FORT MYERS, FLORIDA | The inevitable didn’t take long. At the beginning of the year – once the Epson Tour graduates had their LPGA Tour cards and the Q Series advancers had their names on the priority list – one of the first questions batted back and forth between those who follow the women’s game was: Who will get her first win this year?
The unanimous top choice got the job done in only her second start of the season.
Leona Maguire had played too well not to win on tour. Since she was a kid, she was Ireland’s best female golfer. Then, after heading to Duke, where she stayed all four years, she set records for the number of weeks she topped the World Amateur Golf Rankings. After that, she went to the Symetra Tour, a two-year stint where she won twice before earning her LPGA Tour card. She was always the tortoise, never the hare.
But patience in golf has become an overrated virtue, especially in the women’s game. There aren’t many first-time 27-year-old victors. Lexi Thompson, for example, is 26 and has 11 wins. Lydia Ko is 24 and, with her victory two weeks ago at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio, has 17 wins and two majors. Brooke Henderson, also 24, has 10 LPGA Tour titles. Jin Young Ko, the No. 1 player in the Rolex Rankings with 12 wins and two majors, is a year younger than Maguire.
The women’s game is different like that. Those who opt to spend four years in college followed by a couple of years on a developmental tour get the side-eye. Especially when, like Maguire, so much was expected.
Still, everyone saw it coming. Those who watched her shoot 65-67 to finish tied for second at the Lotte Championship last year knew back then that this day wasn’t far away. For goodness sake, she shot 61 on Sunday in a major, taking an early final-round lead at the Amundi Evian Championship, and ended up in a tie for sixth. She also took Nelly Korda to the wire at the Meijer LPGA in Michigan.
And that was before the Solheim Cup where she was woman of the match, the only player to go all five sessions and finish undefeated, ending the singles with a thumping of American Jennifer Kupcho in the Team Europe victory on U.S. soil.
The only thing missing for Maguire was a trophy. Until that victory came, the Irishwoman would continue to shoulder the weight of unrealized potential.
“It's been a long journey. Yes, I've done a lot of great things. I won a lot in college and amateur golf. But there are no guarantees.”
Leona Maguire
That weight was dumped into the Gulf of Mexico last week when Maguire put on a ball-striking clinic in the Drive On Championship, shooting 18-under-par 198 for three rounds at the Crown Colony Golf and Country Club – a course none of the players had heard of before the LPGA put this event together in 100 days after two tournaments in Australia were canceled. Most everyone was impressed. The place was a hidden gem. No one but Maguire thought the course would yield those kinds of numbers.
“My goal was to get to 20-under par,” she said after making a bogey on the final hole to finish at 18-under and win by three over Thompson. “I felt like if I got to 20-under par, no one could catch me.”
Maybe it’s the fact that she is a little older and taken a different route, but those who saw Maguire in Fort Myers walked away with the sense that this would not be the last time she made post-victory remarks – maybe not the last time this year.
“I think I've worked my way up the levels every time,” she said. “It's been a meticulous journey. I did it my way, the way I wanted to do it, with the help of my team around me.
“I feel like the way I've gone about it … I've been prepared at each level and mastered each level. I know people probably thought I was going to win before this. I was maybe getting a little impatient last year. But I think going down the stretch at Meijer last year with Nelly, that was a huge confidence boost for me. She was three shots ahead and I nearly closed the gap. I really felt like I held my own that week. And then the 61 at Evian. The Solheim Cup was a massive confidence booster.
“The Solheim Cup is one thing, but to do it in an individual event when it's just you out there by yourself, it's a different ballgame. So, I feel like I've been growing all the time. I did a lot of good work at home over the winter. Didn't expect for it to pay off this early in the season. I struggled a little bit last week. Wasn't entirely comfortable.”
Maguire FaceTimed her coach on Monday from Florida. He was picking up his girls from school and took her call in the school parking lot. “It's those little things that you just need that little feeling sometimes for things to click,” Maguire said.
“It hasn't been easy,” she added. “A lot goes on behind the scenes that people maybe don't realize. It's been a long journey. Yes, I've done a lot of great things. I won a lot in college and amateur golf. But there are no guarantees.
“I put in a lot of hard work over this off-season, felt like my game was close but was just missing something. I mean, you just need things to click together, hole the right putts at the right time, hit the right shots.”
Then Maguire looked at the trophy, the first on the LPGA Tour ever captured by an Irishwoman. She’d made history. At that moment, she summed it up for all of us.
“It's golf,” she said. “It's one of the most maddening games but one of the most rewarding at the same time.”
Top: At 27 years old, Leona Maguire became the first Irishwoman to win on the LPGA Tour.
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