Leona Maguire’s hunger for medal success in Paris this summer burns almost as brightly as the Olympic flame as she aims to strike gold in the French capital and deliver Ireland’s first podium place in golf.
Maguire has labelled the Olympic Games as the biggest sporting event in the world and ahead of the 2021 games in Tokyo claimed she would rather win a gold medal than a major championship.
Three years on she may have changed her stance on that being one of the top players in women’s golf and a regular contender at major championships, but the Olympics remains the pinnacle of sport in her eyes.
The Cavan star enjoyed a glittering amateur career at team level representing Ireland, winning the European Girls Team Championship in 2009 and picking up a bronze medal at the 2016 Espírito Santo Trophy.
It’s the Solheim Cup blue of Europe where Maguire has made her legend at professional level but she is relishing the opportunity to don the green jersey at Le Golf National this July.
“It’s massive,” she told IrishGolfer.ie in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “There’s no bigger honour than representing your country and to do it at an Olympic Games it’s the biggest sporting event in the world.
“For me, the visibility it gets a lot of people watch it that wouldn’t watch women’s golf normally, or golf in general.”
At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Rory McIlroy agonisingly missed out on landing Ireland’s first ever medal in golf when he finished in a share of fourth place behind CT Pan.
After the final round an emotional Rory admitted he had never tried so hard to finish third in his life.
Medals are a precious commodity in Ireland, with 35 coming back to this island (11 gold, 10 silver, 14 bronze) in Olympic history.
Ireland should have four genuine medal chances in golf this summer with McIlroy, Lowry and Stephanie Meadow joining Maguire who would love to be part of a medal ceremony this year.
“Every single athlete that week wants to win a medal,” admitted the two-time LPGA Tour winner. “You want to be standing on a podium with your green tracksuit on and hearing the national anthem and all that.
“Being Irish we don’t typically have many medal winners so it is a big achievement for anybody who manages to get one. I’m sure Shane and Rory will be gunning for one and hopefully me and Stephanie can do our best.
“Especially as an Irish person we only get a handful of medals at any games I know this year the team is looking very strong with the rowers, boxing, Rhys [McClenaghan] and the swimming we have a lot of good medal hopes so hopefully we can add to that tally whether it’s one of us or one of the lads.”
Le Golf National will host golf in the Olympics for just the fifth time (1900, 1904, 2016, 2021, 2024*). The 2016 Rio Olympics was a slow burner for golf’s reintroduction, with many of the top players including McIlroy and Shane Lowry giving it the swerve, citing the Zika virus.
2021 was played behind closed doors due to the Covid pandemic, but the big names flocked to Tokyo with Xander Schauffele and Nelly Korda winning gold. It looks like golf’s presence and significance in the Olympic Games will continue to grow.
While golfers growing up would have dreamed about lifting major titles rather than standing on podiums, the Olympic flame has always burned brightly within Maguire.
“You ask any young kid and they all know what a Gold medal in the Olympics means. They grow up watching it on TV. I was big into swimming when I was younger and I always wanted to be an Olympian. I thought I was going to be a swimmer; I didn’t think I was going to be a golfer!
“But I remember watching Sonia O’Sullivan in Sydney. I know exactly where I was when I saw Katie Taylor winning her Gold medal in London. Those memories stay with you. For me the Olympics has always been a big thing. For some golfers it isn’t but that’s a personal decision for some of them to make.”
This year will mark Maguire’s third stint as an Irish olympian and she is keen to make the most of the experience in France and improve on modest finishes of T21 and T23.
“Myself and Stephanie Meadow represented Ireland the past few times. We’ve been chatting about it. Rio was a little bit not quite a full experience of the Games with everything that was going on. Tokyo was obviously very different Games.
“So feels like Paris will almost be our full experience of an Olympic Games. It’s obviously in Europe this year, so hopefully a few more friends and family can go. Golf national, obviously an iconic venue from the Ryder Cup and all that.”
The Paris games is just one spoke on a wheel which represents a hectic summer as she looks to find the right balance between five major championships and a Solheim Cup.
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