Leona Maguire, the No. 1 ranked amateur in the world according to the World Amateur Golf Rankings, got off to a good start on Thursday carding a 2-under par 70 at LPGA qualifying school at Plantation Golf & Country Club.
The event has no cut with the low 80 and ties following the final round advancing to the final stage of qualifying with golfers that do not finish in the top 80 still having Symetra Tour membership for the 2018 campaign.
Maguire sits four shots back from Alazne Urizar Zapata (San Tome, Venezuela) who went bogey-free en route to a career-best 6-under par 66 but Leona isn’t overly fussed about where she finishes having told Irish Golfer Magazine in a recent interview that she would be travelling to Q-School for the LPGA and even if she qualified she was unlikely to take on stage II as she doesn’t finish college at Duke until May and she would be required to take up LPGA membership immediately should she make the grade.
With the LPGA restructuring how cards are handed out in 2018 it makes sense for the Cavan native to wait and see.
“The big thing is to try and get into as many LPGA events as I can. Obviously Q-School won’t be until later in the year but I can get up to six invites and try to qualify for as many as I can after that. It’s a different set-up but having balanced school and golf over the past few years and golfing week to week on different courses, grasses and weather, I think that’s gonna be great preparation. It will take a little bit of time. Obviously I’d love to jump straight in and get as fast a start as I possibly can but I think it’s definitely going to be a challenge at a time when women’s golf is probably as strong now as it’s ever been,” said Leona.
A smart head on young shoulders is evident for all to see and having given the commitment to her studies, and almost completed them at this stage, it is refreshing to see a young star in the making take the option to finish college before looking at their career choices.
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