Irish golfers Sara Byrne, Beth Coulter and Aine Donegan have been selected on the eight-woman Great Britain and Ireland team to face the USA in the 43rd Curtis Cup match at Sunningdale in England at the end of the month.
Douglas golfer Byrne, 23, Coulter, aged 20 from Kirkistown Castle, and Lahinch’s 22-year-old Donegan will line up alongside three English and two Scottish team-mates as they bid to regain the upper hand for GB & I in the biennial women’s amateur matchplay team event for the first time since 2016. That was when Ireland last had such a strong representation, on home soil at Dun Laoghaire with Maria Dunne, Leona Maguire and Olivia Mehaffey helped their side to an 11.5-8.5 victory.
This year’s team members were all spectators at Dun Laoghaire eight years ago and Coulter was delighted the trio would now be representing their country for GB & I.
Speaking from the AIG Irish Women’s Amateur Close Championship in Roscommon, where yesterday she reached the semi-finals with a quarter-final victory over Rebekah Gardner, Coulter said of her selection: “It’s very surreal. We were coming up here yesterday and I took my phone off do not disturb when I got the call from Catriona Matthew. I just looked at my Dad and was like, ‘Oh God this is happening’.
“With three Irish on the team it’s going to be really exciting. I know a lot of us have worked really hard for this over the last number of years. We have come up through the ranks together, Sara and Áine are two of my best friends in golf. This is the pinnacle and to get to do that with them, it’s really really cool.”
Double Solheim Cup-winning European captain Catriona Matthew will skipper GB & I at the famous Berkshire parkland course with the Scotswoman leading a team spearheaded by England’s Lottie Woad, the current number one on the World Amateur Golf Ranking and one of five automatic selections, including Byrne (57th) and Coulter (72nd), based on those WAGR rankings. Donegan, ranked 81st in the world, is one of three selected players.
The side also features sisters Euphemie and Patience Rhodes, the Englishwomen becoming the first siblings to compete in the Curtis Cup since Irish twins Leona and Lisa Maguire in 2010.
A fourth Irishwoman, Anna Foster, from Elm Park, was named as one of two reserves when the GB & I team was announced yesterday with the 42nd Curtis Cup getting under way on August 30 to September 1.
Sara Byrne, Ireland, Douglas, 23
Beth Coulter, Ireland, Kirkistown Castle, 20
Hannah Darling, Scotland, Broomieknowe, 21
Aine Donegan, Ireland, Lahinch, 22
Lorna McClymont, Scotland, Milngavie, 23
Euphemie Rhodes, England, Burnham & Berrow, 22
Patience Rhodes, England, Burnham & Berrow, 20
Lottie Woad, England, Farnham, 20
Anna Foster, Ireland, Elm Park, 22
Nellie Ong, England, Eaton, 18
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