SIMON LEWIS: O’Sullivan sacrifices for higher cause

There is one word of warning Ada O’Sullivan will offer to whoever succeeds her as the ILGU’s first High Performance director when her four-year term ends next January: your golf game will suffer.

The former Great Britain & Ireland Curtis Cup captain is in the home stretch of her tenure having been invited onto the ILGU board in January 2010 with the remit to get a High Performance Unit up and running and finally give girl golfers a structured framework within which their games would flourish.

So while O’Sullivan’s handicap, to her horror, has dropped from plus two to four, that framework she implemented is showing signs of producing the desired effect. Girls’ golf on this island has never been stronger and Ireland has benefited on the international stage through the rise to prominence of Stephanie Meadow, the reigning British Women’s Amateur champion, and the Maguire twins, Lisa and Leona.