*Beth Coulter, Áine Donegan and Sara Byrne
ENNIS’ Áine Donegan is among the three Irish golfers to be selected on the 2024 Great Britain & Ireland Curtis Cup team.
Sunningdale Golf Club will be the venue for the forty third staging of the Curtis Cup which will take place between Friday 30 August and Sunday 1 September. It is the most prestigious team trophy for women amateur golfers and contested biennially by teams representing Great Britain and Ireland and the United States.
Áine who is a member of Lahinch Golf Club and Woodstock Golf Club has been selected alongside Beth Coulter (Kirkistown Castle) and Sara Byrne (Douglas). Anna Foster (Elma Park) is first reserve while three English and two Scottish golfers have also been picked.
Twenty year old Coulter has described Áine and Sara as “two of my best friends in golf. This is the pinnacle and to get to do that with them, it’s really really cool. The three of us were at that Curtis Cup in 2016, there is a photo of me and Áine standing together. Even just looking at that, when we got selected we sent it to each other and we were like, we’re going to do this together now. Irish golf has made really great strides for women. You seen that at Europeans, we had the best finish for the last 41 years. That’s down to the great work that the coaches and the panels are doing with us, it’s starting to pay off.”
Lauren Walsh (2021, 2022), Annabel Wilson (2021), Olivia Mehaffey (2016, 2018), Maria Dunne (2016) and Leona Maguire (2016) have all represented Ireland in The Curtis Cup in recent years.
Catriona Matthew is the Team Captain with Gillian Roy the Team Manager in a match that was first played in 1932. The format is three foursomes and three fourball matches on each of the first two days, and eight singles matches on the final day.
“This is a huge achievement for Irish amateur golf. Having Sara, Beth and Áine selected is a testament to their hard work, dedication, and exceptional talent. It also highlights the strength and depth of Golf Ireland’s High Performance pathway, and it is a proud moment for everyone involved in Irish golf,” said Golf Ireland CEO, Mark Kennelly.
“This achievement is not only a celebration of our current crop of players but also an inspiration for young golfers across the country. We look forward to seeing how they perform at Sunningdale, and we are confident they will make Ireland proud. Their journey and success will undoubtedly motivate many more golfers to pursue their dreams and continue to elevate the standard of Irish golf,” he added.
