This week’s La Sella Open on the Ladies European Tour is unique in several ways. With $1,000,000 in total prizemoney, it’s the most lucrative event on the LET calendar to date in 2025 outside of the five majors, the Saudi Ladies International, the Aramco-sponsored events and the Women’s Scottish Open which is co-sanctioned by the LPGA.
It also features an entirely female greenkeeping team and entirely female volunteer security squadron, and that’s something that has piqued the interest of some of the Irish players in the field.
“It’s so cool!” said Anna Foster, one of four Irish LET rookies in the field along with second-year professional, Lauren Walsh. “I’ve never seen it – you might see one female greenkeeper over the years at different places but to have an all-female crew I think is really cool, especially for us to see that it is a possibility, and that there are so many different avenues you can go through now, so I was surprised to hear it but it’s really good.”
“I think it’s brilliant,” added Walsh. “A lot of us girls out here can relate to that we’re in a bit of a male dominated (industry) being an athlete, and coming through sport in general growing up it can be male dominated so to see women doing their thing whether it’s on the golf course or in the security or greenkeeping this week its really brilliant to see and it’s really encouraging for all the young girls coming up to see if you wanted to go do something go do it because anything’s possible!”
Sara Byrne felt that the women’s touch is evident given the attention to detail in the course setup.
“It’s class because it used to be such a male dominated sport but we’re here, we’re coming through the ranks so it is really nice,” she said. “It’s really cool that it’s an all female greenkeeping team – that’s something unheard of – the course is in great condition and the set up is perfect so you can probably tell! But no it is really good and women’s golf is just getting bigger by the day and by the month which is really good.”
Canice Screene agreed that having women doing what are generally perceived as male roles is important and that it can inspire more women to move into roles within the industry.
“I think it’s so important because if it’s not visible then people just don’t realise it,” she said. “Within the LET and media we always associate pretty much everything within golf as a male thing, so having the exposure of us seeing females everywhere, it makes a lot of people a lot more comfortable as well, so I think it’s so important but it can only get better too.”
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