Sara Byrne: "Hopefully, these next three weeks will be a cherry on top of an amazing, amazing year"
Dromoland Castle welcomes Sara Byrne as its Touring Golf Professional for the 2024-25 season
Sara Byrne will be utterly focused on winning her LPGA Tour card when she joins Kildare's Lauren Walsh at the Final Stage of the five-round LPGA Q-Series in Alabama today.
Like Walsh, the Douglas star (23) has already clinched status on the LPGA's second-tier Epson Tour for 2025.
But she admits she's got lifelong dreams, and the big goal for a player who makes no secret of her love of the spotlight is to play for Europe in the Solheim Cup.
Making her dreams come true has been par for the course for the University of Miami star over the last 12 months as she completed a strong college career and played a starring role in Great Britain and Ireland's Curtis Cup win at Sunningdale.
"No matter what happens this week, I have a full-time job for next year — a full schedule, which is vital for my game," Byrne said on her arrival in Mobile this week.
"Twelve months ago I was biting my fingernails, thinking, will I make Curtis Cup, or will I not? How will I get through Q-School with everyone telling me it's the hardest thing in the world?
Looking back, if I could tell myself that everything worked out exactly how it did so far, I'd be over the moon, to be honest.
It's been a dream year for Byrne, whose charisma and chutzpah were a major factor as she joined Aine Donegan and Beth Coulter in putting the USA to the sword in the Curtis Cup.
But after making the cut in the KPMG Women's Irish Open last year and breezing through pressure situations so far in 2024, the touring professional for Dromoland Castle admits that her big goal is to play on the game's biggest stage and win a Solheim Cup with Europe.
"I think I've always liked being on the big stage a little bit, having a lot of people watching and having the TV cameras around," she said. "That's why I want to play golf. I want to be in front of people like that. I want to be on the big stages and performing.
"I just revel in that kind of situation and atmosphere. I absolutely loved the Curtis Cup and that my game held up there and again at Stage Two of Q-School."
There will be no crowds in Alabama, where Byrne and Walsh must play two rounds each on the Crossings and Falls courses at Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail's Magnolia Grove before the top 25 and ties are awarded LPGA cards after five rounds.
But while Walsh is already exempt on the Ladies European Tour after finishing a brilliant 18th in the Order of Merit in her rookie year, Byrne will head from Alabama to Morocco for the Final Stage of the LET Q-School to give herself more options in 2025.
Sara Byrne. Photo by Oisin Keniry/R&A/R&A via Getty Images
She wants any points she might earn in next year's KMPG Women's Irish Open at Carton House to count on the LET and with the Solheim Cup set for the Netherlands in 2026, she has big ambitions.
"The reason I started playing golf was because of the Solheim Cup," she confessed. "When it was on at Killeen Castle in 2011, I came back, and I said to my dad, 'I'm going to play Solheim Cup someday; I'm going to do it.'
"He kind of looked at me and laughed, and he was like, okay. Obviously, I want to win majors and tournaments, but while the main goal is to get on the Tour first, it's always been the Solheim Cup for me.
"Even playing Curtis Cup just solidified my love for team golf matchplay. It's just something I absolutely love to do, and it's a dream.
"I saw Karen Stupples that year in Killeen Castle, running around interacting with fans and having so much fun. I got a picture with her. So I just absolutely loved that she ended up being a vice-captain of my Curtis Cup team."
Byrne expects low scoring from the 99-strong field in Alabama, but she's confident that her strong tee-to-green game will give her a chance of winning her card.
"I think in my last two rounds of Stage Two, l hit 35 out of 36 greens, and the one I missed was when I went for a par five and two and I went in the water," she said.
"When I really fire low is when the putter is hot. And putting has definitely been a massive part of the improvement in my game.
If the putts drop and she makes the top 25 and ties, she will have made her first dream come true before heading to Morocco to finish the job at the final stage of the LET Q-School from December 16-20. There, she hopes to be joined by Olivia Mehaffey, Annabel Wilson, Anna Foster, Abigail O'Riordan, and amateurs Olivia Hunt, Canice Screene, and Mairead Martin.
"It's definitely not living the dream, being in the middle of nowhere in Mobile, Alabama," Byrne joked. "But I am absolutely loving it as a pro
"It's been a whirlwind of a rollercoaster of a year now, to be honest, and it's been amazing. Hopefully, these next three weeks will be a cherry on top of an amazing, amazing year."
