Maguire pleased with driving as she enjoys home comforts

Leona Maguire’s winter work on her driving paid early dividends as she looked sharp during the opening round of the Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona.

Playing on her home turf Stateside, Maguire posted a two-under 70 to lie in a share of fourth place, five shots behind South Korean A Lim Kim.

Teeing off on the back nine, the 30-year-old carded an opening birdie on the par-5 11th but gave it back on the 12th. She kicked into gear with back to back birdies on the 15th and 16th before a second bogey of the day on 17.

She birdied the third and seventh holes before a late bogey on the par-5 9th dropped her out of a share of second place.

“Any day you’re under par it’s always a good start to the year. Gave myself a few chances. Putted pretty nice today. I left a few out there I would say, but overall pretty happy with the start. I took advantage of the par-5s today apart from nine. I’m working on a few things, obviously still fine tuning. It’s nice to get a test here to see where the game is at,” said Maguire.

Maguire’s all round game was sharp and her driving stood out as she hit 13 of 14 fairways and found 12 of 18 greens In regulation

“I drove the ball pretty well today, which I didn’t quite do well enough last year. Made a bit of progress on that. Holed a few nice putts. Overall it’s pretty good. Not too rusty. I would say chipping was a little bit rusty today at times. Not bad for the first round of the year.”

Maguire is in the Tournament of Champions field due to her 2023 Meijer Classic victory which granted her a two-year exemption into this event and for her it’s the perfect place to start her year.

“Nice to sleep in my own bed this week just around the corner. So I mean, I’ve been back here for about three weeks or so now. The course is changed quite a bit over the last few weeks. It’s nice that we actually got some warmer weather. It’s been playing pretty long, pretty soft for the last few weeks.

“So it’s starting to dry out a bit more and starting to play how we know it can play. It’s one of those you kind of almost are trying to forget how the course was playing couple weeks ago and focus on what it’s playing now.

“Yeah, nice to start the year and end the year in Florida.”