Leona Maguire dug herself out of trouble to make the cut at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open and she is determined to give the weekend crowd something to cheer about over the next 36 holes at Carton House.
Maguire, to her credit, scrapped valiantly in over 50km/h gusts on Friday afternoon, chiselling out a 75 to make the cut on one-over which leaves her twelve shots behind world number one amateur Lottie Woad.
The Cavan star, backed by a strong home support, was behind the 8-ball very early in her round with three bogeys in her first five holes. Despite picking up her first birdie of the day on 10, she looked odds on to miss the cut when she double bogeyed the 11th hole but in a throwback to that old Solheim Cup spirit she mustered late birdies on the par-3s 14 and 16.
“I felt like I hit some nice shots coming in,” said the world number 84. “Hit a really nice shot into 14, nice birdie there, and two nice birdies on the par threes actually, and give myself a really good chance at 15 and just have that short but yeah, it was more of a grind today. Definitely this afternoon those gusts were very tricky to say the least. So proud of how I hung in and yeah, two more days.”
Maguire perhaps got the wrong side of the draw with an afternoon slot but rather than sulk about her bad break she knows her standing in this tournament. She is the main attraction and will be over the weekend for those coming through the gates.
“I left myself a little bit behind the eight ball. But yeah, it was gusty. I mean,this morning, said 60, kmph gusts. It’s windy, and we had that in Dallas few weeks ago. But when it’s warm, it’s a little different. When it’s like this, and the ball’s going nowhere, you really have to do a lot of calculations, a lot of extra thinking.
“I mean, you have to make the best of what you have on any given day. And I felt like it would have been very easy to give up today, and I didn’t do that. And I know there’s a lot of people wanting to come watch me over the weekend, and yeah, hopefully the draw is a little bit kinder to us tomorrow. We’ll see if we can post number.”
Sixteen Irish teed it up on Thursday and just a quarter remain. Maguire will be joined by Elm Park rookie Anna Foster (-1), Elm Park amateur Emma Fleming (E) and Canice Screene (+2).
Douglas native Sara Byrne missed the cut by the minimum in agonising fashion on three-over. Byrne rallied after the turn in her round, drawing huge roars with four birdies in a row from the first but she came unstuck with a double bogey on the fifth where she drove into deep rough and a bogey on the 8th when her approach spun off the green.
Áine Donegan of Lahinch also missed the cut after a difficult day as she slumped to a 79 on the O’Meara Course.
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