The KPMG Women’s Irish Open is a byproduct of its own success and with that comes heightened expectations of a domestic champion with Ireland’s trailblazer Leona Maguire no longer single handedly carrying home hopes at the K Club Palmer South.
This €450,000 tournament has become the best on the Ladies European Tour. It has become the epitome of the ‘can’t see, can’t be’ movement which was brought in to champion women’s sport. After lying dormant for a decade, this tournament has been revived to great heights as has the participation of the home contingent.
From just two professionals in 2022 at Dromoland Castle a record 16 Irish players will tee it up on Thursday.
Maguire, a winner of two LPGA Tour events, one LET tournament and a soon to be veteran of four Solheim Cups for team Europe, has shown what can be done in the women’s game. But after setting the standard for the last number of years, some serious depth has emerged.
Lauren Walsh has all but secured her card in her rookie LPGA Tour season and arrives for a third crack in her home county of Kildare unburdened by status pressure, while Anna Foster, Sara Byrne and rookie Áine Donegan have all flirted with victory. Newly minted professional Beth Coulter tasted success on her debut at the Women’s Irish Challenge on the LET Access Series and fancied the look of the South Course in practice.
This tournament has led the inspiration for Irish women’s golf. The only thing missing in its history is an Irish winner.
“It would be fantastic. Ideally what you want is a home winner of your National Open and it’s nice to see Scott Jamieson win last week in Scotland,” said Maguire pre-tournament.
“It’s really nice to see so many Irish girls on the LET right now. It’s become really strong. The guys had that for a long number of years on DP and it’s almost like the girls have passed it. They’ve dropped in numbers out there and we’ve significantly gained and that’s a testament to how strong women’s golf is in Ireland right now and Áine’s been close a few times, Sara’s been close a few times, Anna Foster’s been close a few times. We’ve had some Irish up the right end of the leaderboard in the last couple of years so it would be fantastic to see someone get over the line this week.”
Indeed, the sense of awe around the likes of Foster, Byrne, Donegan, Coulter and even 18-year-old amateur but now five-time tournament participant Olivia Costello has evaporated somewhat. The buzz of playing on home soil still remains but with it has come a familiarity and an ability to treat this tournament like any other. Only, it isn’t.
The players who albeit are still below Maguire in stature are ready to step out from the shadows and show their peers that they can create history themselves.
“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,” said Walsh.
Dromoland Castle’s Byrne had a runner-up finish in just her third start after returning from a freak broken elbow so she has a taste for getting into contention.
“We all want an Irish winner, it would be a dream to get any LET win and then at home… Irish people love coming out and watching us but managing those expectations is important as well,” said the Douglas native who was runner-up at the K Club South Course as a junior in the mixed foursomes with her father Derek.
There are of course some new faces in the shape of West of Ireland women’s champion Ella Cantwell while fellow amateurs, Anna Abom, Katie Poots, Emma Fleming, Anna Dawson and Costello get another invaluable experience of a professional event on home turf as they weigh up careers in the pro game themselves.
Amateur representation in this event continues to be replenished, with some who came before having used this event as a springboard to enter the paid ranks and have now added to the record 9 professionals teeing it up this week.
The men’s game is struggling for numbers on the European Tour, but the women are in the midst of an evolution of talent.
“It’s great, seeing Lauren on the LPGA Tour has been unbelievable. she spent two years on the LET and got her card then. It’s been great to see and she had a really good finish, halfway through the year. She has been really good, when we were in Dubai in January I was asking her about the LET and how it works. I know I can contact her anytime. She helped Anna and Sara hugely. She passed on the baton a bit I have been on to them more than Lauren this year so hopefully next year I can do that for Beth and a couple of others. It’s been great to see.
“We get on really well and with the younger girls too. We played a practice round with Ella Cantwell who is going off to World Girls soon and this is a great opportunity for her. It’s nice to give back to the younger players.”
It’s also a landmark week for the South Course itself as it emerges from the shadow of its brother, the North, who can boast about hosting the Ryder Cup in 2006.
But the South has welcomed the cream of Europe before with the European Open playing here in 2004, 2006 and 2007 with winners like Retief Goosen and Colin Montgomerie adding to an impressive roll of honour.
The South will provide a different test to the manicured, tree-lined North. This is still a ball strikers golf course. The players arrived to a firm, open and linksy style course on Monday but some mixed weather in practice and for the upcoming competition rounds, looks set to juice up the rough.
Water is in play from every hole from 13 to 18 so no score is safe coming down the closing stretch. It is a course set up to deliver drama. Taking the KPMG Women’s Irish Open here instead of across the bridge has been seen as a popular move by players.
It allows the South to get some spotlight while allowing the event itself to breathe and forge its own identity without the usual comparisons.
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