Walsh playing with freedom as she looks to become local hero

Lauren Walsh hasn’t quite enjoyed the comforts of playing a KPMG Women’s Irish Open in her home county as much as she wanted to. Two appearances in Carton House yielded two missed cuts. This week at The K Club she wants to play with freedom and at least give family and friends who are teachers a chance to see her play at the weekend for the first time.

The Kildare native who grew up playing in Castlewarden Golf Club makes a rare trip back across the Atlantic from her rookie season on the LPGA Tour. In her previous two appearances at home she was burdened by the pressure of trying to qualify for the AIG Women’s Open when it was in the July slot and securing her top-10 on the LET Order of Merit.

Now, with those worries an irrelevance to her with her new status in her career, she should be fully focused on bidding to become the first home winner of the revived Women’s Irish Open.

“For me coming in the last two years there have been a lot of other things behind the scenes,” she detailed. “Last year it was the last counting event for getting in the Open and then both years I was trying to get in the top ten to go to Q-Series so there was a lot going on that was important beyond it being an Irish Open, for rankings and stuff like that.

“I am coming here with a lot more freedom. I am solely here to enjoy myself this week and hopefully get the crowds going at the weekend. I just want to go out there and have fun. Irish athletes, we always say it, we have the best fans in the world. It’s all of our dreams to win an Irish Open and hopefully if we have some fun along the way we can get some results.”

Walsh’s debut campaign on the LPGA Tour has had its high points with a 3rd place at the Shoprite. But that was followed by five missed cuts in seven events heading into the KPMG Women’s Irish Open taking her tally to nine missed cuts this season.

Ranked 85th in the CME Order of Merit on the LPGA Tour, the 25-year-old is on course to retain her card for next season while a late season push could see her break into the top-60 and the $11m Tour Championship. There have been challenges in her coach Shane O’Grady being based in County Meath but she feels her results do not reflect how well she has played this year.

“It’s been good. A lot of up and downs, challenges, rewards, it has been a big learning process and I have learned a lot about myself and myself as a golfer as well. Couple of tweaks to get myself in better positions out there then had a good result which was nice to see things come together. Hanging in there, staying patient because the game has been close just trying to piece it all together. Overall lots of positives.”

Walsh is happy to be back in familiar territory this week. Her mother will have her well fuelled with some homemade meals and she can use the buzz of the home support to shirk the jet lag of a flight home from Canada at the weekend.

Of the record sixteen Irish players competing, Walsh is part of a crop including Anna Foster, Sara Byrne, Áine Donegan, Beth Coulter and Annabel Wilson who played amateur golf together since they were juniors. She is the one who has broken free and made it to the LPGA Tour but the impact the KPMG Women’s Irish Open is having on Irish women’s golf is not lost on her.

“A lot of us grew up on Irish teams and to see us come out the last two or three years that has been really important. We have grown up really good friends and have kept that up on Tour. That’s made a big difference having a group to travel with and enjoy life on tour has been really important.

“There are some amateurs in the field so hopefully they are inspired that to follow suit and have another group coming behind us. It’s a credit to the tournament that there are so many playing and it shows women’s golf in Ireland is going from strength to strength, long may that continue.”