Leona Maguire will be under pressure to justify her Team Europe wildcard selection for next month’s Solheim Cup but sometimes in team golf you just have to pick somebody regardless of form.
Maguire was given a captain’s pick by former teammate Anna Nordqvist while the other three selections went to rookies Mimi Rhodes, Natasia Nadaud and Julia López Ramirez. Somewhere Chiara Tamburlini is angrily hurling darts at dartboards with their faces on it.
Maguire’s season has been inconsistent at best with nine missed cuts taking the gloss off finishes of 2nd, 9th and 8th – most recently at the Scottish Open a fortnight ago which seems to have persuaded Nordqvist to give her the nod.
The Cavan star will know herself that she can count herself fortunate to have been selected for a fourth Solheim Cup for Europe and she will have to deal with scrutiny. Tipped for greatness at a young age, she missed the cut in four of the five major championships this season with her finish of T53 at the Women’s PGA Championship her best in the one major she played the weekend in.
But she isn’t the only eye raising wildcard pick in history. Going back to Ryder Cups we have seen Darren Clarke, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and Ludvig Åberg repay their captain’s faith.
In essence, Maguire is the very example of what a wildcard pick should mean. Three rookies have been selected alongside her while she has been given the nod of the Solheim Cup specialist that Poulter and Stenson would have received in the past for the Ryder Cup.
Whatever about the trajectory of the 31-year-old’s career on the LPGA Tour, her Solheim Cup credentials cannot be called into question. She boasts an impressive 8-3-1 record in her previous three appearances while she has proven to be invincible in the singles with a 3-0-0 record. Eight and half points from twelve matches is something of legendary status.
It is fair to say that she was underused by Suzann Pettersen in 2024 when she was sensationally picked once over the first two days before the Sunday singles which she emphatically trounced Ally Ewing 4&3 in before posting on social media “form is temporary, class is permanent” in retort.
Anna Nordqvist however, knows exactly what Maguire is capable of having played alongside her in the last three Solheim Cups.
Maguire is a two-time LPGA Tour winner and one-time LET winner. Perhaps she was tipped for more silverware than that but it is the Solheim Cup where she has made her name. Dubbed the ‘Silent Assassin’ Maguire produced a record breaking rookie performance in Ohio in 2021 winning 4.5/5 points available before she won 3/5 in Finca Cortesin two years later.
Her career has become one of matchplay prowess – she previously reached the final of the LPGA matchplay losing to Nelly Korda. The Solheim Cup is part of her DNA, without her dazzling performances in 2021 and 2023, Europe would not have enjoyed such success and perhaps a greater playing role might have helped turn the tide two years ago Stateside.
There’s no getting away from it that Ireland’s trailblazer for women’s golf in this country is fortunate to have been given a wildcard selection but previous form goes a long way in Solheim and Ryder Cups and she will be fired up to prove a point after what happened two years ago and to one of her great former teammates, now captain, in Nordqvist.
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