Coulter seeks more glory for Co Down at Augusta

Beth Coulter of Ireland plays her stroke from the No. 12 tee during a practice round prior to the Augusta National Women's Amateur at Champions Retreat Golf Club, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Picture: Augusta National

Beth Coulter hopes she can make it two wins in a row for Co Down when she tries to emulate 2025 Masters champion Rory McIlroy and win the Augusta National Women’s Amateur this week.

The Kirkistown Castle star (22) makes her second appearance in the event today and hopes the experience of last year will stand to her.

“It was just absolutely insane,” Coulter said of her 2025 debut, when she shot rounds of 72 and 77 at Champions Retreat but missed the cut.

“To get the invite, it was on the cusp of the last few weeks and months coming into the last WAGR update and then to get one was so, so cool.

“Then to actually get there, the experience, photos and everything just doesn’t do it justice. It’s so cool.”

Players play two rounds at Champions Retreat, and while only the top 30 and ties get to play the final round at Augusta National on Saturday, the entire field gets to play a practice round at the Masters venue on Friday.

“Coming there for the first time when all the other girls have been there playing the event, you are a little bit on the back burner because they have that experience, know how the week works,” said Arizona State University and Curtis Cup star Coulter, who tees it up alongside Mississippi’s Avery Weed and Czechia’s Veronika Kedronova for the first two days.

“The experience was absolutely insane. It was so cool getting to play Augusta on the Friday with Lottie (Woad) when she was leading, and me and Patience (Rhodes) went out and had a birdie game, had so much fun.

“That’ll hopefully stand us in good stead for the second year. We know how everything works, where everything is. Getting those extra rounds in Champions Retreat to try and make the cut is really important.

Beth Coulter of Ireland plays her stroke from the No. 10 fairway during a practice round prior to the Augusta National Women's Amateur at Champions Retreat Golf Club, Tuesday, March 31, 2026.

“I’ll be able to treat it more as a golf tournament than an experience.”

This week marks the start of the domestic amateur season with 93 players teeing it up in the Connolly Motors-sponsored West of Ireland Amateur Open qualifier at Co Sligo today.

The handicap cut-off was plus 2.5 this year, and the Championship proper gets underway with a 126-strong field set for the first of two strokeplay qualifying rounds on Good Friday.

Greystones’ Dylan Holmes will be looking to become the first man to retain the title since Rory McIlroy in 2006.

Walker Cup skipper Dean Robertson will closely monitor results, and the winner will be invited to join a Great Britain and Ireland squad session at Lahinch later this summer.

Robertson will also be watching Golf Ireland’s pilot version of a new Strokes Gained Ratings system that ranks performances in Championships and scratch cups.

Launched this week in partnership with Quantum Sports Data, the pilot will run through the 2026 season with a view to its introduction in 2027 as a new primary qualification method for all men’s and women’s championships.

Using scoring data returned to Golf Ireland’s WHS Clubhouse platform, players will receive an Adjusted Strokes Gained (ASG) rating, which will be driven by their scores over a rolling two-year period.

ASG measures how many strokes better or worse a golfer performs in each round compared to an average championship-level player, accounting for course difficulty and playing conditions.

Walker Cup players Caolan Rafferty (+6.107), Stuart Grehan (+5.984), Matthew McClean (+5.088) and Gavin Tiernan (+4.890) are the top four in the initial men’s ranking.

Kate Lanigan (+10.867), Olivia Costello (+10.316), Rebekah Gardner (+9.565) and Anna Dawson (+9.538) are the leading women domestically.

“While we’re committed to continuing to use both the World Amateur Golf Rankings and the World Handicap System as qualification criteria for our championships, we wanted to trial a new primary method of qualification for championships that was developed specifically for that purpose,” said Mark Wehrly, Championships and Rules Director at Golf Ireland.