Coronation Foursomes

Irish pair claim glory at Coronation Foursomes Grand Final in St Andrews

The R&A

15 Sep 25

6 mins

Marie Walls and Michelle Hughes celebrate their success in the 2025 Coronation Foursomes Grand Final in St Andrews.

The Irish duo of Marie Walls and Michelle Hughes experienced the trip of a lifetime as they eased to success in the 2025 Coronation Foursomes Grand Final in St Andrews.

On a still weather day at the home of golf, the pair from Kilkeel Golf Club triumphed in the popular championship for women and girls’ golfers across Great Britain and Ireland after posting a winning score of 40 stableford points. Walls, 63, and Hughes, 58, gelled expertly to record their superb points tally over the Eden Course for a five-point victory among the 16 competing pairs.

Unbelievable experience

Michelle, who plays off a Handicap Index of 30, said, “This is unbelievable, absolutely out of this world. I had good company and we had great support from our club at home, six girls even flew over this morning. We couldn’t have asked for anything more. This surpasses anything I’ve ever done in golf. “I’ve never been in St Andrews before. I would have loved to have come before, as I’ve watched the venue on television in the past. To actually come here and play has been unbelievable. We thought we had won before we came here!” As part of their prize, the winners sealed a dream place in the Pro-Am for the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes next summer – the 50^th staging of the Championship. Marie added, “It just feels amazing, absolutely amazing, to be playing in the AIG Women’s Open Pro-Am. We have watched the Championship in recent years. “We are from the same part of the world as Rory McIlroy so we love our golf. It would be lovely to play with one of the Irish players, maybe Leona Maguire.”

Marie Walls and Michelle Hughes eased to success in the 2025 Coronation Foursomes Grand Final.

Largest championship of its kind

The unique team competition format of the Coronation Foursomes – the largest of its kind in GB&I that attracted entries from almost 19,000 women and girls from almost 1,000 clubs in 2025 – sees club qualifying and Area Finals each year ahead of a Grand Final. Having won the Area Final at Moyola Park in July, Walls and Hughes continued their form in St Andrews. A beautiful parkland course, Kilkeel GC is set amongst the iconic landscape of the Mourne Mountains, but instead the winning pair expertly handled the links test of the Eden lay-out. “We came to play a good round, just to do well and hope for the best,” added Marie, who plays off a Handicap Index of 39. “We’ve always played well together, we just hit it off together and we’re probably very similar players.” Sharon Rand and Laura Webb from Weymouth GC finished in second place on 35 points after card countback (back nine), with Kunju Patel and Joanna Philpot (Thorndon Park GC) taking third sport, also on 35 points.

Encouraging women and girls

The 32 finalists in St Andrews also enjoyed a two-night stay at the prestigious Old Course Hotel Golf Resort & Spa and a drinks reception at The R&A World Golf Museum. As part of The R&A’s drive to encourage more women and girls into playing golf, the Championship continues to attract all ages. Established in 1953, the Coronation Foursomes is open to all members of affiliated golf clubs in GB&I who hold a hold a current World Handicap System (WHS) Index of 40.0 or under. For 2025 qualifying, local qualifying competitions – stand alone or played alongside an existing fixture – were organised by golf clubs, playing over 18 holes of handicap stableford foursomes. Mothers and daughters, friends and family members all teed up – all for just £4 per pair.

Fantastic two days

The best 100 scores then qualified for each Area Final held at 16 venues in July and August, before the top 16 teams booked their trip to the home of golf for the showpiece final. Marie added, “I hadn’t played in the Championship before but it’s been part of our weekly competitions. We’ve actually been overwhelmed the past two days, just the surroundings of where we are and playing the Eden Course. “We had a lovely drinks reception at The R&A World Golf Museum and we’ve met some fantastic laddies over the last two days. We hope other women and girls maybe play in at our club next year and women from other clubs.” Further information, including full results from the Grand Final, is available here.

Latest Articles

All News