Leona Maguire had to wear so many hats at this KPMG Women’s Irish Open that it wasn’t entirely surprising that not all would fit, as her bid to add the title to her glistening career CV came up short. For this time, at any rate.
Rather, it was 23-year-old Smilla Tarning Soenderby of Denmark who ultimately wore the winner’s crown, after shooting a final round 62 for a 16-under-par total of 272 and then firing an eagle three on the Par 5 18th to secure a dramatic playoff win over Anne van Dam and Lisa Pettersson.
Even before a shot was hit in the sudden-death playoff, there was a bizarre incident in which van Dam – the longest hitter on tour – was deprived of using her driver after it snapped en route back to the 18th tee when the buggy being used to transport her went under gallery roping and the golf bag snagged, falling to the ground. The only damage was to her driver, her main weapon which was left minus its head.
“I saw that her bag fell off and her driver was snapped, it was terrible. I didn’t know what to say, it was super unlucky situation for Anne,” said Soenderby, who nevertheless produced the “three best shots of my life” in finding the fairway off the tee, hitting an iron approach to 12 feet and rolling in the eagle putt.
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Van Dam – remarkably – overcame her driver woes and used her 3-wood to match Soenderby’s drive and then hit her iron approach to 10 feet but failed to match the Dane’s eagle. It gave Soenderby a career first win on the LET.
“It is a dream come true,” admitted an emotional Soenderby, who had gone to the range 30 minutes before van Dam and Pettersson finished their rounds to warm up but not expecting to be called for a playoff, believing the birdie opportunities for the later finishers would repel her.
But Soenderby’s target was only matched and not surpassed, which led to the extraordinary situation in the playoff where the 23-year-old Dane – using meditation to remain in a world of her own – produced the spectacular eagle finish for victory and a winner’s cheque of €60,000.
In its two years staging at Dromoland Castle, the tournament’s revival after a 10-year absence from the LET certainly proved to be hugely successful with both stagings going to playoffs.
Maguire – the world number 17 and Solheim Cup star of Europe’s win in 2021, with another tilt at the Americans on her immediate horizon in two weeks time in Spain – was, literally, the poster-girl of the tournament, with billboards approaching Dromoland Castle sporting her image while her presence on the international stage of recent years was primarily responsible for the Irish Open’s return to the LET.
Next year’s tournament will move to Carton House in Maynooth, Co Kildare – the date will remain in August, but has yet to be confirmed – and Maguire, who finished as the leading Irish player in tied-14th, acknowledged that Dromoland Castle will be a hard act to follow.
“I think Dromoland deserves a serious amount of credit. They’ve put on a world class event two years in a row. Carton House has massive, massive shoes to fill. I don’t envy them. I think Dromoland has done an absolutely fantastic job,” she said.
“Even to listen to the LET girls, this is one of the best events they play bar the Majors – and I’d argue this is better than some of the Majors we’ve played this year.
“I don’t envy Carton House. They’ve obviously done the men’s [Irish Open] a couple of times. The crowds have been fantastic down here in Clare. People have come from Cork, Limerick, all the rest. People around Dublin have big shoes to fill if they’re going to pull off what Dromoland has done for the last two years.”
Maguire certainly did her utmost to stage make inroads in the final round, claiming three birdies in her opening six holes only for a bogey on the eighth to halt momentum in ultimately shooting a 71 for 280.
“I was wearing a lot of hats this week. I had more than one job to complete this week. It’s one of those things, one of those weeks that it’s a bit bigger than yourself. I tried my best,” said Maguire, who is next in action at the Solheim Cup in Spain in just over a fortnight’s time.
