Anna Foster all but secured her Ladies European Tour status in her rookie year with a fourth place finish in Germany last week but the KPMG Women’s Irish Open could be the week where she came of age after she fired nine birdies in a superb round of 67 to climb into the top-10.
Despite double bogeying the fifth and bogeying the eleventh, the Elm Park star rolled in birdies on the first, fourth, sixth and eighth holes before she added to birdies on 10 and 12 with three in her last four holes to leave her in a share of 6th on seven-under-par.
“I just played really solid all day, and gave myself a lot of chances, and then I played the par fives really well,” said Foster who has carded seventeen birdies so far this week and equalled the low round of the tournament. “So that definitely gives you the upper hand, I guess. I was driving well and a long way today. So that definitely gave me a little bit of an advantage on some holes, but yeah, just kind of felt like it was just solid day in general.
“Like, after yesterday, it was a grind. So it was nice to be able to go out today with a bit more like freedom and just be more aggressive.”
Foster is a birdie machine when she wants to be, she has to be given she cruised through LET Q-School in the winter in sixth place, earning her a strong card for her rookie campaign which she will retain with equal ease.
The 23-year-old has missed just two cuts so far this season in what has been a really solid year banked with the consistency of three top-20 finishes in her last five starts but it was a T4 last week in Germany which seems to have kicked her confidence up a gear.
“I think I’ve just been able to stay patient throughout the year. I felt like I’ve been playing well for a good few weeks, just waiting for it all to click. And last week I found that it just kind of clicked. So definitely gave me a bit of confidence going into this week. But at the same time, you know, it’s, you’re playing your home open, so there is a lot of extra pressure. It is nice to play in front of friends and family, but you know you’re put under a lot of pressure and stuff. So to be able to just get through, like yesterday, and then kind of almost reset again and trying to kind of go low. Happy enough with how the season’s going in general.
“Definitely last week gave me confidence within myself to be able to go out and enjoy the rest of the year as best as I can. That’s the only way I put it. I still want to play well but it gives me added freedom.”
Prize money can be scarce at times on the Ladies European Tour, but Foster has managed to pocket over €40,000 this term and Sunday will represent another big opportunity to cash in on the €450,000 on offer this weekend.
“I don’t like to kind of look too far ahead of myself or anything, but just enjoy myself on the LET. I have really nice group of friends here, and the tour in general is really great. I love it. So my main goal this year is just kind of get comfortable on tour, and it’s a lot of new things that are happening, so as long as I can kind of just enjoy myself, that’s that’s the main thing for me.”
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