Leona Maguire is hoping to put the exclamation point on an overwhelmingly successful season when the Symetra Tour Championship tees off at Daytona Beach on Thursday.
The Cavan star earned a tied fifth result in Longwood last week and climbed two spots to No. 5 on the Volvik Race for the Card standings with $90,610 amassed this year.
The former world amateur number one has seven top-10s across 15 starts, including two victories at the Windsor Golf Classic and the Symetra Classic but having largely struggled in recent weeks, the presence of her long-time coach, Shane O’Grady at Longwood last week seemed to provide the boost Maguire’s been craving of late.
“Last week was a really good confidence boost for me,” said Maguire, one of five players with multiple wins this year. “I’m happy with my game and it was great to have coach Shane out at Alaqua [Country Club] to fine-tune things. I hopefully can build off the momentum and finish the season strong in Daytona.”
Maguire is now $20,000 ahead of the 11th placed player, Min Seo Kwak heading to the final event of the season, the Tour Championship from October 3-6.
Greeting the 108-player field in Daytona Beach is a total purse of $250,000. Individuals are set to compete in a 72-hole stroke play format with a cut to the low 60 players and ties after 36 holes. The winner’s share for the event is $37,500, so the top-10 on the standings is open to change.
From 1999-2002, the official qualifying tour of the LPGA, the Symetra Tour, handed out three cards. Then from 2003-2007, that number increased to five before 10 were distributed starting in 2008. Since the inaugural year, a total of 147 players have graduated to the big stage.
Upon the conclusion of the Symetra Tour Championship on Sunday, 10 more cards will be distributed as the top-10 in the final Volvik Race for the Card standings will graduate onto the LPGA Tour for the 2020 campaign. Leona Maguire is looking odds on to be one of them.
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