Maguire headed for long-awaited break after ending World Invitational on positive note

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Leona Maguire (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

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Leona Maguire admits she is looking forward to some much-needed time away from the course after a positive finish to the ISPS HANDA World Invitational at Galgorm Castle.

The Cavan woman played her way out of contention on Saturday with a damaging three-over 76 but at least recovered to put herself on the top-10 bubble in Co Antrim with a closing five-under 68 in her final round.

Maguire racked up six birdies and one bogey to give the home crowds something to cheer on Sunday as she ended the week 10-under-par, as Sweden’s Maja Stark looks set to ease to victory and immediate promotion to the LPGA Tour.

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But Maguire admits she is eager to spend some time without a golf club in her hand after a punishing run of events, with her previous three starts coming in the KPMG PGA Championship, Amundi Evian Championship and AIG Women’s Open.

“I didn’t really have my “A” game this week, so squeezed a bit out of it in the end and always nice to finish with a good round on Sunday,” said the 27-year-old.

“I think last week took a lot out of me. I was probably a bit tired coming into this week and not ideal prep with the two courses and not a lot of rest. Stayed relatively patient. Let yesterday get away from me, got a bit frustrated yesterday but, yeah, overall it’s a solid week.

“I think most of my errors this week more mental errors more than anything else. I just wasn’t probably as sharp as I was last week. A little bit of fine tuning but nothing major.”

Maguire got off to a hot start by taking advantage of the two short par-fives, the first and third, for early birdies, but she could only par her way to the turn which ended any slim hopes she had of getting back into contention.

But her back nine was the Solheim Cup star at her best, taking advantage of another par-five, the 10th, for another birdie before adding another at the par-four 13th. And although she dropped a shot at the par-four 16th, back-to-back birdies saw her finish with a flourish, much to the delight of the crowd.

At 13th in the Race to CME Globe standings, Maguire is still in an extremely promising place to finish the season on a high heading down the stretch of the LPGA Tour season and she’s eager to keep building towards the Tour Championship.

“Every tournament helps. I think we’ve still got eight, nine tournaments left, so still a lot of golf to be played. Just keep building for the rest of the year,” added the Slieve Russell ace, who will take two weeks off before heading back to the States.

“These last few weeks have been pretty busy so, yeah, two weeks off I think is needed. Unfortunately I don’t think the weather is going to be as nice as it was this week, but we’ll still try to make the most of it.”

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