GOLF: Aideen Rogers, who spent much of the past decade as Ireland's only full-time touring women's professional, has decided to swap crossing time zones in pursuit of a golfing title for a life on the range as a teacher.
The 29-year-old Dubliner - now living in Drogheda - has taken up a teaching post at the Fingal Golf Centre, opposite Dublin Airport, but doesn't completely rule out a return to tour life at some stage in the future.
"I endured a really tough time on the circuit this season. My confidence just went and I was also troubled by a neck injury that is something of a mystery to the medical profession. The injury is definitely there, but nobody can find out what it is.
"It got to the stage where I wasn't enjoying playing golf and, so, I have chosen to go in a new direction," she explained.
Rogers, who recently attended the Solheim Cup in Minnesota as an official helper to the European team, traces her loss of confidence back to last season's Thailand Open when she was a shot ahead with just three holes to play.
Although she over-clubbed her approach to the 16th and finished with a bogey, it was not a complete disaster. What happened on the next, the 17th, was, however.
"I froze," she explained. "I had a 40-foot putt and I just couldn't grip the putter at all and ended up four putting."
From being on the verge of winning her first tournament, she finished fifth - and the mental scars were to stay for the rest of the season and into this year.
Life for a woman professional golfer can be tough, with prize money nowhere near the same scale as their male counterparts but with expenses of a similar nature. Rogers, though, doesn't regret chasing her dream.
"Not at all," she said. "It's a one in a million chance that you get, to be a professional golfer, and I am glad that I gave myself the opportunity. Hopefully I will be back, but only if my confidence returns - if it doesn't, I won't return."
Instead, Rogers has decided to use her experience on tour to provide lessons and organise golf days for companies, while she is also contemplating the possibility of establishing a women's pro-am circuit.
"There's a whole untapped market out there and I see it as an exciting time for me," she said.
"The only regret I have about the timing of my decision is that for years I was the only Irish player on the tour but now Hazel Kavanagh and Suzie O'Brien are out there. It would have been nice to have had that company."
