Maguire takes stewardship of the Castle hoping for stability and some fireworks too

From a raw teen to the new figurehead of the Irish Open, the Cavan star is now comfortable at the helm and aims to deliver for her home galleries this week

Out in front: Leona Maguire pictured playing Wednesdays Pro-Am day at the KPMG Women's Irish Open in Dromoland Castle Golf Club, Newmarket On Fergus, Clare today as The Ladies European Tour returns to Irish shores for the first time since 2012 .

From a prodigious teen golfer unnerved at the prospect of playing with Laura Davies to the new figurehead of a tournament back in business after a 10-year absence, Leona Maguire’s Women’s Irish Open journey will come full circle at Dromoland Castle today.

Yet the LPGA Tour star from Cavan is hoping today’s opening round of the renewed Ladies European Tour event is just the start of a great chapter in the KPMG-backed tournament.

Maguire, 27, was just 15 years old in 2009 when she first teed it up in her national Open at Portmarnock. She would play every year for the next three years until the plug was pulled and the tournament was shelved for a decade but this afternoon she will play in the Irish Open’s marquee group alongside Madrid Ladies Open champion Ana Pelaez Trivino and Catriona Matthew, the Scotswoman who was her Solheim Cup captain last year and who finally gets to defend the crown she won in 2012 at Killeen Castle.

Now an LPGA Tour winner having landed her maiden win in February at the LPGA Drive-On Championship and with a career-best major finish of a tie for fourth at the Women’s British Open last month still in the rearview mirror, Maguire is fully deserving of her headline billing and yesterday she reflected on her relationship with the tournament she now fronts and hopes to continue doing so for at least the next three years.

Of her Irish Open debut as a teenage amateur, Maguire said: "I played with Laura, so that was quite intimidating. She was hitting that two-iron of hers everywhere and I was just trying to hit my driver within 40 yards of it, so yeah, it was a fun week.

"We got to play as part of the whole Vagliano (Trophy) team that got to play that week, all eight or nine of us or whatever in Portmarnock.

"It's always nice to play in front of Irish crowds, there's always a lot of home support. So I enjoyed Portmarnock, enjoyed my few years in Killeen and it's nice to be back again.

"Yeah, I suppose it's a little bit full circle. I haven't done what Laura has done yet, so I have a bit of a way to go but it's nice to be back and nice to have some of the best players in Europe here, supporting the event.

"Hopefully we'll get some good crowds out to support the event this week and hopefully the weather will be kind to us and it will all go well."

Maguire, whose personal sponsors KPMG rowed in behind her and the LET as event sponsors, is optimistic the tournament is set for a bright future.

"I mean, there weren't many Irish pros playing back then (in 2009), there still aren't many, which is a little disappointing, we'd like to have a few more in the years to come but I think it's important that this is back on the schedule.

"It was always a big event when it was on the schedule a few years ago and it's taken 10 years but there's a lot of planning, a lot of organising gone into it and hopefully this can become a big event on the LET schedule for a long time to come.” 

The timing of this week’s tournament has not done Maguire any favours coming as it does after three straight weeks in the United States on the LPGA Tour, which left her with a trip home from a missed cut in Seattle over the weekend. Nor has it allowed a stronger representation of Irish players, many of whom have just started back at American universities as they continue their collegiate golfing careers. Yet this is a good start for a reborn Women’s Irish Open and Maguire will shake off the jet lag and lead an Irish contingent that includes just one fellow pro in Bangor’s Victoria Craig, an LET Access Tour player who earned limited LET status at Q-School and a half-dozen home-based amateurs including Dromoland’s own Irish international Aideen Walsh.

Maguire’s mileage to arrive on site on Monday morning was considerably greater, however.

"I flew in from Seattle this week, it wasn't the easiest commute but it's one of those things,” she admitted, “it's an important event and you'd like to see it on the schedule for a long time to come.

"I think ideally I would like to see a summer date, I think a lot of people would like to see a summer date, for a number of reasons, whether people are off for the summer, kids are off school and could come watch, it would be nice if it could sit in the middle of that European swing for us when we can get maybe some of the bigger LPGA players to play as well.

“Dromoland’s put on a fantastic show this week. They’ve done everything they can to put on a big event and it’s all come together very nicely so we’ll work with what we have this year and hopefully we’ll continue to improve every year going forward.”