Leona Maguire may have come up short in her quest to become the first Irish winner of the KPMG Women’s Irish Open at this year’s tournament, but she left The K Club confident that the swing changes she’s been bedding in are starting to take hold and that she’ll be firing on all cylinders at the Solheim Cup in a fortnight’s time.
“Maguire made 14 birdies in total over the final two rounds, dropping just one shot in those 36 holes, and had she been quicker out of the blocks on Thursday or Friday then she might well have been popping champagne on the 18th green on Sunday evening.
As it was, she finished tied for fourth and five back, but equalling her highest finish at her home event and she signed off in style with a delicious 77-yard wedge to tap-in range for birdie on the 72nd hole.
“It’s always nice to finish with a birdie and solid day today overall, conditions were a little bit trickier. I thought it played a little tougher today. So, yeah, overall 13-under-par for the weekend is a very solid weekend’s work.”
The KPMG Women’s Irish Open has leaned heavily on Maguire’s influence and presence since it’s revival in 2022, but as the supporting cast has grown significantly stronger, the burden has been eased a little and she admitted that she’s enjoyed this year’s championship more than any of the previous editions.
“I think I enjoyed this year a lot more than I have done in the past,” she said. “You know, I felt very much at home here in The K Club. Everyone here couldn’t have done enough. Everyone was so nice, so welcoming, so helpful and, I was probably a bit more relaxed. I didn’t really go into this week with that much expectation, didn’t put too much pressure on myself and just tried to enjoy the week for what it was, and I suppose that might be the strategy going forward.”
Next up on the agenda is the Solheim Cup in a fortnight’s time at Barnardus Golf in the Netherlands, and the form she showed over the weekend is coming at the right time.
“It’s nice to be in good form heading into the Solheim Cup and there’s been a lot of Europeans in good form this summer, so it’ll be fun to get over there with the rest of the group,” she said.
“Obviously all of them are in Boston this week, but I got a few messages from a few of them last night, and they were keeping an eye on things over here.
“So, yeah, it’ll be a fun week hopefully in Holland, and it’s one of my favorite weeks of the year.
“This one and Solheim are two of my favorites, so it’s nice to have them back to back.”
And critically, having switched coach and changing her swing, the results are starting to back up the decision.
“I mean, it’s one thing doing it in practice, but you have to go out on under the gun and pull off the shots when you need to,” she explained.
“And approach-play has been really, really nice this week and, nice to see that under a little bit of pressure I’m able to pull off those shots. And it was obviously nice to finish off 18 there with a really strong we shot.
“So, yeah, some fine-tuning this week ahead of Solheim, but hopefully we can take this momentum into the Solheim and then finish off the LPGA season as strong as we can.”
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