Leona looking in the mirror during enforced golfing limbo

Leona Maguire: "“You have to be prepared as best you can. It’s not ideal, but if we’re ready to go in May, I’ll be ready to play." Picture Conor McCabe Photography.

Like housebound, competition-starved athletes the world over, Leona Maguire is in a strange kind of limbo right now.

The LPGA Tour rookie and Irish Olympian is confined to her Cavan home, grateful to be safe from the Covid-19 hotspots of the world her professional golfing career would normally take her but also caught in what seems like that post-Christmas lull while trying to stay sharp and focused for when sport does return to her life and she can resume a campaign that saw her claim her first top-10 finish in the big leagues, a tie for fourth at the Vic Open in Australia before the global sporting shutdown.