Leona Maguire vowed to give the home fans something to cheer about this weekend at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open as she looks to bounce into next week’s major championship at Evian.
Maguire looked more like her old self in rounds one and three, either side of a battling day on Friday where she fought so bravely to make the cut. While the winds were still of significant strength on Saturday she got signed for a fine round of 70 and a two-under total at Carton House.
“I think it’s one of those weeks where I know there was a lot of people looking to come out and watch me today and hopefully tomorrow, so I wanted to make sure there was something for them to come watch,” said the Cavan star. ”
But you know, I’m the kind of player, I’m never going to give up. It would have been a very easy to give up yesterday on the kind of day that it was fairly miserable out there, but I hung in as best I could. And yeah, nice to pick up those two coming in (yesterday).”
Teeing off in the early morning mist, Maguire warmed up the cluster of supporters with two birdies in her first four holes before roaring to the turn with back to back gains on 8 and 9.
The former LET winner couldn’t keep that momentum going, slowing up slightly with two sloppy bogeys on 12 and 15 with a birdie on the par-3 14th sandwiched in between.
“I played really nice. It was nice to not have the real severe cross winds and everything that we had yesterday. So tried to take advantage as much as I could early on. And, yeah, got on a nice run on the front, holed a few nice putts, and didn’t quite keep it going on the back nine. But overall, pretty, solid day.”
After a recent spell of four missed cuts where she felt shortchanged, Maguire has back to back top-20 finishes on the LPGA Tour and may well secure another with a good round on Sunday, and she admits that her game feels really close to clicking and she could go on a timely run with two major championships and the Scottish Open to come.
“I think then we’re going to get at the Evian so the priority is to get out of here with my swing intact in these winds. So make sure we we sort of reset after these rounds and just keep it dialled in. Putting was was nice again today, which is good heading into a major so, yeah, overall, feel like I’m, I’m trending in the right direction and heading into next week.
“I think it’s really close. I think all the all the aspects are there. Didn’t quite drive it as well as I would have liked today, but for the most part, yeah, the pieces are there. It’s just tricky to know where it’s at, in these kind of winds. But for the most part, I felt like I executed some nice shots.”
Leave a comment