Leona Maguire wasn’t a million miles away from being involved in the playoff that ultimately decided this historic AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield, where South African Ashleigh Buhai out-dueled South Korean In Gee Chun at the fourth hole of sudden death for a maiden Major title.
Yet, as Buhai and Chun battled it out for the grand prize, Maguire – her work done and with a career-best fourth place finish in a Major locked in – was already on the way to the Cairnryan ferry for her next tour stop, the ISPS Handa World Invitational in Galgorm Castle this coming week. Sporting life has a way of moving on quickly.
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Maguire’s departure from the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers came after a truly memorable round of golf, a bogey-free 66, that saw the 27-year-old Cavan golfer move through the field and up the leader board so that her wonderful play finished with a show of appreciation from those gathered around the 18th green.
“I feel like my game is in the position where I can contend for Majors and I can do it when it matters. It just would have been nice to be a few shots further up the leader board heading into today but overall I have learned a lot from this week and it’s nice to be sort of knocking on the door again,” said Maguire, who added €330,000 to her LPGA Tour winnings for a season that has already seen her register a breakthrough tournament win.
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Golf more than most sports is a case of ifs, buts and maybes. Maguire could most surely reflect on what might have been, for last year’s star of Europe’s Solheim Cup win brought that team performance into her own world with a stunning final round that saw her finish three shots adrift of the two who fought it out in the play-off. The lip outs, those that hung on the lip; it wouldn’t have taken much! If only! But a quite brilliant effort nonetheless.
This may have been the fifth and final Major championship of the year, but – again – Maguire proved she has the DNA for these toughest of tests. This latest finish marked a ninth straight cut made in the Majors and, in that period, gave her a third top-10 finish. Of them all, this was the best finish, tied-fourth, and only added an appetite for more.
And Maguire’s year’s work is far from done. The Majors may be done and dusted, but there are further LPGA Tour events – starting with Galgorm Castle this week – with a return to the USA followed by the Asian Swing before the closing events in Florida, completed by the CMBE Globe Tour Championship, that will provide fresh targets to round off what has already been a superb season.
On a dry and windy day that asked serious questions of players, both mentally and in their ability to execute shots, the drama was extended into the evening light, with shadows ever-lengthening, until it required four holes of sudden-death to determine the champion.
Buhai had started the final round with destiny in her own hands, carrying in a five stroke lead, but one which whittled away to the point it disappeared entirely. The real damage was inflicted late on, a triple-bogey seven on the 15th hole very nearly proving her undoing, but she steadied for a finish of par-par-par to sign for a 75 that tied her with Chun, who’d closed with a 70, on 10-under-par 274, a shot clear of Japan’s Hinako Shibuno.
Maguire finished alongside Minjee Lee and Madelene Sagstrom in tied-fourth, on 277, three shots too many.
The play-off provided further late drama, as if the day wasn’t long enough, with the two protagonists finding the Par four 18th hole – of 426 yards – a brutally tough duelling ground.
Time and time and time again, the two were required to retrace their steps until, finally, at the fourth time of asking, shots into and out of sand proved the difference in settling matters.
Firstly, it was about Chun – a Major winner as recently as June when she claimed the KPMG WPGA – who put her tee-shot into a fairway bunker from where she could only play out sideways back to the fairway. Then, it was about Buhai. After her drive found the middle of the fairway, her approach was pushed right into a greenside bunker. But it was from there she produced the shot of a champion, splashing out to a couple of feet. When Chun failed with her 25 footer for par, it was left to Buhai to roll in the putt to complete the job.
At 33 years of age, and without a win anywhere since her South African Open success of 2018, Buhai’s brilliant bunker shot proved the deciding play, and earned her a first Major and a payday of more than €1 million in a life-changing fashion.
