Golf

Leona Maguire set to lead strong home challenge in KPMG Women’s Irish Open

Cavan star very much the leading light for the tournament which is now a popular event on the Ladies European Tour

Leona Maguire: 'The pieces are all there. I’m just trying to get them to click all at once. So, you never know, this might be the week.' Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho
Leona Maguire: 'The pieces are all there. I’m just trying to get them to click all at once. So, you never know, this might be the week.' Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho
Philip Reid
Tue Aug 27 2024 - 18:55

The weeks all roll into one in Leona Maguire’s globetrotting. Except for this one.

On home turf, for a change, the KPMG Women’s Irish Open – which takes place at Carton House resort in Maynooth – has added spice. Indeed, it’s doubtful it would be back on the Ladies European Tour schedule at all if it weren’t for Maguire’s trailblazing exploits.

She is very much the poster girl for the tournament, and the reason why the tournament – revived after a decade’s absence from the Ladies European Tour schedule in 2022 and now moved on from its two-year stint at Dromoland Castle to Carton House – has quickly established itself as one of the very best on the LET.

Maguire is a Solheim Cup star, part of the winning team in 2021 and 2023 and set for a third appearance in Virginia in just over a fortnight’s time. She’s also a multiple winner on the LPGA Tour and, in fattening that impressive career CV, also a winner on the LET after her success in the Aramco-London earlier this season.

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In truth, Maguire is a golfing pioneer who has taken her talents to the global stage. But the call of home looms large, especially for this tournament. She could be in Boston this week for a near €4 million event on the LPGA Tour but she isn’t, she’s headlining the field at the Irish Open where the purse is 1/10th of that across the Atlantic.

“It’s fantastic to see the growth year on year,” said Maguire of the tournament’s return to the LET schedule.

“I think it was a long time coming. It was obviously off the schedule for a long time. I think the nice thing for me is when I hear the other girls on the LET talking about how much they enjoy coming here, that they feel like it’s a really big event and has almost a Major feel to it.”

Maguire, though, is not for standing still. The Irish Open has swiftly made itself a mainstay of the European circuit but there are, in her view, further steps to be taken. The purse for one. It’s place in the schedule for another.

“There’s always improvements to be made. I mean, it might sound harsh but we’re only playing for a fraction of what the guys are playing for. Did the guys play for seven, nine million [in the men’s Irish Open]? We’re playing for 400 grand this week. They’re playing for nearly four million in Boston this week on the LPGA so it was a choice to be here.

Ireland’s Leona Maguire on the practice range at Carton House in advance of the KPMG Women's Irish Open. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho
Ireland’s Leona Maguire on the practice range at Carton House in advance of the KPMG Women's Irish Open. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho

“So there’s always improvements you’re always trying to make year on year. The quality of the golf courses has been fantastic, obviously Dromoland and Carton this year, and KPMG’s support backing this event has given it a lot of gravity and a lot of weight.

“But we’re always trying to move forward and make improvements all the time and I would like to see it on better dates. I would like to see a better place in the schedule. I think I’ve said this every year but you just want that world-class field and schedule is a big part of that as well. Both the purse and the schedule is a big part of getting that world-class field, which I feel like this event deserves.”

Those points are well made but, for now, it is all about this week’s event where Maguire and her Solheim Cup team-mate, England’s Georgia Hall, add the stardust to a field that features a record number of Irish players – 13 in all, five of them professionals. That, again, is a testament to how Maguire’s arrival on the professional global circuit has incentivised others to follow suit.

The immediate target is her national open, in a season that has had its ups and downs, but with a lot of events – the LPGA Tour running up to December – yet to come for Maguire.

“There’s still a lot of golf to be played, still a lot of opportunities. Obviously [you] focus on one week at a time and the job at hand this week is to try and do as well as I possibly can. We’ve got Solheim Cup coming up in a couple of weeks’ time as well and a lot of LPGA events still to play as well. So yeah, I’m trying to get myself into contention as much as I can over the second half of the year.

“I’ve been working on a few things. Some of it has worked and some of it hasn’t; that’s the nature of golf. Obviously I had the second place in Vegas (in the T-Mobile Matchplay), I felt like I played really great golf and ran into Nelly [Korda] at the wrong time and then obviously the highlight was the win in London.

“I felt like I played some really good golf last week in St Andrews, just didn’t quite finish it off on Sunday. But I feel like my game is in good shape and I’m just trying to put all the pieces together. The pieces are all there. I’m just trying to get them to click all at once. So, you never know, this might be the week.”

Philip Reid

Philip Reid

Philip Reid is Golf Correspondent of The Irish Times