'I do it for me, but I do it for my family too' - Emotional Alex Maguire overjoyed to make Irish Open cut
ONTO THE WEEKEND: Alex Maguire in action at the Irish Open. Pic: ©INPHO/Tom Maher
Sweden’s Joakim Lagergren may well start the weekend’s play at the Amgen Irish Open in pole position but Ireland’s Alex Maguire has successfully proved that merely making the cut can mean just as much as topping the halfway leaderboard.
It all depends on one’s circumstances, of course, and it is fair to say the Laytown & Bettystown pro has not enjoyed the best of starts to his professional career since turning his back on a successful amateur career last year.
In his 16 European Challenge Tour starts since the 24-year-old has collected just €8,273 in prize money and he arrived at The K Club this week as a tournament invitee with an Official Golf World Ranking of 1678.
By the time Maguire reached the final three holes of his second round, just as Lagergren was beginning to tear up the Palmer North course on route to a 10-under-par 62 to claim the 36-hole lead at 12 under, the Irishman was staring down the barrel of another early departure without a pay cheque after a bogey five at the 15th left him on the wrong side of the projected cutline at one over.
When he sprayed his drive at the par-five 16th roughly 60 yards wide right of the fairway, there seemed to be only one outcome, yet Maguire rescued the situation with a miraculous birdie thanks to a third shot from the fairway to inside three feet from the pin.
The drama didn’t end there as Maguire lost his ball in the right rough off the tee at the par-four 17th, re-teed with a new ball and made a bogey that, he said, “felt like an eagle”.
An excellent two-putt from 49 feet secured a birdie at the last and such was his elation his threw his hat to the ground, only to see it land on playing partner’s Zander Lombard’s ball marker.
Maguire was tearful as he recounted the moment.
"That's probably one of the most embarrassing things I've ever done,” he said. "It was more the case I looked over and I saw my dad and I was like, 'this is great'.
"Yeah, like seeing him and the great support. I don't want to get too emotional. I'm not leading, you know. But it's big for them. They go through the lows and the highs.
"I do it for me, but I do it for them too. So that was why the hat went miles. It nearly distracted my playing partner. So yeah, it was pretty embarrassing, but it meant a lot.”
Maguire now stands to take home more prize money this week than he has in his first 16 tournaments on the Challenge Tour.
“Funds go low pretty fast, especially when you're playing for very small prize funds and you're playing Challenge Tour and you finish 10th and you get 800 quid, which doesn't even cover your expenses for the week.
"And it's tough obviously for sponsors to keep supporting you and you might not have the results there and they go, 'oh, this new guy is coming in and I might go for him, I can't fund you this year' and all of a sudden you're losing 10, 15, 20 grand.
"Like there is a lot of stuff that goes through my head and I'm not the only person in this spot. Many guys have been great amateurs turn pro and don't make it because it's just so expensive.
"If everybody had 200 grand to go spend (financing their schedule), I guarantee a lot more guys would make it.”
Yet Maguire also recognised that making the weekend at the Irish Open was more than about the cold, hard cash. His confidence has soared and he said: “It'd probably be worth more than the money, I think.
"But yeah, hopefully the next two days go great.”
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