A much better showing today from Leona Maguire as a round of six under sees her streak up the leaderboard and into a share of fourth place, just two shots shy of halfway leader and LPGA Tour rookie Malia Nam.
Maguire started in the afternoon groupings on Friday from the tenth tee and was soon into her rhythm. A birdie on her second of the day, the tricky par-3 11th would get her underway and despite giving one back on 13, a run of three consecutive birdies starting on the par-5 16th would see her turn for the day on three-under.
The Cavan star was strong off the tee again today with thirteen of fourteen fairways found but there was some scrambling to be done with just twelve greens hit in regulation. But scramble she did with a solid homeward nine too, coming back bogey free and with a birdie on the par-4 4th and two in a row on the par-5 7th and 8th to leave her sitting two adrift of halfway leader Nam after a 65.
Speaking after her round Maguire reflected on her opening two rounds; “Yeah, I mean, was a little bit all over the place yesterday. Drove it well but missed a lot of greens. So yesterday was a really good day. Sort of hanging in and scrambling and a lot of good up and downs to keep me in it”, she said.
”And then today I gave myself a lot of chances. Putter was working nice, which was good. Nice to sort of the get a birdie on our second hole, on 11, to get the round going. It always feels like a steal when you birdie the tough par-3s around here. So nice to have two twos today on our front nine. Yeah, the three birdies to close out the front nine was nice momentum heading into the back knowing there was a few chances coming up.”
When pressed on how she sees the weekend shaping up: “Yeah, I mean, it’s a really packed leaderboard. Doesn’t take much around this golf course to go a shot either way. So I know it’s a cliche, but a lot of patience and I mean, still trying to make birdies. I feel like it’s a golf course you can get very defensive on. But you really have to just sort of not attack it, but you do have to take your chances where you get them. So just try and give myself as many chances as I can over the weekend and hopefully the putter keeps behaving itself.”
Thursday’s overnight leader would have a different experience today though with Canadian Maude-Aimee Leblanc having shot a career low 64 on day one going around in a disastrous 79. This saw her tumble down the leaderboard with nine bogeys and a solitary birdie for the day. That lone birdie would prove pivotal however as the
Canadian finished just one place above the halfway cut line at end of play.
Friday belonged to rookie and one of 7 USC alumni in the field, Malia Nam. On just her second LPGA tour event Nam used her local course knowledge to good effect, having played this course over a hundred times as part of the USC Trojans, shooting -2 to leave her sit one stroke clear heading into moving day. Defending champion, China’s Ruoning Yin and Swede Madalene Sagstrom sit tied for second, and Maguire lies one further back tied with another local favourite Rose Zhang and Alison Lee.
Maguire is in good shape heading into the weekend and gets her Saturday underway in the second to last grouping with Sagstrom at 1.20pm (local time). In her own words, patience, precision and knowing when to attack will be the order of the day for Maguire and if she can carry her form from day two into the weekend, she should be right at the business end of proceedings come Sunday. An exciting weekend ahead in store on Palos Verdes GC in sunny California.
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