There is a distinct pause as Steph Kyriacou thinks about the one word she’d use to describe 2020.
“That’s a good question,” the 20-year-old says with a laugh as she ponders an answer. Summarising a year in which Kyriacou went from obscurity to a shining light of Australian golf? Not easy.
In January, only those involved in Australian amateur golf knew of Steph Kyriacou. But that changed – overnight – when she grabbed international golf headlines by winning the Ladies European Tour co-sanctioned Bonville Classic by eight shots last February. The victory forced Kyriacou to turn professional, immediately, to take up a two-year exemption on the LET.
But only a month later, COVID-19 put a stop to global sports. The LET and the LPGA Tour started a five-month hiatus. When golf returned in August, Kyriacou travelled to Scotland but her return flight to Australia was cancelled indefinitely. November was her next ticket home, the airlines told her.
So, Kyriacou rolled up her sleeves. She stayed, played and wound up winning the LET’s Rookie of the Year award in November courtesy of a sensational four-month, five-country, eight-tournament run in Europe and the Middle East.
For her efforts overseas, Kyriacou earned a 14-day quarantine stint – stuck inside the same room at the Radisson Blu hotel in the centre of her hometown of Sydney. How do you sum up a year like that?
“Unbelievable,” Kyriacou says.
Kyriacou became the third Australian to win the LET’s rookie gong after Rebecca Stevenson (2003) and Nikki Garrett (2006). But Kyriacou is the first – and hopefully last – to do so under the weight of a global pandemic.
“If you told me this was all going to happen this year, me winning an LET event as an amateur, and then everything in Europe with COVID, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Kyriacou says. Nobody would have. Kyriacou has always backed her ability, but what the St Michael’s Golf Club product pulled off in her debut season on the LET would be nothing short of remarkable under normal circumstances.
The odds were against Kyriacou thriving in her rookie season, particularly when she suffered a bad case of nerves at the Scottish Open – her first event back from the shutdown. She missed the cut, and then finished near the bottom of the leaderboard at the Women’s British Open the next week.
“Those first two events, I let my emotions and thoughts take over and I didn’t play my best golf,” Kyriacou recalls. “I was putting pressure to make the cut and I’m not sure why. I was so nervous having gone from playing amateur at the beginning of the year to LET events and a Major in Scotland, so it was a pretty big jump for me.”
What Kyriacou did next should become a case study for the WPGA Tour here to teach young Australian women pros about dealing with adversity in golf. In her next seven starts, Kyriacou recorded five top-five results, including two runner-up finishes, as well as another top 10. The second runner-up came in her last event of the year, the Saudi Ladies Team International (individual) at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club. Less than two years after a tantrum-throwing Sergio Garcia destroyed greens and bunkers at the same course during the men’s Saudi event, Kyriacou tore it apart with a course-record 63 in the final round. She finished two shots behind winner Emily Pedersen, who won both events on the Saudi swing and then the final tournament in Spain to take out the LET’s Race to Costa Del Sol. Kyriacou finished third on that season-long race with the fewest events (nine) of any player in the top five.
“I didn’t even know I was in the running for Rookie of the Year until one of my mates started sending me the results,” she says. “I wasn’t focusing on that award; I was focusing on the Race to Costa Del Sol and I finished third, which was really pleasing. Winning Rookie of the Year is really special, it’s a cool thing to have in your career and the icing on the cake of a great season.”
Home on the range
As Kyriacou chats to Australian Golf Digest, she’s almost climbing the walls of her room at the Radisson Blu given it’s day 11 of hotel quarantine. The end is in sight. But the silver lining to mandatory isolation is that it has given Kyriacou a period to reflect on the year and soak up her achievements.
“Oh yeah, for sure. It’s been nice to sit back and think about my good results,” she says. “I also had to do my tax for the year and that was great because it wasted three whole days,” she adds with a laugh.
Ironically, Kyriacou’s stellar results after the LET resumed almost never happened. “Before COVID kicked off and travel restrictions were put in place, my Dad and I were only meant to go over to Scotland for two weeks, for the Scottish Open and Women’s British Open, and then come home. I’m actually pretty lucky my flight home got cancelled because I wouldn’t have played all these events. The airline said the next flights weren’t until November and I thought I was stuck. It was such an effort to book stuff, to travel between countries, but hopefully it’s all better next year.”
During the downtime of quarantine, Kyriacou has also had time to identify how she can elevate her game for a second, and hopefully more robust, season on the LET.
“Well, I’m like an average distance hitter, so I have a few things to work on and distance is my main goal,” Kyriacou says. “I’m not going to be silly like Bryson [DeChambeau], but an extra 10 or 20 metres off the tee would not hurt. I still want to improve the rest of the game and it’s good because I have about five months to do it.”
Kyriacou certainly doesn’t want to mess with the prodigious rhythm she naturally possesses. Her smooth swing has been grooved over time by legendary Australian coach Gary Barter, whose philosophy focuses on rotation. Kyriacou knows the off-season is going to involve lots of turning, pivoting and hitting a draw.
“Lots of rotation,” Kyriacou says with a laugh. “He is obviously big on working on your turn and rotation. But he’s also a master of the short game and that’s always been a strength of mine. Although I want to improve my distance and ball-striking, I’m still going to focus on my chipping and putting. My mental game is OK and I have gotten better with the experiences this year, but it could improve.
“You can always get better.”
Time to unwind
After a rollercoaster year, Kyriacou says most of the next five months before she leaves for Europe again will be spent with family and friends. “I’ll be hanging out a lot with my mum, my dog and my sister.
“I’ll be going to the beach a lot; all the tournaments I played on the LET were strict with COVID-19 safety guidelines and we weren’t allowed to do anything. At the Saudi event, there was a beach right at the course and we couldn’t go in for a swim.”
Eventually, the time will come to dust off the clubs and get competitively sharp. “I’ve been invited to a few pro-ams and there is the Blitz tournament (a short-format event in Adelaide) in January. Then there will be plenty of money games with a few of the boys at St Michael’s.”
Kyriacou will next play on the LET in May, when she will embark on a six-month trip that will last until the season finale in Spain in November.
“By the end of May, I’m sure I’ll be itching to get back on tour and compete again. I’ll also no doubt want to see the friends I made on tour this year,” Kyriacou says.
“I made plenty, but I was with my dad the whole time, so he was my travel buddy and my caddie. But [fellow Australian] Whitney Hillier was the person I became really good friends with, and she was really helpful with all the travel and golf questions I had.”
Kyriacou’s second season on the circuit will also present an unprecedented opportunity: because there will be no 2020 LET Qualifying School, first-year professionals will again be considered rookies in 2021. Kyriacou has a chance to become the first-ever two-time Rookie of the Year on the Ladies European Tour.
Now that would be unbelievable.
