Leona Maguire determined to take Women's Irish Open to the next level

NEXT LEVEL: Leona Maguire returns to play on home soil this week for the 2024 KPMG Women’s Irish Open determined to play her part in taking the event up another notch. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady

Leona Maguire returns to play on home soil this week for the 2024 KPMG Women’s Irish Open determined to play her part in taking the event up another notch but hoping for bigger prize money in future to attract a stronger field.

A week on from the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews, where the Irish Olympian finished in a tie for 37th in the final major championship of the year. Instead of making the short hop across from Scotland to Kildare’s Carton House for this week’s Irish Open, the game’s major stars have for the most part followed the money back to the LPGA Tour in the United States and a near $4 million purse at the FM Championship near Boston.

Down at Atlanta’s East Lake, the men’s PGA Tour’s top 30 ranked players will duke it out for the mega millions on offer at the FedEx Cup finale, the Tour Championship while back on the Ladies European Tour, Maguire spearheads a field competing for a share of the €400,000 pot on offer at Carton House.

The Cavan golfer, looking to add to her maiden LET title at the Aramco Series in London earlier this summer, is more than happy to play her national open but after an influential role in returning the Irish Open to the schedule in 2022, she is hoping the prize fund and it’s position in the tour calendar can improve in the years to come.

"There's always improvements to be made,” Maguire said on Tuesday. “I mean, it might sound harsh but we're only playing for a fraction of what the guys are playing for.

Leona Maguire: The Solheim cup has been a special part of my career@byBrendanOBrien pic.twitter.com/HtfEkHrQ9P

— Irish Examiner Sport (@ExaminerSport) August 27, 2024

"What is it the guys are playing for? Is it $7m, $9m? We're playing for 400,000 grand this week. They're playing for nearly $4m in Boston this week on the LPGA so it was a choice to be here.

"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.

“The people that come out really want to see those global stars. It would be nice to get a real world class field like what we did get in Killeen Castle in 2010, 2011 when you had the big American stars show up.”

Maguire said she was delighted to welcome two new Irish touring professionals to their home event this week with Anna Foster and Annabel Wilson having recently turned pro and more to come following this weekend’s amateur matchplay event, the Curtis Cup featuring three Irish players on the GB & I team against the USA at Sunningdale and Douglas golfer Sara Byrne set to turn pro immediately afterwards.

“It’s fantastic,” Maguire said. “Anna and Annabel are making their debuts this week which is a unique opportunity for them. I was talking to them this morning, hopefully they can enjoy the experience, not put too much pressure on themselves.

Thirteen Irish players in the field this week is fantastic. That’s a lot of girls, a lot of opportunities. That’s one of the benefits of having a home open as well. It’s massive for the younger girls to get a taste of what professional golf is like. To see if it’s something that they can envisage themselves doing in the future.

There’s three girls obviously at the Curtis Cup this week, hopefully they can do as well as they can over in Sunningdale. I’m sure they would have loved to have been here too.

Irish golf seems to be in a really good place right now. Hopefully we’ll have many more on the LPGA and LET. It was great to see Sara get through the first stage there this week. Hopefully more come through the ranks.”