Casandra Alexander stays the course to claim Irish Open as Leona Maguire ties for fourth

Still no Irish winner of this event then, but Maguire gave the home crowd hope and plenty of encouragement, not least midway through her last round when an unlikely challenge beckoned.

Casandra Alexander of South Africa kisses the trophy. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Casandra Alexander of South Africa has pulled off one of golf’s hardest asks by claiming the KPMG Women’s Irish Open title having led the tournament from pillar to post.

Leona Maguire finished five shots back in a tie for fourth.

The 27-year-old Alexander shot out of the blocks on Thursday with a nine-under-par 63, followed it up with a 66 and a 69, before tying up the last of the loose ends with a far-from-perfect but more-than-good-enough round of 70 Sunday afternoon.

Leading by three strokes after Saturday, she was two-over for the day through three holes in her closing round. The advantage was squeezed to one mid-round, expanded back to five and constricted again to two before the end of play.

The eventual winning margin was three.

Maybe the clincher was an 18-foot birdie putt to pull her three clear on.

She landed it just moments after play had resumed on the back of a 25-minute pause caused by the threat of lightning and the game was over when Noora Komlainen and Sara Kouskova, her nearest challengers, dropped shots shortly after.

“Yes, I knew I was going to make that putt. I said to Doug [Pirie, her caddie] when we got out there, ‘I need to make this putt because I think this is going to be a bit of a momentum switch’. Because I knew Sara [Kouskova] had hit hers close. So I knew she had made that basically, and I needed to make the next one.

“Then after that, we had 16. It was probably the toughest one of the golf course today with huge winds and rain. So I played that really nicely. So we're all really happy with how I held it together. I've said it millions of times, but you need a little bit of luck to win golf tournaments, and I had some today. There were a couple tee shots that were a bit dodgy and got good bounces.” 

There was certainly some luck in there, most obviously when, from a fairway bunker, Alexander hit a TV tower at the back of the 11th green and saw her ball rebound to the green’s edge, from where par was rescued with an up-and-down.

Ultimately, the how is less important than the what.

Leader of the Ladies European Tour (LET) Order of Merit, Alexander had been frustrated by five runner-up finishes in 2026. Some tournaments had slipped through her fingers since her maiden LET win, in Czechia 14 months ago.

Getting it done, regardless of the means, was all that counted here.

“This one's really special,” she said. “One, it's a special event, and two, always feel like the second [tournament win] is almost as important as the first one because you know it's not a fluke. So glad I could get that done.” 

Still no Irish winner of this event then, after 20 hostings stretching back to 1994, but Maguire gave the home crowd hope and plenty of encouragement, not least midway through her last round when an unlikely challenge beckoned.

Maguire had made a belated run for the title on the Saturday, shooting a nine-under 63 to sweep up the leaderboard and well into the top ten after two 71s, and she targeted something similar after that effort if she was going to make the leaders sweat.

A quick start was needed fourth time around, but it didn’t come.

Birdie putts were left short on the first and second holes. Another slid by the right of the hole on 4. Then she caught fire with birdies at 6, 7, 9 and 10. The third of them was a highlight thanks to a superb 200-yard fairway wood to five feet.

Alexander was beginning to wobble by then, but Maguire never got closer than four back and the window shut that bit more with every hole that went by without another birdie. In the end, she finished in a tie for fourth, equalling her best ever in the event.

“Nice to get a couple of low ones over the weekend,” she said. “Friday was kind of the one that got away. Overall, 15-under par for a week is a very solid week's effort. Nice to be able to give the home fans something to cheer about.” Five more Irish had made the weekend cut of 16 who teed off on Thursday.

Kildare’s Lauren Walsh shot a three-under par 69 to finish her tournament on eight-under overall and in a tie for 24th. A superb ending given she had been five-over par through her first 14 holes on Thursday, since when she carded no less than 19 birdies.

Anna Foster could only manage a one-over 73 to sit six-under. A similar round left Aine Donegan four-under for the four days; Annabel Wilson was two back after a round of 70 while Canice Screene shot a par round to wrap up at one-under for the week.