Canice Screene – the last of whom secured lower Category status than the other three – secured her LET card at the first time of asking at Lalla Aicha Q-School last December.
Q-School, as any professional that’s ever tried to navigate one will tell you, is among the most stressful weeks in a player’s career, but as Wilson was trying out for the first time, she kept the expectations to a minimum.
“I suppose from my point of view; I just wanted to go and enjoy it as best I could. See if I could perform under all the extra noise and take it week by week,” she said.
She advanced through First Stage quite easily, but the five-round Final Stage was a different story, and here, no two ways about it, she had to play very well.
“Being able to conserve your energy is important because it’s hot in Morocco, and you’ve got five rounds to play, and you know scoring is going to be really good. Speaking with other players, you hear them talking about how intense and stressful the week is, so I tried to focus on how I acted and how I carried myself rather than what I expected to get at the end of it.”
Few sports rival golf in terms of pressure, because, unlike most other sports, it’s not reactionary. Every move is preceded by thought, and the execution is always down to you alone.
“It’s uncomfortable,” she admits. “It’s an uncomfortable place to be, but when you see yourself coming out the other side of it, take what you learn from it, and apply that to the next situation, that’s what I love about it. That’s what I love about competing.
“It’s probably the same for everybody, though. We all do a good job of hiding it or keeping it inside, but it’s human nature. It’s not quite fight or flight, because at the end of the day, nobody’s going to die, so you have to remind yourself of that as well.”
And it was a mindset that served her well, as she kept her focus despite shooting a three-over 75 on day one and bounced back to play the final 72 holes in 18-under, finishing tied for eighth and earning her stripes on the premier European women’s circuit.
It was a destination she’d always seemed primed for, competing on Irish Girls’ teams from a young age and taking a scholarship at UCLA in 2019. Among the highlights of a stellar amateur career were being selected for the 2021 Curtis Cup side and reaching the semi-finals of the US Women’s Amateur a year later.
Her Curtis Cup record might read ‘played two, lost two’, but when considering the opponents she faced – Rose Zhang, then the number-one ranked amateur in the world, and who has since gone on to win on the LPGA Tour, and Allisen Corpuz, who won the US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach in 2023 – and how tight the matches were, she proved that she was more than capable of holding her own against anybody.
But it wasn’t quite plain sailing as her collegiate career came to a close. Having taken Martial Arts as a class at UCLA with a view to helping fitness and for the camaraderie, she suffered a knee injury while training and required ACL surgery, which left her on the sidelines for the entirety of the 2023 summer.
“I’d had minor knee problems,” she explained, “nothing serious, but it was a mixture of golf and gym work, and then, out of the blue, I completely tore the ligament on my right knee. In a way, the timing wasn’t that bad because the college golf season had just finished, and I had to decide whether to have surgery or not. I opted for the surgery, went under the knife in August, and because it’s not a common injury for a golfer – it’s more of a soccer player’s injury – the rehab process is quite crazy. But it all went well, and I was back playing tournament golf by January, which was great because for soccer players, it could be seven or eight months before they even get a sniff of the pitch again.”
The timing was good in one way, but bad in another because she was forced to miss the US Women’s Amateur at Bel Air Country Club – five minutes from the UCLA campus – and she also found herself behind the eight ball for 2024 Curtis Cup selection.
“The Curtis Cup was an ambitious goal,” she admits, “but it was definitely something I as hoping to put my name forward for. I didn’t play well enough in the big events, but I was just delighted to be back out and competing as early as I was. Then, as the year progressed, it just made sense to turn pro in August.”
So that’s what she did, and while Sara Byrne, Beth Coulter and Áine Donegan were at Sunningdale helping Great Britain and Ireland to a first Curtis Cup win over the United States since 2016, Wilson was engaged in the KPMG Women’s Irish Open at Carton House. And though she didn’t quite perform at her best and missed the cut, the experience left her in no doubt that she’d made the right choice and that events like that were where she wanted to be.
“That was my first professional event, and though I didn’t perform or bring my best game, I loved it. Talking to the LET players, it’s the most exciting event on the schedule. I thought it was amazing, the setup was fantastic.”
Now, less than a year on, she’ll be back at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open Carton House again, but this time she’s back as a card-carrying LET member, no longer reliant on a tournament invitation. And what’s more, she’s proven that she’s more than capable of competing at the highest level.
In seven 2025 starts, she’s made the cut in five and finished tied for 12th recently in the Aramco Korea Championship which offered the biggest prize fund of the lot.
“Overall, it was a fantastic week for me,” she reflected. “Everything came together, and I just played super solid on a really demanding course from tee-to-green. You had to execute your shots, and I did that really well with no destructive holes.
“It was my first Aramco event, and there was a lot of commotion, a lot of fans, a bigger purse, lots of things that could be distractions, but I did a really good job of focusing on the job and avoiding any negativities.”
The result went a long way toward securing her playing rights for the 2026 season, which , once confirmed, is always likely to free a young pro up even more. But it’s not the primary goal she set herself for the season. Instead, she’s looking at the brightest lights in the women’s game and would dearly love to find herself teeing it up in a major championship.
“That’s my main goal,” she declares, “to play in a major championship. Retaining my card will come with performance, and if I’m working hard every day, practising efficiently, and keeping my focus on that, then I think the results will come.
“And because the LET split the season up nicely into parts that feature a lot of international events and then more events in Europe, it’s a good way of learning as you go.
“Playing in Australia where it was actually very wet, then in Joburg too, making sure you’re staying hydrated even though you’re not thirsty because it’s so wet. Making sure you have good rain gear, good gloves – I feel all of these little one-percenters can make a difference.”
One of the most challenging aspects of a touring professional’s life, particularly in their rookie season, is the travel. Not that most elite amateurs aren’t well travelled – they’ve all seen corners of the earth that most can only dream of – but it’s a different story when you’re the one responsible for all your travel arrangements.
“When you’re at college, you’re just told to be at the airport at 9am with your clubs and a few outfits, and everything else has been taken care of,” she recalls, “but now you’re checking airports, finding out if you need a car, if you need a hotel, all sorts of teething problems like that, and yeah, learning from your mistakes.
“But Lauren [Walsh] has been fantastic there. I’d say she’s sick of all the questions we’ve been asking, but she had a great rookie year last year and went through everything that Anna and I are going through this year and she’s been teaching us all sorts of little things that she found helped her out.”
There’s always been great camaraderie among the Irish on tour, stretching back to the halcyon days of the European Tour when there may have been as many as 10 Irish players regularly competing. There isn’t quite the same depth nowadays on the men’s circuit – not even close – but the strength in depth of Irish women’s golf means that the LET has taken up the mantle.
And one player who never forgot what it was like to be a young golfer finding their feet in the pro game is Pádraig Harrington, and as luck would have it, Wilson’s debut event as a full tour member was held in conjunction with a PGA Tour Champions event in Morocco. Harrington extended an invitation for the quartet to join him for dinner, and it was an evening that will last long in Wilson’s memory.
“Oh, I was delighted with that,” she smiled, “I just said ‘that sounds fantastic’. So yeah, he was very generous with his time, took us all out to dinner, told us all these cool stories from his years on tour. It was just a fantastic evening.”
There’s a long way to go, but it’s already been a rookie season to remember, and those memories will only be enhanced when she returns to Carton House.
“I’m really looking forward to it again and the Irish fans just make it so special. We love our golf and it’s great having the big names there as well because even more people will come out and watch. It just heightens everything.”
She may not be in a major championship field just yet, but the Women’s Irish Open is the next best thing. And who knows, a big performance on home soil might be all she needs to play her way into the following week’s Evian Championship.
To see Annabel and a host of other Irish players in action at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open from the 3rd-6th of July as well as international stars like Charley Hull and Georgia Hall CLICK HERE for tickets.
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