Maguire grabs first major championship lead of her career at Women's PGA

Leona Maguire birdied four of her last six holes to grab a one shot lead at the halfway stage of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

Maguire heads the field on five-under-par after rounds of 69 and 68 at the difficult Baltusrol in what is her first major championship lead and she insists it’s too soon for her to be thinking of major glory.

“This is uncharted territory for me,” said Maguire who leads by a shot from Mel Reid, Celine Borge and Xiyu Lin. “Whatever happens this week, I’m sure I’ll learn a lot. I’m just taking it one day at a time.

“I think this golf course demands that. I think you can’t think more than one shot ahead, let alone a hole or a round ahead. Just really taking it shot by shot and trying to hit as good a shots as I can.

“Yeah, (winning) that seems like a long way away. I think dinner first tonight and then we’ll worry about tomorrow in the morning.”

As others struggled in the New Jersey drizzle, Maguire relished the conditions.

“I suppose if this weather was at home, nobody would even comment on it,” she said. “Yeah, it’s second nature. I’ve grown up in it. Most of the time at home, if you wait for a dry day, you’re not going to play golf very often.

“It doesn’t bother me. I know half the battle is having a good attitude and accepting it’s going to be the same for everybody and you’re going to hit good shots that are maybe not going to come off and things like that.

“Maybe just a little bit more patience than usual on days like today.”

Not the longest player by any stretch, the 28-year-old has missed just two fairways and two greens over the first 36 holes.

After a dropped shot on 15 and a birdie on 17, she turned and made her charge on the front nine with birdies on 4 and 6 before a tap in birdie on the par-5 7th gave her a share of the lead.

She then hit a dart with a 5-hybrid to four-feet on the closing 215 yard par-3 9th to grab her first major lead.

“Yeah, really happy with how I played today,” said Maguire. “Weather was a little bit trickier today, especially on the back nine when that rain came in. I think we were just glad we got finished. We’ve been pretty blessed with the weather the last two days.

“Similar to yesterday, played really well. Gave myself a lot of chances. Didn’t really hole any putts on the front side. But nice to get those three birdies coming in.”

She added: “My approach shots were really good. Gave myself a lot of chances. Didn’t quite read the greens well on the front side but stayed patient and kept giving myself some chances, and nice to see a few roll in on the back.”

Jordanstown’s Stephanie Meadow is only four shots adrift of Maguire after a fine 68 lifted her from the cut line and into the top-8. The 31-year-old got up and down from 190 yards on the par-5 18th fox her fourth birdie of the day to climb to one-under-par.

“So that was a great finish,” she said. “Overall, just a really solid day. Hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens. You know, you just have to play smart around here. And that’s what I did.

“There definitely were some sucker pins out there where if you go after them, you get in big trouble. Obviously, we got, I think, the nicer weather this afternoon. We got the worst weather yesterday.

“So it’s just one of those golf courses. You have to hit good shots if you don’t hit good shots, yeah, big numbers.”

Meadow burst on the scene with a third place finish at the US Open in 2014 and she was tenth in the Women’s PGA Championship last year, so she is certainly no stranger to being on the first page of leaderboards on the big stage.

“We all know it’s a major, so even par or a couple over is okay,” said Meadow, who birdied the short fourth and par-five seventh before following her lone bogey at the par-three ninth with birdies at the 11th and 18th.

“You just go about your business and take it away from the pins and try to make pars rather than our usual, you know, fire and everything. And once you accept that, then you’re good to go.”