Four of the last five winners have turned professional and following her victory 12 months ago, Canice Screene has since joined those ranks too.
In fact, it was a record breaking LET Q-School in December that laid the platform for that quartet to make their move from amateur golf.
Annabel Wilson (2019), Anna Foster (2021) and Sara Byrne (2023), all recent winners, secured full LET Tour cards during an unprecedented week for the Irish in Morocco.
Screene had a huge year and after her brilliant victory at Roscommon in August she went on to feature in the KPMG Women’s Irish Open before making her way to Marrakech.
The London native shot her first bogey-free round in competition on day one to move up the leaderboard and held on for a 36th place finish, and LET status.
Just over five months earlier Screene had secured a job at a special education school in London and was planning out a career path via law school.
Everything changed when she defeated Emma O’Driscoll in the final of the AIG Irish Women’s Amateur Close Championship.
“It meant a lot because it’s the one event that I’d always wanted to win and felt like I could,” said Screene.
“And then obviously to do it with my aunt watching, my dad caddying, it was just such a perfect setting for my first big win. It was the best thing ever for me.
“When you look at the trophy and see everyone who’s won it, it definitely feels very special to be on there for the rest of history.
“When I won I actually had a job lined up, I’d accepted to do a master’s and the next year I was going to apply to law school. But then after that I was like, oh wow, I’ve proven to myself that I can win, and I always said if I won once, I’d win again.
“I owed it to myself, I gave myself the opportunity to continue playing at a high level, so I could go to Q-School and work hard until then, and see where that went.
“When I went to Q-School I did a lot better than I was expecting and here we are.”
Her father and caddy, Michael, has connections to Tipperary and Galway while her mother, Caroline, hails from Belmullet in Mayo.
And they provided the link to Ireland as Screene began to excel through the ranks while playing out of Croham Hurst Golf Club.
She graduated from Croydon High School and Epsom College before taking up a Degree in Psychology at Boston College.
Psychology is a subject that intrigues her and she is currently studying a Master’s in Development Psychology. She is finishing her dissertation in how parent feelings and discipline interact and moderate the parent-child relationship.
“I love it, I just love to learn, I love school so there’s always been that, but also I like knowing that, when golf is all said and done, I can go on and do something else. I like having lots of options in life,” said Screene.
“For my dissertation, I’m trying to find out how parents feel about themselves, their children, how they feel about being a parent, how that combines with their discipline and behaviour, whether they talk it out, whether they don’t discipline at all, how that impacts the parent-child relationship.”
Screene’s master’s is not sports-related, however she does use her own skills and methods when dealing with her mentality on the course.
“It definitely has helped me more than I realized, when it comes to the golf course, it’s something me and my dad talk about a lot, if you’re getting negative, your body language is negative, you are never going to be able to pull yourself out of that hole,” said Screene.
“No matter how bad it goes, maintaining positive body language, even if you don’t feel positive, it is such an advantage and also just breathing work and all of that really helps when there’s more pressure.
“I’ve learned it a lot, sports psychology is available to everyone. It’s just become more of a known thing now but obviously I’d like to think that it gives me an advantage.”
The top six inches are crucial when it comes to that transition from the amateur to professional ranks, and it has been so important for Screene in her first season out on Tour.
She has battled hard and fittingly the highlight came at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open where she lit up the final day with a glorious 66, her lowest round of her season.
“The change is very different. Even coming from America and everything like that, you think you’re ready but actually being a pro is so different,” said Screene.
“The mental relentlessness you need when you’re going week to week, back-to-back, if you’re playing well, it’s great because you’re just going week to week playing well but when you had a bad week and you have to go straight into the next, that’s when you need to draw on that mental resilience.
“I’d been quite disappointed the whole week. I felt like I played a lot better than I’d scored so that day I was kind of like, oh, I’m going out there and I’m going to go for everything and I was definitely feeling a lot more aggressive.
“It’s the last day, just want to move up the leaderboard and then obviously started really hot and then settled into it.
“It was probably the most relaxed I’ve ever felt on a golf course, it just felt like everything was just under control.”
A lot has happened in the 12 months since Screene became the AIG Women’s Irish Close champion at Roscommon.
She will soon put out the latest episode of her Let Me Tell You podcast, detailing that journey, but in the meantime she has some advice for the hopefuls in Ardee this week.
“Never ever count yourself out, when you’re down in a match,” said Screene.
“I think in the semi-finals, I was three down with four to play and I ended up winning. If you have the grit inside you, no matter how down you are, never count yourself out until it’s over.
“Never like let your head down, just keep, grinding because once you get into that match play, it’s going to be the person who’s the grittiest who gets it done.
“It’s so much golf by the end of the week.”
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