The impact of the 2026 KPMG Women’s Irish Open continued beyond the fairways of The K Club yesterday as Leona Maguire visited Leixlip Educate Together National School to help deliver the latest chapter of KPMG’s Books for Birdies initiative.
Maguire, a KPMG ambassador, met pupils as they returned to school and presented books generated through a campaign that linked every birdie she recorded during the season, and every birdie made by the field at last week’s KPMG Women’s Irish Open, with the donation of a children’s book.
By the conclusion of the tournament on Sunday, the birdie count had generated 1,539 books.
KPMG then added a further 461 books, bringing the overall donation to 2,000 books, allowing 20 schools across Ireland to each receive a specially curated library of 100 titles.
The books have been selected by Children’s Books Ireland, with a focus on diverse characters, inclusive themes, and stories that encourage children to see themselves in the books they read. A number also feature empowering stories around women and girls in sport. These include Girls Play Too by Jacqui Hurley and Shooting for the Stars by Norah Patten, who was a guest at last year’s KPMG Women’s Irish Open.
It provides a neat legacy piece from a week in which women’s golf took centre stage at The K Club.
South Africa’s Casandra Alexander lifted the title after four days of competition, while Maguire finished as the leading Irish player in fourth place.
The Books for Birdies campaign ensured that what happened on the course also generated a benefit far beyond the tournament venue.
It is another example of how a sponsor can use sponsorship assets to create a direct connection between elite sport and wider social impact.
The company has played a vital role in the development of the Women’s Irish Open, serving as a key element in bringing it back to the schedule as title sponsor, and the tournament has become one of the most prominent annual showcases for women’s sport in Ireland.
Linking birdies to books provided a simple and highly visible mechanism through which players, spectators and schools could follow the additional impact being created as the competition unfolded.
The 2,000 books will now be distributed across schools in Dublin, Donegal, Leitrim, Westmeath, Carlow, Mayo, Meath, Tipperary, Waterford, Roscommon, Clare, Wexford and Galway.
Among those receiving libraries are Navan Educate Together National School, Scoil na gCeithre Máistrí in Westmeath, Mulranny National School in Mayo, St Paul’s National School in Roscommon, Clonroche National School in Wexford and Scoil Chaitríona Senior in Galway.
Children’s Books Ireland is the national charity and arts organisation focused on ensuring children and young people have access to excellent books and opportunities to develop a lifelong love of reading.
Sport for Business Perspective
The best sponsorship activations often start with an idea that can be understood in seconds, like the idea that a birdie equals a book did exactly that, particularly for a star golfer both of whose parents are teachers.
It gives every Leona Maguire performance during the season and every birdie across the four days of the KPMG Women’s Irish Open an additional consequence. The daily updated total was displayed around the K Club last week so that spectators could join in the fun.
The final step of taking those books into schools makes it tangible, remaining in classrooms and school libraries long after the final putt was holed.
KPMG’s investment in the Women’s Irish Open has helped create a bigger stage for the players. Books for Birdies is a smart extension of that investment, using the visibility of women’s sport to encourage another generation to read stories in which ambition, diversity and female achievement are part of the everyday narrative.
KPMG is a full member of Sport for Business and the official partners of our Golf coverage.
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Image Credit: KPMG Ireland and Inpho.ie Tom O’Hanlon
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