Irish Open frustration for Leona Maguire: 'I feel like I could have shot ten-under today'

FRUSTRATION: Leona Maguire. Pic: Tom Maher/Inpho

The home challenge has been stripped from a record 16 players down to just half-a-dozen at the halfway stage of the KPMG Women’s Irish Open on the Palmer South Course. 

In truth, only Canice Screene can hold any hope of becoming the first Irish winner.

Even that is the tallest of orders.

Screene, London-born to parents from Mayo and Galway, sits in a tie for eighth after rounds of 72 and 67 that leave her on five-under par. That’s a full ten shots adrift of South Africa’s Casandra Alexander who is five clear of the field.

Still, Screene’s is a return that is all the more impressive for the fact that she is playing the majority of her golf this year on the Ladies European Tour (LET) Access Series in a bid to retain her main tour card.

Her form there, where courses can be tricky and unpredictable and only the top seven earn the step up for 2027, has been underwhelming, but she can look back to this event 12 months ago when she shot a superb 66 on the closing day at Carton House.

“To know I've done it once, to play well at the weekend, I feel like it's given me confidence I can do it again. And also just leaning on how I played today and the confidence I had in my irons particularly makes me feel good going into the next few days.” 

Leona Maguire, Annabel Wilson and Aine Donegan are next closest to the summit from an Irish perspective at two-under par.

Maguire was up to a tie for 12th at -4 through 12, but she gave up shots at 16 and the par-five 18th. As with day one, she finished feeling that a round of 71 was in no way reflective of some of the golf she played and the chances she made.

“I'm walking off the course feeling like I could have shot 10-under today,” she said.

Anna Foster and Lauren Walsh were the other Irish players to make it inside the cut of one-over. Sara Byrne of Cork just missed out by one, Kate Dillon finished two over the line while Anna Abom, Olivia Costello, Olivia Mehaffay and Anna Dawson all ended on plus-four.

The others to fall shy of the mark were Katie Poots, Beth Coulter, Emma Fleming and Emma Cantwell.

Sitting on nine-under after an initial 63, Alexander opened with a blistering eagle-birdie-birdie run from the 10th hole. The rest of her front nine was played to par before a second eagle, at the par-five 3rd. She signed for a 66.

The 27-year-old is the current LET Order of Merit leader, and the highest player in the field in the global Rolex Rankings at number 38, but she is looking to win for the first time this year after six runner-up finishes.

It was a beautiful, calm day of low scores in Kildare with the top nine players at the end of it all managing to hit somewhere between a 64 and a 67. Best was Corinne Viden of Sweden with a blemish-free eight-under par effort.

That leaves her as one of three players five shots back from Alexander. Sara Kouskava of Czechia and Brianna Navarossa of the USA are the others hoping to narrow the gap as the weekend brings a return to far more inclement conditions.