Golf will be the easy part of busy Irish Open week for Leona Maguire
When Leona Maguire considers how much the Women's Irish Open has grown over the past three years, it makes the extra effort she'll put in this week worth it. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
After stepping off the 18th green of her final round of last year’s KPMG Women’s Irish Open, Leona Maguire found herself among a throng of children looking for autographs and selfies. How many she signed and how many pictures she posed for, she’s not sure. It didn’t stop once she got back to the clubhouse.
“You're just trying to do as many as you possibly can,” says Maguire.
“That's the unfortunate thing, there's always someone that didn't get it. I got letters and I got emails from parents going ‘my poor so-and-so didn't get one, would you mind signing it?’
“And I did, I sent stuff in the post after last year. There were Christmas presents, there were letters, there were hats, there were t-shirts, sent to people.
“It's a small part of my day to give back to those kids and it's still a little surreal - 'why do they want my autograph, why do they want my picture?' But at the same time, they've made the effort to come out and support us.”
Maguire will be one of a record 16 Irish players - seven professional and nine amateur - to tee off on Thursday at this year’s Women’s Irish Open, which is again being played at Carton House.
“It's huge for the amateurs coming through the ranks to get a taste of, is this something you would actually like to do? And some of them will say absolutely not. And that's fine too,” says Maguire.
“I suppose with 16 Irish in the field this week, there's a little less responsibility maybe on my shoulders. The first few years, I had a lot on my shoulders at Dromoland.”
The 30-year-old feels “the golf will actually be one of the easier parts of this week”. There are promotional responsibilities. It’s worth the effort when she considers how much the tournament has grown since its return three years ago.
“We've got everything going on outside of golf,” she says.
“There's just a lot more to do this week. The days are going to be long. I can't just warm up, play my golf and then go home. Today's a long day, tomorrow will be a long day.
“It'll actually almost be a little bit of a rest inside the ropes this week. But that's part and parcel of this event. I'm happy to do it.
“It's nice when you see all the work that's gone into this event behind the scenes, everything that KPMG's done to make this event grow year on year. It's worth it when you see what the event becomes and as well that, how everybody who comes and watches, how impressed they are - the girls on the LET always sing its praises. When you see it all come together then it's worth it.”
Maguire arrives back home in Ireland with her form trending upwards. Before the KPMG PGA Championship in Texas last month she had missed four cuts. The Cavan golfer finished tied for 19th in tough conditions at the year's third Major. At last week’s Dow Championship - a team event which she played with American Jennifer Kupcho - ‘The Irish Goodbyes’ finished tied for 18th.
“That was Jen's idea, well Jen's caddie’s idea,” Maguire explains about the team name. “The both of us kind of like to fly under the radar and we're happy enough to just duck out of a room.”
Maguire’s performance at the PGA Championship was her best finish since February but she wasn’t concerned about her form.
“I knew I'd been playing well,” she says. “The LPGA is very competitive, it's probably the most competitive it's ever been and I felt like I'd actually played some good golf and just wasn't quite showing up on a scorecard, got the wrong side of the draw at Liberty National, had a bad finish just the last couple of holes in Mexico.
“US Open actually played very good golf and got screwed just the first day with a plug ball and it was all just tiny little things, it wasn't any major issue.
“I actually felt quite good going into KPMG that I could contend that week. It's very easy to get down on yourself when things aren't going your way. That's the nice thing about golf, sometimes it's not as far away as you think it is or it looks like from the outside.
“No matter if it's going well or not going well, you kind of have to stick to the same process, same routines and trust that the team behind the scenes have planned everything out, that they're working on the right things and working in the right direction even if the results sometimes don't quite click as fast as you'd like.”
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