Leona Maguire was left frustrated after an even par round of 72 left her six shots adrift of world number one Jin Young Ko and another South Korean star in Amy Yang at the halfway stage of the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore.
Maguire had improved to four-under par for the tournament after recovering from an early bogey with two birdies around the turn at 9 and 10 before adding a third at 13.
However, Maguire would drop two shots in a damaging finish at 16 and 18 to return to two-under, and when asked post-round if she could pick out her favourite holes on The Tanjong at Sentosa, she was understandably struggling for answers.
“I don’t know if I have a favourite, really. Not yet, anyway,” Maguire said, who sits in a tie for 26th ahead of moving day.
“No, I mean, it’s tricky. One way or the other, I feel like a hit a couple of shots in, got punished for them. Didn’t hit that bad of a shot.
“It’s been hard to get some momentum on this golf course. I haven’t given myself enough chances. I mean, it’s not like the pins are that hard to get at. I just didn’t quite play my best, and it was just a bit of a slow day, really.”
Looking at the stats, Maguire found 10 of 14 fairways and 12 of 18 greens in regulation, needing 30 putts. Listening to Maguire speak though, it feels like she’s on the cusp of a low one, and if a few things click, six shots is very little with 36-holes to play. Asked what she’ll be working on prior to the third round, Maguire added:
“Just more of the same, trying to hit my irons a little bit better, hole a few more putts and see how we go.”
However, in an ominous warning to the rest of the field, world number one Ko was asked if she was satisfied with her game after firing five birdies in a bogey-free 67 to hit the front at eight-under.
“Not really,” she said.
“My swing feel is a little different from the front nine to back nine. So I feel more comfortable in the back nine, so I just want to find what happened in the front nine, is it mentally or is it like warmup or like needing more stretch before the tee off? So, yeah, I will go to the range right now.”
- Full scoring HERE
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