Sara Byrne took another step towards Curtis Cup selection when she beat big-hitting Swede Moa Svedenskiold on the 19th in front of skipper Catriona Matthew to reach the last 32 in the Women’s Amateur Championship at Portmarnock.
The Douglas star (23) won the 17th in par to level the match, then made a clutch eight-footer for a half in par on the 18th to keep the match alive before winning with a par-four at the first tie-hole.
“Obviously, teams are teams; you never know what’s going to happen,” Byrne said of her matchplay heroics in front of Matthew.
“But getting a clutch win like that on 19 in front of her helps out a little bit, I think.”
The Cork star knows she will have to find her putting touch to defeat Annabelle Pancake, last year’s runner-up, after the American defeated a feisty Emma Fleming from Elm Park with a par at the 19th.
Fleming’s clubmate Anna Foster (22) made few mistakes in a 4&3 win over England’s Nellie Ong, but the other five Irish qualifiers bowed out.
Chinese Taipei’s Hsin Chun Liao beat Castlerock’s Annabel Wilson 2&1, Kirkistown Castle’s Beth Coulter fell 3&2 to Scotland’s Hannah Darling and Lahinch’s Aine Donegan was out of sorts in a 6&5 loss to England’s Isla McDonald McBride.
Hermitage’s Kate Lanigan went down 2&1 after a titanic struggle with Scotland’s Lorna McClymont, lipping out with a 50-footer at the 17th.
Meanwhile, leading qualifier Lottie Woad had to dig deep to beat Singapore’s Aloysa Margiela Atienza by two holes.
