Leona Maguire: Making history and aiming for the top

Leona Maguire talks to Today's Golfer about her career and goals.

The first Irishwoman to win on the LPGA and the best Solheim Cup rookie ever, Leona Maguire won’t stop in her drive to be golf’s best.

Everything Leona Maguire touches turns to gold. At least, that’s how it seems, and it’s been that way ever since she first picked up a club in her native Cavan, Ireland, 27 years ago.

A stellar amateur career that propelled her to the top of the world ranking for a record 135 weeks and a success-laden US college career saw her take her place on the biggest stage of all, the LPGA Tour, in 2018.

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Victories and records have followed, including equalling the lowest round (61) in Major golf history during last year’s Evian Championship. And then came the explosion.

A rookie going into the lion’s den, Maguire played a near-flawless and pivotal role in Europe retaining last year’s Solheim Cup, undefeated and returning 4.5 points in the 15-13 victory at Inverness Club. “She is the one we are going to have to fear for a long time,” said US Captain Pat Hurst, summing up Maguire’s nerveless dominance.

Fast forward a few months to February 2021 and Maguire became the first Irish woman to win on the LPGA with victory at the LPGA Drive On Championship, beating the likes of Nelly Korda, Lexi Thompson, Inbee Park and Brooke Henderson.

We sat down with the 27-year-old to assess her incredible journey so far.

Leona, congratulations. How does it feel to be an Irish history maker?

Thank you. It’s incredible and great to show that it is possible for a girl from a small little town in Ireland to be able to compete against the best players in the world and win on the LPGA.

It was a fortunate position to be in. I suppose it was more than likely going to be me or Stephanie [Meadow]. We played together at the start of that week and she beat me, so I didn’t think it would be me sitting with the trophy.

The support from home has been incredible. They’ve been rallying behind me, and that’s something that I’ll always be truly grateful for. It’s always an honor to represent Ireland and see people excited about women’s golf and Irish golf is fantastic.

There’s even more attention on you now. How do you manage not to get overwhelmed by it all?

People have always had expectations. Even at Christmas people were asking ‘When are you going to win? When you going to win?’ That was on the tip of everybody’s tongue.

Last year was a great season but there was no win, so almost felt like it had as asterisk. I knew I wasn’t far away. I’ve always kept my circle small and just relying on the people that I trust I think has been massive.

I’m obviously delighted for people to be able to enjoy my win, but at the same time, I’m the one hitting the shots and putting in the long hours. I’m the one that’s there at the range until dark, up first thing.

Nobody sees that grind that goes behind it. Ultimately I didn’t really care about the outcome – I just gave it my best shot, hoped I would win and, if not, it would be down the line.

You mentioned coming close last year. What was the difference between the near misses and the win?

Last year I felt I had three good rounds but there was always one round that was a little bit iffy. My gameplan for the final round was to go out on the attack, not to be defensive, not to try and protect the lead. I wanted to fo out to win it, and not just by one, but to try and get myself over the line by a few.

Definitely relief is one of the big emotions. You’re kind of wondering, is it going to happen, is it going to happen. I felt like I played incredibly well in Hawaii last year and Lydia [Ko] played better; same at Meijer, Nelly [Korda] just played better. I came up against some of the best players in the world. The LPGA is probably as strong as it’s ever been and you have to put some really solid rounds together.

How key has it been having Shane Lowry’s former caddie Dermot Byrne on your bag?

A massive help. That phone call to Dermot really sort of changed round my entire last season. He’s been a part of a lot of big events and some big wins with Shane.

He didn’t have to take my call and took a big gamble coming out here on the LPGA never having done it before, but I guess he saw something in me and felt like he could make a difference.

I’m going to be forever grateful for him. It’s nice to have a fellow Irish person out here on the bag as well. I feel like we get each other’s sense of humour. We’re both pretty calm in demeanor – Dermot didn’t change from when I was tied-80th to when I was coming down the last with a big lead. I’m lucky to have him.

Niall (Horan) was tweeting for you during the final round. What’s it been like to have his support?

He’s been there right from when I turned pro and been a huge help in my management company (Modest!). My sister Lisa works with them as well, so it’s nice to have people in the background looking out for my best interests.

Niall has been trying to grow the game in Ireland for young girls. I hope my win can help that as well.

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How does this win compare to your Solheim Cup experience?

Solheim Cup is one thing. To do it in an individual event when it’s just you out there by yourself, it’s a different ballgame. I feel like I’ve been growing all the time. I did a lot of good work at home with Shane [O’Grady, her coach] over the winter. I didn’t expect for it to pay off this early in the season.

Let’s look back on that rookie Solheim Cup performance. How would you describe it?

A dream come true, I couldn’t really have asked for a better week. To be part of only the second European team to win on American soil was incredible. It was just such a fantastic team from top to bottom, captains, players, caddies, everybody involved. Some of the girls who had played a few times before said they thought it was the best team we had had in a while. It was so much fun to be part of – ‘Beany’ (Catriona Matthew) was an incredible captain, she just knew exactly what to do.

What was your highlight of the week?

Going to the first tee for the first time, listening to the music blaring on the putting green and walking up to the packed stands with Mel (Reid) and just soaking up the atmosphere. It was so loud, I’ve never experienced anything like that on a tee.

How did you handle the nerves?

I was fortunate to have some great team-mates, veterans like Carlota (Ciganda), Mel and Anna (Nordqvist) and they told us what to expect. A lot of people say it’s the most nervous you’re going to be so just swing hard and hope you make contact and wherever the ball goes, the ball goes. I was fortunate to have Mel with me and she just made me feel so comfortable and, to be honest, I expected to be more nervous than I actually was.

What was the reaction like when you got back home to Ireland?

Incredible. I wasn’t expecting anything like that. It was great driving around my home town in a gold convertible BMW with my grandmother, everybody out cheering, happy again after all the lockdowns. To me, it reinforced the power of sport… and confirmed that the Irish fans are the best fans in the world, no matter what sport it is.

Let’s rewind, back to the beginning. How did it all start for you?

I was nine or 10, which is relatively old compared to these days when everyone is picking up a club practically as soon as they can walk! Twin sister Lisa and myself played all kinds of sports growing up, so we were relative latecomers to golf. As teenagers we got involved in a lot of sports, but it came to the point where there weren’t enough hours in the day. And with golf being something we were good at and something we saw a potential future in, bit by bit it became more of a priority. When we reached 15 or 16 and got picked for the Curtis Cup (2010), that was probably the turning point as we started to travel a bit more for golf. There wasn’t so much time for the other sports, plus there was also the risk of picking up an injury, so golf took over.

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You were playing at Slieve Russell in Cavan at this point?

Yeah, a nine-hole, par 3 course at Slieve Russell. It also had a main course but you weren’t allowed to play the big course until you were 12, so we stuck to the nine-holer and worked our way up from there. We had three clubs to start with – a 3-wood, 7-iron and putter – and our goal at the start was to break 50. Once we achieved that, with a 48, we then worked our way down. We probably honed our skills a lot quicker, only having a few clubs.

When we turned 12 and graduated to the big course we improved very quickly, and between 12 and 14 we started playing in the Irish Girls competitions. We got to the Irish Closed final together in Westport in 2008 and then on junior Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup and Curtis Cup teams at 15. It snowballed from there.

Did you play with more girls than boys in those early days?

There weren’t any other young girls at our club, so we went out with the lads and played on some of the guys’ teams. We were also members at Castle Hume in Enniskillen and we used to play on the lads’ teams until it got to a certain point where we weren’t allowed to. We played in boys’ competitions, though we’d play off different tees. We’d play in inter-club matches, we’d play in the junior matchplay against the boys, all of that. When we got a bit older we’d play in the ladies’ comps. But I don’t think we realised how good we were until we started going abroad and playing in different events.

Who were your big inspirations back then?

Padraig Harrington was the big one. He was winning his three Majors and it was a huge deal for an Irishman to be competing against the best players in the world. Suzann Pettersen was another. Lisa and myself got to play nine holes with her at the 2010 Irish Open. I was really nervous, but she couldn’t have been nicer. Obviously, she played a massive role in the following year’s Solheim Cup win… so gutsy, so passionate and so determined.

How important were your experiences as an amateur?

I loved every minute of my US college career. I had an incredible four years at Duke, North Carolina, competing with the best young players in the world week in, week out. The coaches didn’t treat me any differently from anybody else on the team, but they were always challenging and pushing me to be better. Otherwise, winning the British Amateur in 2017 was the last thing I wanted to tick off before I turned pro. I was World No.1 amateur at the time and felt I had a target on my back going into that event. Then to finish off with a Curtis Cup win at Dun Laoghaire in 2016, in front of a home crowd, was incredible.

At what point did you realise you wanted to be a professional golfer?

Probably not as a kid, but during my teenage years, once I got a glimpse of what it was all about at the 2009 Solheim Cup and the Solheim in Ireland two years later, that was a real eye-opener. At the time, ladies golf wasn’t on TV a lot, only at very strange hours, and even then it was only snippets. I’d never really seen those top players compete, so getting to play in an Irish Open in 2010 was huge, watching the likes of Suzann Pettersen, Michelle Wie and Paula Creamer. That was the moment I realised this is what I want to do.

How hard was the switch from amateur to pro?

I turned pro in June 2018. I had Symetra Tour status having gone to Q School the winter before and expected to hit the ground running. The plan was to play a few events on the Symetra Tour and get my LPGA Tour status that way or, if not, go to Q School. I went there and missed out by a shot which was a very bitter pill to swallow. So the grand plans I had didn’t quite work out. I had to reset and figure out a new plan. Up to that point everything had worked out pretty smoothly and that was the first main roadblock I’d come across.

And what was the new plan?

Go to LET Q School the following month in Morocco. I managed to get my card and the next year I played a mixture of Symetra Tour and LET events and I got my LPGA card. It was a difficult year, but a massive learning curve; I think I learnt a lot more than I would have had I gone on the LPGA straight away. I lost in two Symetra Tour play-offs but won a couple of times, which basically secured my LPGA card for the following season.

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And you made a very decent start – until the world changed…

Yeah, in my second event I came fourth in Australia in 2020 (ISPS Handa Vic Open). It was a challenging week, very windy, but I really enjoyed it and it’s just a shame we haven’t been able to go back there since. It was the last golf we got to play before things were shut down because of the pandemic.

How did that affect your plans?

We were lucky as rookies to essentially have a year-and-a-half, nearly two years for our rookie season. There was nothing we could control and the LPGA did an incredible job enabling us to even play in the second half of the 2020 season with a lot of restrictions and protocols in place to ensure everyone was safe and healthy.

So the million-dollar question after whar you’ve achieved in the past few months: how good can you become?

You’re always growing, always learning every time you’re in a new situation. The Solheim Cup was a massive confidence booster that showed I can compete against the best players in the world week in, week out. The same applies to Majors; I think I improved a lot in the Majors in 2021 – shooting that 61 at Evian was a big deal. It’s all about feeling more comfortable every week, being in the leading groups alongside the best players. You learn from those scenarios.

Is it all about the Majors?

Every pro golfer wants to win Majors. Getting myself into contention as much as I can – the Evian was my first top 10, so it’s a case of putting myself into that position more often. That’s what you practise for.

What is driving you on?

I think the desire to be the best I can be is what drives me. Whether that’s winning or whether it’s climbing as high in the world rankings as I can, I’m a competitor at heart and I’m always trying to push myself to get better.

Leona Maguire’s career timeline

2009 & 2010 French U21 Open Champion

2009 Scottish Ladies Open Champion

2009 European Team Champion

2011 British Ladies Strokeplay Champion

2011 Portuguese Women’s Amateur Open Champion

2008 & 2012 Irish Women’s Close Champion

2016 Low Amateur at the Women’s British Open

2017 Ladies British Amateur Champion

2015, 2016 & 2017 No.1 in the European Women’s Amateur Golf Ranking for the third straight year

2015, 2016 and 2017 Mark H. McCormack Medal as the leading women’s golfer in the World Amateur Golf Ranking

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