Leona Maguire ready for Solheim Cup test after timely Irish Open surge

Leona Maguire lines up a putt on the 18th green. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Leona Maguire was spot on. The Cavan woman, speaking after the day’s work on Saturday, said that a score of 20-under par would be needed to get the job done at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open. That’s exactly what the winner carded.

That winner was Casandra Alexander.

The South African was full value for it. She led from pillar to post, an opening 63 followed by rounds of 66, 69 and 70 to finish three clear of Czechia’s Sara Kouskava in second and five better than Maguire who came in tied for fourth.

It’s a result that equals Maguire’s best ever result at her home championship, and it should instil real confidence in a golfer knee-deep in the mechanics of a swing makeover as she faces into the Solheim Cup in the Netherlands in a fortnight’s time.

“It's nice to be in good form heading into something like that,” said the 31-year-old who has juggled four top tens in 2026 with six cuts across her previous eight weeks. “There have been a lot of Europeans in good form this summer, so it will be fun to get over there with the rest of the group.

“Obviously, all of them are in Boston [at the LPGA’s FM Championship] this week, but I got a few messages from a few of them last night and they were keeping an eye on things over here. It will be a fun week hopefully in Holland and it's one of my favourite weeks of the year. This one and Solheim are two of my favourites. It's nice to have them back-to-back.” 

Maguire was playing with a new bag man, Simon Keelan, having linked up with her just weeks after his long-time partnership with Seamus Power came to an end. It has started well.

The desire to rebuild that swing is understandable to anyone who watches the slight Irishwoman playing approach shots from anything up to 100 yards further back from the green than some of her playing partners.

The remedial work is expected to take two years, according to her new coach, Sean Foley, but weeks like this make it all feel worthwhile.

“Yeah, absolutely. It's one thing doing it in practice, but you have to go out under the gun and pull off the shots when you need to. Approaches have been really, really nice this week. Nice to see that under a little bit of pressure and being able to pull off those shots.

Leona Maguire signs a hat for a spectator. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

“It was obviously nice to finish off 18 there with a really strong wedge shot [for birdie]. Some fine-tuning this week ahead of Solheim, but hopefully take this momentum into the next Solheim, but then also finish off the LPGA season as strong as we can.” 

So, still no Irish winner of an event, then, that has been played 20 times since its inception in 1994, but the minimum organisers can hope for every year is that there will be a green tint to the event late on the Sunday and Maguire gave them that.

Two opening rounds of 71 left her 13 shots off Alexander at the halfway mark, the second of them a major frustration given she walked off 18 feeling she 'could have shot ten-under'. She followed it up by shooting nine-under on moving day.

That’s when Maguire looked into her crystal ball and suggested another 63 would be required, but some missed birdie opportunities early on the last day left her with more of an uphill task even as Alexander was opening with two early bogeys.

Maguire found a seam of momentum with four birdies in five holes from the 6th through to the 10th. The effort on the 9th was astonishing, a fairway wood from 205 yards landing less than two feet from the cup on the second hardest hole on the course.

Six pars followed, stalling the surge.

Five more Irish had made the weekend cut from the 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 result given she had been five-over par through her first 14 holes on Thursday.

Anna Foster could only manage a one-over 73 to end on 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 level-par round to wrap up at one-under for the week.

Add in weather that mixed plenty of sunshine with the expected rain – and two play suspensions – and a Palmer South Course that provided a superb canvas for the week, and it was a hugely successful week for the tournament.

Part of that was down to the scintilla of suspense that held until the last few holes after Alexander, who led by three after 54 holes, stuttered in parts and not least when sending a fairway bunker shot clattering off a TV tower at the back of the 11th green.

The 27-year-old is LET Order of Merit leader and a superb golfer but she had only one once on the tour up to this. That was 14 months ago and she had finished second best half-a-dozen times since. That she closed things out here was no small thing.

“This one's really special,” she said. “One, it's a special event, and two, I 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.”