Leona Maguire recently turned 30 years of age, a numerical milestone in life that says a lot about where she has come from – a pioneering force of Irish women’s golf; a long-time world amateur world number one; first to win on the LPGA Tour; first to win on the Ladies European Tour and first to play in the Solheim Cup – and, perhaps, even more about where she has yet to go, with a hunger for success that shows no signs of diminishing.
With her work for the season done, a schedule that saw her criss-cross the globe playing 28 tournaments plus the Solheim Cup, the winter break is a deserved one before Maguire gets going again, starting her next LPGA Tour season at the season-opening Tournament of Champions in Florida at the end of January. The record $131 million in prize money on the US circuit next year underscores that women’s professional golf is very much on an upwards trajectory.
Maguire’s season just gone was one of ups and downs, highs and lows, and some of what might have been (primarily losing out to Nelly Korda in the final of the T- Mobile Match Play).
“That’s sport and golf as well. It’s not [like] everything goes in sort of a linear climb. At the same time, I felt like I played some really golf in spots this year, obviously getting the win in London [in the Aramco], getting my first LET win, and I suppose that was probably the highlight of the year. That was a goal that was definitely there at the start of the year, to try and get that one ticked off,” said Maguire.
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Indeed, in its own way, it is an indication of the standard that Maguire has reached, and the goals she sets out for herself, that a year without an LPGA Tour win is noted.
As Maguire puts it, “People only see the results. They don’t see the work that goes in behind the scenes, for myself and my team. I feel like I worked harder this year than I have any other year, it just didn’t show in the results. At the same time, I know it’s close. I know it’s in there. I know what I can do under pressure when I need to, like what I did in London. I suppose, it that’s the worst it gets, I don’t really have too much to complain about. There’s a lot bigger problems going on in the world than missing a few putts or having a few bogeys or what not.
“There’s still a lot of learning to take out of this year and a lot of positives that I was still able to manage my game, to still make a lot of cuts and get some results even though I didn’t have my A-game. You’re still learning all the time. I suppose it’d be boring if everything was just going up and up and up the whole time.”
Over the winter, there will be some tweaking of the swing, especially with the driver in play, but no major changes.
“I don’t think it’s ever big changes. I think it’s always small changes. I suppose the nice thing is that I actually have a little bit more time [over the winter] to fine tune a few things in my swing. I think the last year I sort of leaned more towards a draw to get a little bit more distance off the tee. And as the year went on, we kind of scaled back a little bit, tried to get a bit more neutral again, and tried to get back to a bit more of my left-right flight. And just in the process of that, got a little bit caught between the two, and ended up with a few bigger misses with my driver, which caused a little bit of bother.
“And so just need a little bit of time to sort of dial that in and get that back to where it needs to be. That was one of the things that came out of the stats this year, was, if I can drive the ball a little bit better, I’ll be in good shape next year and hole a few more putts, like every golfer.”
And, with no Olympics or Solheim Cup on the schedule nest year, Maguire knows that her schedule will include all five Majors – The Chevron, KPMG Women’s PGA (at PGA Frisco), the US Women’s Open (at Erin Hill), the Evian in France and the AIG Women’s Open (at Royal Portcawl) – as well as places in all of the LPGA Tour’s limited-field events.
“I am in a in a fortunate position that way, and, and, yeah, I mean, play as well as you possibly can early in the season. That’s always a goal of mine every year, is to start the season as well as I can, and then that way it gives you a bit more flexibility to pick and choose the schedule as you go on in the year. I’ll tidy up a few things in the next few weeks and hopefully hit the ground running.”
And, in a final piece of reflection, harking back to the Solheim Cup, Maguire – the MVP in Europe’s win in 2021 and a standout in the successful defence in 2023 but curtailed to limited playing time in losing the cup in Virginia in September – commented: “I think the general consensus was that me and Suzanne [Pettersen] weren’t on good terms. I mean, Suzanne’s been a hero of mine since I was 14-years-old, when I played with her in the Irish Open at Killeen Castle.
“And she’s always been someone I’ve looked up to. I have an incredible amount of respect for and we actually get on very well. And, you know, she relied heavily on me in Finca (in 2023) and ultimately, she made the choices that was best for the team, and wanted to do what she thought was best to help the team win.
“We were faced with very tough opposition, and she had certain stats and people she employed this year that felt that other people were better choices, and that’s ultimately the choice they made. I mean, we’ve had discussions since, some things we agree on, some things we don’t, but there’s absolutely no animosity, and the way we left it was she said to me that she thought I was the one to carry the torch going forward for the European team, and she’d be there on the on the sidelines, cheering us on.”
♦ Leona Maguire was speaking at the launch of the KPMG research (conducted by Bounce Insight) of an “inspiring year for women’s sport in Ireland.”
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