Have you ever imagined what it would be like to walk down the 18th fairway knowing you’re about to be named the winner of a golf tournament?
Have you ever imagined what it might feel like to have an eight-shot lead in your back pocket with one hole left to play, having destroyed the field with a dominating display in your home country – and you’re only an amateur?
Steph Kyriacou doesn’t have to imagine any of this because last year that was her reality.
As the 2020 season began in Australia, and players travelled from all over the globe ready and refreshed for a new year to get underway at the Australian Ladies Classic – Bonville in New South Wales, nobody could have predicted the week that was going to unfold.
Few people were aware of the 19-year-old Australian amateur heading into the week – whose previous best performance around Bonville Golf Resort was a +12 finish in 2018 – but 72 holes later it was a much different story, and a week that changed her life forever.
Fairway after fairway, green after green, putt after putt, everything that could go right, did go right for the Sydneysider, as she barely put a foot wrong on route to a convincing eight-shot victory in the 2020 season-opener, and earned herself a full-time spot on the LET in the process.
Having got into the sport at the age of four, it was the moment that a childhood dream became a reality for Kyriacou, and even 20 months on it’s still a time in her life even she can barely comprehend.
“I had played in Bonville before, but I never really had any good results – I’d come like 40th or something – but I don’t know what happened that week, I just went nuts on the course,” she said.
“I honestly wasn’t expecting to win, all I was trying to do was make the cut because I had never shot under-par there, so if I could just shoot four rounds under-par, I would have been fine.
“I just didn’t make a mistake, I hit a couple of bad shots, but I saved them. It was honestly one of the best weeks I’ve ever had on a golf course.
“I holed everything; I gave myself good chances. I wish I could play like that every week, but that would be impossible.”
Kyriacou has dad Nick to thank for getting her into golf at such an early age, as he took his two daughters – Steph and older sister Eleena – to the driving range where he worked, and the two siblings quickly got the golfing bug.
While the elder of the two put the clubs away in her teenage years, Steph continued to flourish as she made her way up the pecking order in the junior and amateur ranks in Australia.
The up-and-coming star was always a presence at the top of leaderboards as she continued to hone her game, which culminated in a three-shot victory in the 2019 Masters of the Amateurs, and another milestone on the way to the top.
The father and daughter duo can rarely be seen without each other throughout a tournament week, with Nick on the bag more often than not, just as he had been as they travelled in their homeland heading from event to event.
“We used to play tennis but then Eleena wanted to play golf instead, so we went to the range, and it progressed from there,” Kyriacou said.
“I think I knew I wanted to do it as a career when I won my first amateur event, because the last couple of holes were so thrilling when I had a two-shot lead with four holes to go, and I didn’t want to mess it up, so getting the win there really helped.
“I hadn’t won an amateur event in Australia before then, I was confident in my game, but I just didn’t know the feeling of winning, and when I did the thrill and the adrenaline was pretty cool.
“And now it’s nice to have my dad here in my first couple of years as a pro because he has been there the whole way.”
After that win in Bonville, life became a rollercoaster for Kyriacou, with the instant impact of professional life seeing her plans turned upside down overnight.
Thoughts of Q-school were immediately scrapped, and makeshift plans were made to travel to Europe to continue the 2020 season, as she appeared in her first event as a professional outside Australia when she teed off at the ASI Ladies Scottish Open in August.
But what was initially thought of as a fortnight’s trip to compete on the big stage soon turned into a four-month sojourn around the world, with a return home made all the more difficult by the COVID-19 pandemic.
And despite being away from home – with occasional trips to Cyprus where she has family – Kyriacou continued to excel in her first few outings as a professional, with top-five finishes at the Tipsport Czech Ladies Open, VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open and Lacoste Ladies Open de France helping her to settle into Tour life.
“I actually felt really welcome on the Tour, Whitney (Hillier) was already here, then all the girls like Michele (Thomson), Kelsey (MacDonald) and Amy (Boulden) took me in as the newbie and were really nice,” she continued.
“Golf-wise I was so nervous because it was a big jump, and I remember turning up to the Scottish Open after not playing for four months, and it was my first professional LPGA event as well, so it was a bit scary, but now I think I’ve settled in okay.”
After finally managing to return home over the off-season, Kyriacou came flying out the traps once again in 2021, with another top-five finish under her belt in her season-opener at the Ladies Italian Open.
Strong performances in the Jabra Ladies Open and Tipsport Czech Ladies Open followed but finishing in the top 20 wasn’t enough to please the Australian – she wanted wins.
And heading into the Big Green Egg Open in the Netherlands earlier this year, Kyriacou not only looked determined, but relaxed, the hallowed ground between the two emotions that golfers crave – and it was a fellow professional that helped to change her mindset almost overnight.
“I think because I had a good year last year, I set my expectations a little bit too high this year,” Kyriacou admitted.
“I played fine the first few weeks, but I wanted to win so badly, and it didn’t help, but the week before Holland, Bubba Watson had won and he said in his interview that it was just a game of golf.
“I saw that and knew he was so right, so I just went with that mentality into Holland and now I’ve had that mentality ever since, I might have played badly last week but in a year’s time it’s not going to matter.
“I try to be relaxed, I feel like I don’t get too stressed about golf because you’re going to hit bad shots, you’re going to miss putts, and you have to accept that because if you don’t it’s going to ruin the rest of your round.”
With Watson’s words ringing in her ears, Kyriacou looked cool, calm and collected on the luscious fairways of the Rosendaelsche Golf Club and dealing with the unforgiving rough on the odd occasion as well, as she headed into the final day locked on -13 with Race to Costa del Sol rival Sanna Nuutinen.
What followed on the last day in Arnhem was 18 holes of golf at its finest, with the tension rising in palpability throughout the afternoon – first Steph had the advantage, then Sanna, then it was all square heading down the 17th – and it was heading to crunch time.
It looked for all the world like a playoff was an inevitably, such was the high standard of golf on show that afternoon, but a two-shot swing on the penultimate hole saw Kyriacou take the advantage into the last.
In the history books the two-shot win she achieved that day may look routine, but in reality it was anything but, as the champion explains: “I almost blew it on 18, but I hit a good chip shot that probably got me the whole tournament.
“After the second shot was so far in the bush it could have been anything, because I hit an eight-iron from the long grass which made it go so far left, and in my head I’m thinking I’ve just carked it.
“There were a couple of swear words let out in my head, but all I had to do was get it on the green and two-putt and see if Sanna would make her birdie putt.
“I was just thinking whatever happens, happens and if it’s meant to be it’s meant to be, and luckily it was. There was a small window to get the ball through, and I hit the shot exactly how I planned it and it roll to like a foot, so there was luck in it as well, but I chipped it exactly where I wanted to.
“I got so much confidence after that event, because it was down to the wire and it was great to see what I can do under pressure, and good to see I can do that in events if I put myself in contention in the future.”
An amateur LET winner at 19, a professional winner at 20, Kyriacou now has her sights on the biggest prizes of them all – a Major – and after some stellar showings in 2021 it would take a brave person to bet against her doing so in the future.
A career-best T13 finish at the AIG Women’s Open proves she has what it takes to mix with the biggest and the best in the sport and has whetted her appetite even more to take her game to the next level.
A double bogey on the last saw her drop out the top ten at Carnoustie to leave the merest of bitter tastes in the mouth after four superb days of golf, but Kyriacou was keen to take the positives after impressing on the biggest stage.
“I get more anxious in Majors because obviously it’s a bigger deal, and the first round and a half I was so anxious and on edge that I was trying to force it,” she continued.
“But you’ve just got to treat it like any other event, I know how to play golf, then I ended up playing well in the last two rounds, but I’m spewing about my last hole.
“If you told me where I’d finish at the start of the week I’d have been happy, but having played it I feel there were plenty of little things I could have done better to get the win, but you live and you learn, and I’ll take it into next year.”
She may still have things to learn, but Steph Kyriacou is a name that we’re going to get used to seeing challenging for titles as the years go by, and she’s got more titles in her sights.
