Kirkistown Castle Club member Beth Coulter is one of the favourites to collect the Irish Girls' Championship title at Galway this week.
She recently had the opportunity to rub shoulders with one of her role models, Leona Maguire, who, ironically, is missing from the list of Irish Girl champions.
The title has been won by such famed players as former Royal Portrush amateur international Stephanie Meadow (2006) and Lisa Maguire (2008), both now playing professionally, Julie McCarthy (2013) and Lurgan star Annabel Wilson (2014 and 2015).
It was at Leona’s home club Slieve Russell that Coulter had the pleasure or meeting her idol.
“The only time I had ever saw her before was in Dun Laoghaire at the Curtis Cup” said Beth, a student at Our Lady's & St Patrick's College in Belfast.
“I thought her swing was class, I asked her about her preparation and her yardages, she was very easy to talk to and was really nice.”
The 20x20 Campaign, launched by the Federation of Irish Sport last October, aims to increase media coverage, participation and attendance at key women’s sports events.
Leona Maguire, in addition to Meadow, are two of six Ambassadors for the campaign. Coulter acknowledges how important role models, particularly Irish ones, can be.
Meeting Leona Maguire, too, was Leah Temple Lang, another 18-year-old from Elm Park and she was suitably impressed, as well: “As long as I’ve played golf, I have known about Lisa and Leona (Maguire),” reflected Leah.
“I am starting college in the US later this year so I asked her about being over there, the different grasses and travel.
“She was so nice and went really in depth to explain how you might play different shots around the greens.
‘It’s great to watch the likes of Lexi Thompson or Stacey Lewis playing, but they’re not from the same place as you. Leona and Lisa are from an hour away from where I started playing golf at Seapoint.
“Hearing how brilliantly they were doing when I was growing up, two girls from Ireland playing all over the country, Europe and the world. That really gets you going and you think ‘I could do that!”
Former World Number One amateur Maguire was herself impressed by the calibre of players visiting her home club.
“I was really impressed. The girls can all hit it really well and I suppose it brought me back to when I first started playing. obviously Beth and Leah are doing what I did, working their way up and on to Irish teams and heading off to different competitions, it’s great to see.”
Being inter-provincial and international players in their own right, what do Coulter and Temple Lang think of themselves as role models?
“That feels really weird,” laughed Beth, “I’ve never really thought about it like that!’
For Lisa and Leona Maguire, the ultimate dream was to turn professional following their outstanding amateur careers, but is that dream the same for Beth and Leah as they tackle the Irish Girls' Championship this week?
‘I’d love to go to college like they did and hopefully it can work out as good as it did for them,” said Coulter. “Then I would love to turn Professional. I think it’s really important for us to have role models like the Maguire twins because they’ve been through the exact same things that we’re going through.
“Same tournaments, in the same places, so it’s good for us to follow and look up to them.”
Said Temple Lang: “I don’t think I could hack being a Professional, I don’t have the patience. I just want to play to the best of my personal ability, go to college and see where that brings me. I just want to be the best player I can be.”
The Irish Girls’ Close Championship strokeplay qualifying takes place today at Galway with the matchplay stages beginning tomorrow.
No doubt, Coulter and Temple Lang will feature prominently during the competition.
