Leona Maguire is back in the hunt at a major after she produced a stirring comeback in her third round to move into a share of sixth place at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Fields Ranch.
Maguire recovered from a double bogey on the 2nd and a bogey on the fifth to birdie the 7th, 10th and 17th as she defied the gale force winds to card a superb round of 72 to lie on two-over eight shots behind Minjee Lee but only one shot shy of third place.
It was the Maguire of old as she summoned caddie Dermot Byrne back on the bag and went back to her old putter and she was reliant on both as she dug deep late in her round.
“Stayed very patient I think,” said Maguire who is alongside Nelly Korda and Yealimi Noh. “Obviously didn’t get off to the best of starts, but accepted that everybody was going to make mistakes today. At least I got mine out of the way early.
“Didn’t feel like I had done a whole lot wrong to be 3-over through 5, and, yeah, just stayed patient. Tried to hit as many fairways, as many greens as I could, and made a really nice birdie on 7 and that kind of got the ball rolling.
“Few really key up and downs to keep the momentum going on 11 and 14; then nice to birdie 17 coming in.”
The Cavan woman has been on a worrying slide over the last two seasons, dropping from 10th to 87th in the world rankings. But even though she had missed her last four cuts coming into the PGA Championship she was adamant that she wasn’t far away from clicking into gear.
“I feel like I’ve been actually playing really well for four, five weeks now. I’ve been sort of telling my team and everybody I’m playing better than I’m scoring, and I feel like this week it’s kind of come together a bit nicer.
“I like hard golf courses. I always have. I like the challenge. This one is a challenge for sure, and it’s nice to be able to execute the shots that I want to.”
Maguire finished eleventh at the 2023 PGA Championship after holding the 54-hole lead and she hasn’t been able to better that finish in the majors since but heading into a huge day on Sunday she has found a test that it tailor-made for her attributes.
“I think you just have to embrace it for the challenge it is. It’s going to be hard for everybody. It’s nice that it’s not like a British Open that there is girls going out flat calm in the morning and then getting up in the afternoon. It’s pretty much the same for everybody. Maybe the greens are a bit softer in the morning, that’s all.
“But I grew up in Ireland, grew up in the wind. You just have to like you said embrace the challenge knowing you’re going to have to aim 20 yards right for the ball to come back or hold it up if you want to. You just have to be that little bit more creative.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s a major. It’s supposed to be hard.”
Leave a comment