At this week’s Amundi Evian Championship, Leona Maguire returns to the site of her first major top-10 finish and, despite the somewhat quirky nature of the Evian Resort course, feels that a more aggressive approach may be required this year.
“The course is in the best shape it’s been in a few years,” Maguire said when talking to the LPGA ahead of the opening round, “it’s very green, it’s very lush, the greens are rolling really nice. This is always a tournament I love coming back to every year, the greens are a little softer than normal so I think probably trying to play pretty aggressive out there tomorrow and try and shoot a low one to start off the week.”
The picturesque setting above Lake Geneva affords fantastic views across the countryside, but the hills on which the course is built make finding flat lies something of a rarity and this makes the course more of a shot-makers venue.
“There are a lot of slopes,” she explained, “a lot of uphill lies, cross-hill lies, and it’s just figuring out if you want to use the slope or fight against it, picking the shots at that moment in time. So yeah, it’s something that you get used to every year when you’re here. You have to hit the fairways – the rough is pretty thick, there’s not much control out of the rough, so you have to hit the fairways and once you do you can give yourself some nice birdie opportunities. But it’s playing a little bit longer, so there’ll be lots of hybrids, 9-woods, a lot of clubs like that.”
Maguire is one of just 19 players to make the cut in all three majors this season so far, and after taking a 54-hole lead at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship back in June, is listed among the top favourites. As for her own strategy this week?
“Lots of fairways, lots of greens,” she smiled, “the same as every major. There’s a few more birdie opportunities here than at a U.S. Open or at Baltusrol [venue for the Women’s PGA], so like I said, a little more aggressive, take advantage of the par-5s and some of the shorter holes, but the par-3s are always tough here – par on all the par-3s is good this week.”
Managing expectations is always a difficult task and as a now two-time LPGA Tour winner and with top-10 finishes at three of the five women’s majors, expectation levels that a major win could be on the horizon for the Cavan star are growing but she’s not fazed by the additional pressure.
“No, I mean, this is somewhere that I’ve played well in the past,” she responded, “obviously shot 61 here two years ago, so I’m trying to play as well as I can, same as every other week and we’ll see what happens.”
Maguire gets her opening round underway at 11:51 alongside major champions Danielle Kang of the United States and Japan’s Yuka Saso, with live coverage on Sky Sports Golf from 10:00 – 13:00 and 14:30 – 17:30.
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