Kanturk golfer Mairead Martin is looking to go back-to-back in Woodbrook this weekend as she challenges for the Flogas Irish Women’s Amateur Open Championship.
This event, which gets underway tomorrow morning, is unique with Golf Ireland supporting the Period Supportive Movement. This is a global movement supporting Period Positivity with Golf Ireland looking for all people who menstruate to feel comfortable and welcome at golf events.
Golf Ireland have collaborated with FabLittleBag for the Flogas Irish Women’s Amateur Open Championship to ensure there are access to free menstrual products for players and supporters alike. Products will be available in the toilets and from the Golf Ireland van on-site.
Meanwhile, Martin began her season with a win at Woodbrook Scratch Cup in April and the Cork native is hoping that the “good vibes” continue on the Bray parkland course on one of the biggest weekends of the season.
“It’s been a good season so far. Had plenty of opportunities to play competitive golf and it’s prepared me for the next round of events that we have coming up. Excited to get back to Woodbrook after winning the Scratch Cup there earlier this year so looking forward to a good weekend,” said Martin.
“It was my first time at Woodbrook so I’m just looking forward to getting back playing the golf course. I’m sure it’s in a lot different conditions than when we played the Woodbrook Scratch Cup, it was in the middle of a storm so the wind was strong and it was just out of the winter so it will be good to play the golf course in summer conditions and see what we can do there.”
Reigning champion Lorna McClymont (Scotland) makes the short hop across the Irish sea, looking to return home with the title for the third time in a row but a host of leading Irish contenders including Beth Coulter (Kirkistown Castle), Aine Donegan (Lahinch) and Anna Foster (Elm Park) are hoping to keep the trophy on home soil.
Martin gets her first round underway at 11.04am on Saturday morning alongside Marina Joyce-Moreno (Spain) and Hester Sicking (Netherlands) and will count herself among the main challengers for the title, knowing from experience how to plot her way around the course.
“You just have to play really smart on the Par 4s some of them can be quite long where you just have to be a bit more strategic than the Par 5s. I’d imagine they are putting the tees a bit further back but a lot of the Par 5s you can really attack and that’s where you can score,” said Martin.
“There’s no point in getting too far ahead of yourself. There’s no point imagining yourself with the trophy at the end of the week you can’t predict that all you can do is control what you are out there to do,” said Martin.
“Hopefully that will be the outcome at the end, but you never know what can happen in golf.”
The Flogas Irish Women’s Amateur Open Championship gets underway with Kate Dillon (Oughterard), Claudia Hofmeister (USA) and Maeve Cummins (Lurgan) the first to tee off on at 8.30am.
Check out the tee times here