FOUR straight years at the top now, the hunger and the insatiable appetite for success doesn’t appear to be going away for St Bridgets Chrissie Byrne any time soon. 2013’s success boiled down to three weeks in July in essence for the Kildare woman. It included a wonderful run in the World Strokeplay, the Leinster Strokeplay and the National Strokeplay. Before that however, she had to overcome the disappointment of a National Matchplay semi-final defeat in Lucan first, a competition in which Chrissie entered as defending champion. “Ger Ward beat me 2&1 in the semi-final. In truth there wasn’t much in it either way but overall I felt that I put up a good defence of my title. A lot of people were hoping for either an all Bridgets Final between myself and Marian or an all Portmarnock final between Ger and Sheelagh but it didn’t quite work out that way,” she said of the National Matchplay.
Come the first weekend in July, in the intense heat of Tambre, Gallica in Spain she would start her run with a defence of her World Strokeplay title. While torrential rain in the closing stages of the 2009 Championship in La Grande Motte, France would be the biggest obstacle for the players, an altogether different challenge awaited in Gallica. “I remember playing with Mark Millar on the Saturday and the heat was so intense that we were finding it difficult to grip the clubs properly. I had a nice lead after the first day but Esther de Schiffart came back strongly in the closing stages and I was starting to feel the pressure with three holes to go. I remember the 17th hole on the course, a 90 metre shot that a lot of players were finding it difficult to par not to mind birdie and I was relieved to leave my tee-shot in a chippable enough spot for a par after,” she said. 11 under par would be good enough to give her a one shot win and keep the World Ladies title in the Kilcullen club for another four years.
Her next two outings would be a lot easier on the travel front but the heat thankfully returned with the Irish contingent from Spain for once! “Athgarvan is only three minutes from where I live so I really can’t have asked for a closer win than that,” she said of her Leinster Ladies Senior Strokeplay success. A trip across the M3 to Navan the following week would complete Chrissie’s memorable three weeks and she paid tribute to Navan for the condition of course that weekend. “It’s amazing that with the dryness we had during the heat wave that a course can produce greens that were practically like carpets for a Championship and that is a great credit to their club,” she said of her success in the Royal County. Chrissie’s dominance of the Ladies game since the turn of the decade was probably best indicated in her winning margin in that tournament. 12 shots to spare over her nearest challenger meant she would sit at No 1 for another year and mean that not since Tracey McGrath in 2009 has anyone else held the coveted honour.
There is one competition that Chrissie and her county by extension haven’t quite been dominating recently however, the National Inter-County. While the format of the competition is the subject of much debate amongst the Pitch & Putt Community, Byrne refuses to use it as an excuse to explain Kildare’s lack of a win since 2008. “I think when you look at our run from 1997 to 2008, we benefited from having a young team with hardly any other commitments outside of Pitch & Putt. That will always change for Ladies with the passage of time and I think you have to give the counties that have won since we last did in 2008 the credit for putting the work into it. Regardless of what the format has been we’ve been there or thereabouts in the final standings and Tullamore is a course we’re all looking forward to playing on in September,” she said of the pinnacle of Inter-County Pitch & Putt.
One title Chrissie is anxious to win back is the Irish Open having surrendered it to Tracey at the competition’s last staging in Deerpark back in 2011. She had won the first two stagings in Royal Meath and RGSC respectively. She spoke of her personal delight in seeing the tournament return after an absence of three years. “I have a lot of friends in the International game and even though I don’t travel as much as I used to now I know the one thing everyone was wondering was when the Irish Open would come back. It’s a great advertisement for Pitch & Putt in terms of the promotion of the game worldwide and Glenville is one of the best venues that it could be held in.”
The challenge remains the same for all the Ladies countrywide to try and stop her staying at the top for a fifth consecutive year. Is there a ‘Seamus Darby’ amongst the Ladies ranks this year? Only time will tell but whoever wants such a title will certainly have to earn it!