Leona Maguire, quite literally, kept her best until last as a remarkable closing run of five-straight birdies to finish her round saw the 30-year-old Cavan woman ultimately sign for a second round 68 for a midway total of six-under-par 138, four strokes behind leader A Lim Kim, in the LPGA Tour’s season-opening Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona in Florida.
Solheim Cup star Maguire – who has her US base at the resort outside Orlando – moved into a tie for third alongside world number one Nelly Korda and Japan’s Rio Takeda after her late-round fireworks saw her leapfrog up the leader board, recovering from a double bogey five on the Par 3 13th to bounce back with a sequence of five straight birdies.
“It’s my home course,” said Maguire. “I know these holes pretty well. I know I can birdie them all so it is just a case of trying to give myself chances. I hit some really nice iron shots and didn’t leave myself far for birdie. It was nice to finish in style.”
Maguire – who owed her place in the limited-field, no cut Tournament of Champions to her Meijer Classic win of 2023, with the LPGA Tour providing a two-year exemption into this season-opener – had done some work on her game with coach Shane O’Grady during her Christmas break at home before returning to Florida ahead of the new season.
“I have made a few changes and a few tweaks so this week was always going to be a nice test to see where my game was at. So far so good. We will see how it does over the weekend. It is early in the season but I always like to try to get off to a good start and it is nice to be doing well here,” said Maguire, who is kick-starting her season with back-to-back events in Florida, also playing in next week’s Founders Cup.
Maguire, a two-time winner on the LPGA Tour, is headed into the weekend in tied-third, four shots adrift of 36-hole leader Kim of South Korea and one behind Solheim Cup team-mate Linn Grant of Sweden.
Grant’s only win on the US circuit came in the 2023 Dana Open but she attributed her quick start to the season to a number of swing and equipment changes, including putting a new Ping Answer putter in her bag: “I swapped my 3-wood and hybrids and, yeah, my putter. I’ve done a lot of changes with my putter this winter. Changed the model completely. Changed my stance, my grip. It’s very different, so it feels very good for now. Feels very exciting to go up and putt.
“I really enjoy that right now. I really like focus on hitting good putts instead of trying to hole them, which is a nice, new feeling to have.”
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