She almost snatched a half in par fives at the 13th, where she was in a bunker from the tee, but went two down when her long-range putt finished on the lip.
“Almost making that par putt as well, I could tell it was like kind of tough to get momentum,” she said. “So I’m still trying to hang in there, but it was definitely hard to break in.”
Rydqvyst, who was runner-up in the Women’s Amateur in 2022, turned the screw at the 15th, where she two-putted from the swale right of the green for a winning par after Foster’s downwind recovery from the left greenside bunker ran 18 feet away.
The match then ended at the par-five 16th, where Foster had to chip out sideways from under a gorse bush and eventually conceded after failing to make five.
The Auburn University graduate was still upbeat about her performance as he prepares to join the Irish squad for the European Amateur Team Championships in Spain.
“It was really fun to have all those people around, and they wanted me to do well, so I tried to enjoy it as much as I could,” she said.
Having won the Flogas Irish Women’s Open Strokeplay last week and reached the last eight of the Women’s Amateur, she left Portmarnock feeling she belongs among the elite.
“I think it’s more self-confidence and inner belief than anything else,” she said. “The last few weeks have shown me that I am a good player, and I deserve to be where I am. It’s nice for me to be able to look back at the last two weeks and say, ‘Well, good job, you did well’.”
Rydqvist faces Lorna McClymont in this afternoon’s semi-finals following the Scot’s 7&6 demolition of French star Ines Archer.
In the other half of the draw, Denmark’s Marie Eline Madsen beat American Annabelle Pancake 3&2 to set up a semi-final showdown with American Melanie Green, who came back from three down after five holes to beat Germany’s Paula Schulz-Hanssen with a par at the 20th.
