The timing means that the 2027 Open will be hosted by St Andrews during her tenure.
Ms Dowling represented Great Britain and Ireland in the Curtis Cup on four occasions and was a member of the 1986 team that secured a first victory over the United States on American soil. She captained the losing Great Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup team at Ganton, in northern England, in 2000.
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She won five Irish Championships, the first in 1983, the Ladies’ British Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship in 1986, and the Spanish Amateur Championship in 1987. She reached the semi-final of what is now the Women’s Amateur Championship in 1981 and 1988.
Off the course, Ms Dowling has been heavily involved in golf administration, chairing England Golf’s Handicap and Course Rating Committee following the EGU/EWGA merger in 2012. She sat on the CONGU board from 2012 to 2015 and was an advisory member of the R&A Amateur Status Committee from 1997-2001.
She has served as a referee at The Open on seven occasions, including at Royal St George’s in 2021 when, with her husband Peter, a retired district judge, they were the first married couple to referee at the same Championship.
A key figure in Irish women’s golf, Ms Dowling is an honorary life member of the Irish Ladies’ Golf Union and holds the same distinction at a number of golf clubs including Portmarnock, Copt Heath, Woodbrook and Cork. She is also a member of East Devon, with a current handicap index of 7.6.
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(Image: Damian Shields)