Anna Foster hopes the current crop of Irish women on the Ladies European Tour can inspire the next batch of young amateurs to climb the ladder and make it into the professional ranks.
Foster, Sara Byrne, and Annabel Wilson earned full LET cards at Q-School last winter while Canice Screene won partial status as they joined Lauren Walsh and Olivia Mehaffey on tour.
Inspired by Leona Maguire and Mehaffey, Foster and co have been playing golf together since they were teenagers and progressed through the amateur ranks all the way to professional level with Áine Donegan set to turn pro this summer while Beth Coulter and 16-year-old Olivia Costello are tipped to follow in the coming years.
Sport faces a constant struggle to keep young girls involved but Foster believes Irish golf struck gold with this generation of female players and hopes to inspire a conveyor belt of talent to come through.
“We just had a really special group of girls from around 2016 we were all 13, 14, 15 and everyone has kept it up and played to the highest level of amateur golf,” she explains. “In my crop Olivia Mehaffey would have been just leaving and Lauren Walsh was there so that gave us confidence that we could make that leap.
“For all the girls who are still amateurs to see us on tour that will give them confidence and hopefully inspire young girls to take up the game.
“Having the other Irish girls on tour with me makes a huge difference, just that sense of familiarity when you are walking through the players lounge, you always have somewhere to sit. Little things like travelling and having friendly faces definitely makes life a lot easier.”
For Foster, it’s been plain sailing so far in her rookie season on the Ladies European Tour with a spot of cyclone dodging in Australia her only hurdle to overcome so far.
Three events and three cuts with a best finish of 14th has seen the Elm Park star find her feet quickly at this level.
“It’s been a great start to the year, we have had three events so far, Morocco and Australia and they have all been really fun events so I’ve had great fun so far!”
Last week in Australia, Mimi Rhodes earned her maiden LET win and she has continued that form in the Joburg Open, where Foster is absent, to lead after an eight-under 65.
Rhodes is a tonic of inspiration for Foster having played alongside the Englishwoman plenty of times at amateur level.
“Seeing last week that Mimi Rhodes won, she would have been a peer who I played a lot with during amateur golf and now turning pro and seeing her win it definitely gives us incentive. We know now that we can win and it all depends on how you perform on the week. Everyone is really good and you just need a bit of luck.”
Foster, Byrne and Wilson have been inducted into the inner circle of Irish professional golf after they had dinner with three-time major winner Pádraig Harrington in Morocco where the LET and Champions Tour played a co-sanctioned event.
Harrington was something of a mentor for Shane Lowry when he first started out on tour while he has also given nuggets of advice to Conor Purcell and Max Kennedy to help with their fledgling pro careers so the girls were all ears when the 53-year-old sat down with them for dinner.
“It was so cool to be able to make the dinner happen that week with a couple of the Irish girls that were playing,” Foster adds. “It was great to be able to pick his brain and talk about non golf stuff as well. It was great that the event was co-sanctioned with the Champions Tour, just being able to practice alongside those players and be on the range with them was quite special as well.”
Foster might just be another player on a golf course when she plays on the LET but she is the trending celebrity in town when she comes home and on Friday Elm Park will host a fundraiser for their touring professional to help balance the books and contribute towards her dream.
“I’m trying to relax as much as I can. I have a fundraiser at Elm Park this Friday so I am planning for that. I am so grateful for their support as I get the year going as well,” says Foster.
“A lot of the members are talking about doing parts of the European swing, so even them just talking about it is so lovely for me to have such good support and it’s almost like a proper family with everyone there.
“It’s been so overwhelming for me with how willing they are to help out it’s unbelievable.”
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