Day one of the KPMG Women’s Irish Open saw home favourite Leona Maguire make just three birdies in an opening round of 72 but she feels like she is playing well enough to climb the leaderboard and give herself a chance of becoming the first Irish winner over the weekend.
Maguire, as it stands, is in 37th place on one-under-par, five shots behind 2024 LET Order of Merit winner Chiara Tamburlini of Switzerland who fired a superb 67.
The Cavan star made a slow start to her day on the back nine with a bogey on the eleventh. But as the crowd started to grow in size they greeted her with some mid morning cheers as she rolled in birdies on the 15th and 16th holes – the latter from 30-feet – to get into red figures.
A dropped shot on the 18th was followed by a routine birdie on the par-5 1st and she was unlucky not to find a few birdies on her way to the clubhouse.
“Yeah, played some really nice golf,” said Maguire who has two top-20s in her last two starts on the LPGA Tour. “Feel like I’ve left quite a few shots out there. Didn’t take advantage of some of the shots on my back nine, but overall, played really nice golf, and still an under par round to start off the week.
“I felt like I had a lot of good putts but I had a nasty lip out on three, hung over the hole on 10, hung over the hole on 12 as well. I think so. Yeah. I mean, that’s golf, but overall, I’m happy with how I give myself lots of chances and maybe take more advantage of the par five tomorrow hopefully.”
Maguire was playing in the featured group of the morning wave alongside three-time major winning Solheim Cup captain Anna Nordqvist and star amateur Aine Donegan (-2) of Lahinch and they had the bulk of the morning crowd.
“There was quite a lot of people out today, impressive for a Thursday. And even when we did get a few showers, they still stayed so, yeah, hopefully even more out the next few days,” continued Maguire who was impressed with Donegan’s performance.
“Yes, she played great. She got off to a very hot start. Two under is a very nice start for her,, I played with her in this a few years ago in Dromoland anmd I was kindof suprised she didn’t actually turn pro this this week? But yeah,, she’s a great player, and will be a great experience for her this week.”
Scoring has been low with sixty players under par at the time of writing and Maguire believes that the O’Meara Course at Carton House is the ideal track to go on a run of birdies which is what she will need to give herself a realistic chance of winning over the weekend.
“I feel like it’s that kind of golf course. You can get on a run. You see a few going in early, and you can, you can go on a run. It’s a fine line between being patient and not trying to force the issue too much.”
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