Paula wants to close out another title

Paula Grant is preparing to defend her Irish Close title this weekend in Enniscrone. Pic: Pat Cashman.

The 20 year-old won the title last year on her way to being named Ireland Women’s Amateur of the Year.

The Close is one of the two biggest championships for amateur lady golfers on the island.

On the biggest stage, Paula tends to shine, winning last year’s Close and finishing runner-up in the other major, the Irish Women’s Open Amateur Strokeplay Championship.

“I’m really looking forward to trying to win it again,” she told the ‘STAR’ before this weekend’s tournament in Enniscrone.

“It will be fun to see how I get on, trying to retain my title. There’ll be a really good field at it again so it’ll be tough.”

Paula is no stranger to coming out on top of the strongest Irish golfers, having enjoyed last year’s win at Ballybunion. She said: “It was absolutely brilliant to win it. The field was so strong. All the top players were there, including the two Maguire twins. I was up against Lisa in the final and beat her on the 19th hole. It was so close and I was even one down playing the 18th so to turn that round against Lisa and win it was fantastic.”

This weekend’s tournament begins with 36 holes qualifying tomorrow (Saturday). Paula’s first on the tee at 7am and again at 12 noon as she bids to make the top 32 in the field of 65 and continue her campaign to Tuesday’s final.

“It’s great to have finished my exams now and get a couple of weeks practice in before the tournament,” she said. “I tried to play as much as I could during them but now I’ve been able to do more work with my coach Stephen Hamill.

“I’m confident enough but we’ll see what happens. It’s hard to know what way it will go in a match-play tournament like this.”