There’ll be no diving into Poppie’s Pond this Sunday as the ANA Inspiration moves to Houston Texas and the Woodlands for the Chevron Championship.
Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow are both teeing it up in the opening major championship of the season.
Cavan’s Maguire enters the week having posted two top-10 finishes in her five starts this year although they came in her opening two events. The world number 15 has picked up three top-8 finishes in the major championships since 2021 but her best finish at the old ANA Inspiration was 18th in 2020.
Perhaps new surroundings can pave the way for Maguire to put herself in and amongst the leaders once again. The 28-year-old loves tough golf courses and she hopes to rise to the challenge this week.
“Major golf courses are always more of a challenge.” said the Ballyconnell woman. “The rough is going to be a little longer and the greens will be firmer and faster. Houston this year is a new venue and golf course so we don’t have the benefit of having played the course before so you just know you’re going to have to go there with your game in really good shape.”
Maguire has been working hard on her driving accuracy admitting she hasn’t been playing out of the short grass often enough. She ranks 27th on the LPGA Tour in driving accuracy this season, hitting 84% of her fairways.
Should she put herself in play off the tee, the former world number one amateur is expected to strike, as she ranks 13th in birdies this term with 73 and 18th in scoring average at 69.58.
“One of the stats last year I looked at was my driving accuracy which wasn’t good enough. That’s something we worked hard on over the off season and these last couple of months getting that as fine tuned as possible. Leading into a major that will have tighter fairways and longer rough so hitting fairways will be a premium so that’s something I’ve been thinking about.”
Maguire tees off today with Paula Reto and Hyo Joo Kim.
Jordanstown’s Meadow tees off alongside Mao Saigo and Mi Hyang Lee.
The prize purse is $5,100,000.
Tee times HERE
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