Leona Maguire has missed just five greens this week and carded just three bogeys but her stellar performance from tee to green has not been rewarded on the greens and her KPMG Women’s Irish Open chances have ended a day early.
The bulk of the 12,000 strong crowd that poured through the Carton House gates on a sun kissed afternoon took to the fairways to try and help Maguire muster a charge up the leaderboard. The hot summer weather has arrived at the eleventh hour but Maguire’s putter has remained cold as she took over 30 blows on the greens for the third straight day.
“Yeah, from tee to green I feel like I’ve played as good as I have for quite a few weeks. I can’t manage to get the hang of these greens but I suppose I’ve another day tomorrow to try and get that right,” said Maguire who has carded rounds of 70, 72 and 72 to sit on five-under, eleven shy of Annabel Dimmock who carded a bogey free course record 65 to hit -16.
“I feel like for the third day in a row I’ve probably shot as worse as I possibly could have, given the way I actually played. I gave myself a lot of chances today, a lot more chances than I did yesterday evening. Holed a nice one on the first and thought that was us off and running but never really holed anything at all.
“Kept giving myself chances, kept giving myself a lot of looks, just didn’t hole any at all.”
The Cavan star, who has previous for putting on Saturday charges on home soil, made the perfect start with an opening birdie. But a frustrating run of ten pars in a row was arrested by a dropped shot at the short par-4 12th although she recouped that stroke with a birdie on 15.
In truth, it was another under par round at her absolute leisure on the O’Meara course but it has been a quiet 48 hours in terms of atmosphere with Maguire unable to click into gear.
“Yeah, try to be patient, try to give myself as many chances. It would have been very easy to get frustrated. The crowds were fantastic today so I wanted to give them something to cheer about but it just wasn’t quite there today, simple as that.”
This is Maguire’s fourth successive event after a hectic run that included the Paris Olympics and the AIG Women’s Open last week in St Andrews where storm Lilian brought brutal conditions. The 29-year-old has refused to admit to fatigue and was bullish about the positive signs in her long game.
“I haven’t done much wrong this week, just haven’t done enough right! Coming out of the wind the last two weeks I feel I have adjusted with my long game really well, just putting hasn’t been there.”
Meanwhile, Edmondstown’s U18 Irish international starlet Anna Abom didn’t have the moving day she was hoping for as she carded five bogeys in a round of 78 to fall to two-over for the tournament.
Abom shares 60th position but has already exceeded expectations in making the cut this week.
27-year-old Englishwoman Dimmock is chasing her second LET win and first for five years after recovering from a serious thumb injury that saw her have a bone removed.
“Do you know what? No matter what happens tomorrow, this week has been huge for me, just purely to know that it’s still there,” Dimmock smiled.
“To be honest with you, I lost count of my score out there, which is something that I’ve never really done before.”
Dimmock has a great record on Irish soil with finishes of fourth and fifth in Dromoland and Ireland is very much her second home with her mother Louise (née Manning) hailing from Youghal Co. Cork giving hope of at least a partial Irish win on Sunday.
Leave a comment