Sara Byrne: 'I don’t have too many expectations, I just want to go out and play golf'

The 20-year-old from Douglas will tee it up at the Women’s Amateur Championship in Scotland on Monday boosted by a transformative freshman year at the University of Miami

Sara Byrne will tee it up at the Women’s Amateur Championship in Scotland on Monday.

Sara Byrne is as ambitious as any of the talented young Irish golfers with a professional career in their sights.

Yet the 20-year-old from Douglas, Cork, will tee it up at the Women’s Amateur Championship in Scotland on Monday boosted by a transformative freshman year at the University of Miami, and a fresh mindset that allows her to play competitive golf with freedom rather than the burden of expectation that one might expect from someone who won the Irish Women’s Close as a schoolgirl just turned 17.

That freshman year in Miami was unexpectedly cut short, from a competitive point of view at least, by last month’s controversial cancellation of the Hurricanes’ NCAA Regional Championship — the gateway to US collegiate golf’s National Championships.

Byrne and her team-mates were primed and ready to make a push in Baton Rouge, Louisiana when repeated rain delays led organisers to decree that though the course was playable, it was not playable to “a championship level” and would not be played, allowing the top-six ranked teams to progress to the nationals without having struck a ball. Miami were not among them, and an investigation is under way, as is the threat of lawsuits, but such is Byrne’s new outlook that she has moved on and is looking forward to an Irish summer among friends and family.

Talking to the Irish Examiner in the sunshine at Douglas Golf Club this week, Byrne said: “I leave for the British Amateur on Saturday, which starts on Monday at Barassie in Kilmarnock near Glasgow.

“I’m really looking forward to it, one of the biggest amateur events and I’m hoping I can do OK because I have seven or eight [collegiate] tournaments behind me going into the summer.

I feel like I’ve matured as a golfer and I’m excited to be back playing competitive golf again, having missed those NCAA Nationals.

“It’s going to be weird being back as an individual, not travelling as a team, where you have each other if you don’t do too well. If you play good it’s really great, but if it’s not great then it’s all on you. But I’m excited to be back and playing a few tournaments this summer.

“I have the Irish Close in Ballybunion the week after the British Am. That’s a high one on my list and it would be nice to win again having won [at Enniscrone] in 2018, so I just want to go out and enjoy playing golf back here again.

“I don’t have too many expectations, I just want to go out and play golf and do what I did in college. I didn’t know what to expect [in Miami], so I just went out and enjoyed it, and that’s what I want to do here, go play golf without any expectations and see what happens.”

The Finance undergraduate described her first year on the Hurricanes’ women’s team as a “good stepping stone” for her game, and identifies perhaps the key moment in her golfing experience as coming at the Briar’s Creek Collegiate tournament in South Carolina back in March.

“I was going in thinking I was playing really, really well.

“It was 36 holes the first day, 18 the next and having thought it was going to be great, I shot 80, 81. That’s when my mindset changed.

“I just went out the next day and just played golf and shot 64. That was the switch. It was a [Hurricanes] programme record, a course record, and it was all a bit like: ‘Where did that come from?’

“I think I just had a switch of mindset and that’s where everything stemmed from [in terms of], there’s me and [separately] there’s golf. Because I’d never really had a round on a big course like that — a tough enough golf course with a lot of shots you have to think about — it was all about course management and it was windy, so going from three or four-under to minus eight, a 64, on that type of golf course was pretty nice to get that under the belt.

“I feel a bit freer now, to go out on the golf course and know I can shoot a minus eight. And in that minus eight I had a bogey, like, stupid stuff, and I still shot minus eight, so I know I’m able to do it. I was like: ‘Wow, that’s a big stepping stone’.

It gives that extra little boost of confidence going into the next tournament and I think for my coaches, that was the potential they saw.

Byrne has carried that mindset with her ever since and it will travel with her throughout the summer.

“I’m just in the headspace of not thinking too much. Over there I got into committing to every single one of my shots, not thinking about anything else. Just focusing on the right now and not thinking about anything and going out there and having fun.

“That was definitely a learning thing for me because before I was like: ‘I have to do this’ and ‘I have to beat all these people’, and I got really caught up in my head. But our coach wants a clear head in us all, and I think that really helped. Now I play just a little bit more freely, I don’t get caught up in my head as much and if I play good golf, good, and if I don’t, I figure out what’s wrong and I go away and work on it.”

What Hurricanes head coach, former LPGA Tour player Patti Rizzo, and associate head coach John Koskinen have not changed is Byrne’s swing, with swing coach Fred Twomey still very much involved in that part of her game.

“I made a massive leap this year from what I was before going, and I’m hoping that every year I can make just a little bit more of a leap with the experience and playing a lot more golf courses.”

It will be back-to-back links golf for the next two weeks, from Barassie to Ballybunion and the Irish Women’s Close. What follows from there could be the European Team Championships to follow at Royal County Down, but Byrne applies the same mindset to Irish team selection as she does to her game.

Hopefully it comes after that, but I can’t control if that happens or not. If it does, then great — but if not, I’m sure it will come eventually.

“It won’t be the end of the world, I get to go back to Miami in August and back playing on my team in collegiate golf so I’m not thinking about [Ireland] teams.

“I’m there and I’m out to play my individual golf. I’ve been there before when it’s all about making that team but right now, if it happens, great, if not…

“Before I was impatient and wanted everything to come right now, but I’ve learned over the year I was there that I’m able to get a bit more perspective and it’s not all about what happens right now.

“I have all this ahead of me, and I’m really excited because I love playing collegiate golf. I’m looking forward to the summer, it’s great to see my family and friends and come back and eat some Irish food! It’s not all about coming back for golf.”