Byrne ready to repeat trick as she goes for Irish Close glory 

8 June 2022; Sara Byrne prepares at her home course in Douglas, Cork, for the AIG Irish Women's Amateur Irish Close Championship, which takes place between Saturday and Tuesday at Grange Golf Club, Dublin. AIG are proud supporters of Irish golf and long-term partners of Golf Ireland. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

Sara Byrne returns home from a second year of collegiate golf with the University of Miami armed with a much improved game and the ambition to get her hands on the AIG Irish Women’s Amateur Close Championship trophy she won as a teenager four years ago.

Now 21 and an Ireland international, the Douglas golfer from County Cork has an affinity with the national championship that could only come from winning, as she did at Enniscrone in 2018. Having reached the quarter-finals at Ballybunion 12 months she is ready for another tilt in her first event of a hectic summer schedule, with 36 holes of strokeplay qualifying this Saturday at Grange GC in Dublin.