After a successful season so far, England’s Gemma Clews finds herself as the number one ranked player on Tour and she’s looking to stay there.
The Women’s Irish Challenge at Malahide Golf Club has been an event circled on Clews’ calendar since it was announced.
Speaking ahead of the week, Clews said: “I’ve been really looking forward to it. It’s always nice to be back in Ireland. The golf course is great. Everybody is so friendly here and it’s always nice to come back to this country.”
“I really like the course, it’s nice. It’s testing, it’s challenging especially in the wind so I’m just really looking forward to getting out there and getting started.”
It’s an extra special week for Clews who has her parents, Phil and Jackie out here supporting her. On the bag is two-time LET winner Becky Brewerton who has been a big part of Clews’ success this season.
“My parents don’t get to watch me often so that will be great. I have a couple of friends coming as well for the first round. They’re doing it in a day which is impressive.
“I’ve got Brew on the bag this week which will be great to have her back out and looking forward to working with her and learning.”
It was a steady start to the season for Clews with three top 30 finishes before a win at the inaugural Allegria Ladies Open vaulted her up the leaderboards.
Since then, Clews has proved a model of consistency with six top 10 finishes.
The Manchester based player is knocking on the doors of another win. At the AMUNDI Czech Ladies Challenge, Clews lost out on a second victory to French amateur Alice Kong in a four-person playoff and recently had a heartbreaking third place finish at the Ladies Slovak Golf Open after leading most of the way on final day.
Speaking about coming back from that event, Clews said: “Slovakia was bittersweet. It was a very frustrating finish, but I’ve just been trying to take the positives out of everything. I had such a good week, and I can’t just take one bad shot and dwell on that.”
The comeback is always stronger than the setback and England’s Gemma Clews is an epitome of that. In 2023, Clews finished sixth on the LETAS Order of Merit to clinch the final LET card of that season.
Yet 2024 on the LET was difficult and Clews returned to LETAS this season for redemption.
“It’s great to top the Order of Merit. I’d love to stay there. I know that’s very difficult as golf is hard but that’s what I’m fighting for now. I need to trust it and trust in myself.”
Clews tees it up at 9:10am local time alongside 2025 Ahlsell Trophy by Destination Jonkoping winner Amaia Latorre and Slovakia’s Michaela Vavrova.
The Women’s Irish Challenge will be held at Malahide Golf Club between the 27-29 August.
The event will see 126 players tee it up across 54 holes of golf for a prize fund of €45,000.
For more information on tournament and the LET Access Series, visit letaccess.com and follow @LETAccess on Facebook, Instagram and X #Access2LET.
