Leona Maguire is confident she will click into gear after an impressive driving performance at the US Women’s Open in Erin Hills despite a third successive missed cut of the season.
Maguire missed just two fairways in 36 holes but a double bogey on 14 in round one and a triple on the 11th in round two cost her a weekend place on four-over-par.
However, she came away confident that she is heading in the right direction and can marry up all facets of her game ahead of a busy five week summer stretch which includes the KPMG Women’s Irish Open in Carton House.
“I played quite well in Erin Hills, two bad holes that made the score look worse than it actually was,” explained the Cavan woman. “It was the best I drove the ball in about two years, missing only two fairways so to come away from a US Open in two days to miss two fairways I am quite happy with that. A lot more positives to take from the week.
“Take the 14th and 11th out of it and I would have been one under for two rounds and extremely happy so there wasn’t much I could do on 14 I plugged it half in the bank and half in the bunker and the rules say it’s a penalty drop in the bunker rather than a free drop.
“Drove it very well, could have holed a few more putts so it’s just a case of fine tuning the game for the next few weeks. Another major in two weeks time so fairly happy with where my game is at so just need a bit of momentum.”
Maguire’s world ranking has been on the slide over the last two seasons and she has plummeted from 31st to 82nd over the last eighteen months. But she is working tirelessly to rectify her dip in form.
The two-time LPGA Tour winner returned to her old PING 430 LST driver for the US Women’s Open and her trusty white graphite shaft while she is 17th in putts per round on the LPGA Tour meaning her new centre shaft putter is performing well after leaving her clinical old magic wand of six years.
“All the pieces were there last week if I had taken those two holes out of it I would have been very happy with the two days. I’m not overly concerned by last week, if anything, last week was a big step in the right direction,” added Maguire who will take a scouting trip to Fields Ranch this weekend ahead of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in a fortnight.
“We’ve analysed each tournament the missed cuts have all been quite different. I feel like I am playing better than I am scoring which is frustrating but at the same time I’m not worried because I know I’m playing good golf so it’s a case of working hard and about having patience and hopefully we will turn the corner quite quickly.
“I’m playing better right now than I was this time last year even though my results were better. Maja Stark’s form was not good going into the US Open but things just clicked for her and her confidence grew during the week and she walked away a major champion. I’m confident in what I am doing and if I keep working hard it will come together.”
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