Golf

Sporting hits of 2021: Leona Maguire inspires Europe to Solheim Cup win

A wildcard pick, Ireland’s first representative in team tournament stole the show in Ohio

Leona Maguire celebrates after Team Europe’s Solheim Cup victory in Ohio. Photograph: Maddie Meyer/Getty

Philip Reid's face
Philip Reid
Sat Jan 1 2022 - 14:00

Solheim Cup - USA 13 Europe 15, Inverness Country Club, Toledo, Ohio September 4th-6th.

Before a ball was struck, the visionary in Catriona Matthew identified something special in Leona Maguire.

Firstly, the Scot - known as ‘Beany’ - named Maguire as one of her captain’s wildcard picks; then, on arrival in the United States, where home support through the three days numbered in excess of 130,000 with only a handful of Europeans among them, Matthew entrusted the Co Cavan player with a leading role in her debut in the match.

Maguire, the first Irish woman to play in the Solheim Cup, proved to be a revelation.

When it was all done and dusted, Maguire had earned the MVP rights in an unbeaten performance of four wins and a halved match inalso being the only player from either side to play all five sessions.

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Quite remarkably, Maguire’s points total matched that the USA’s Big Three combined, as world number one and Olympic gold medallist Nelly Korda, her sister Jessica and Lexi Thompson failed to ignite in the same way.

Mel Reid and Leona Maguire celebrate a foursomes win against the USA. Photograph: Gregory Shamus/Getty

Prior to the week, Maguire and England’s Mel Reid hardly knew each other. Yet again, Matthew saw something and the pair went into battle on three sessions and went unbeaten.

“I do want to give up a little big up to my girl Leona because I didn’t see that pairing coming,” remarked Reid of her partner that produced two wins and halved match. “I trust Catriona’s pairing, she was like, ‘I really want you to play with Leona’ and I could not be more proud of her by the way she handled herself, the way she plays. Hopefully the whole world now sees how good she is.”

Maguire, indeed, was quite majestic through five sessions in three days. And just as she had done in the foursomes and the fourballs, Maguire - her wraparound sunglasses hiding her eyes from the world and one fist-pump into the air after another providing evidence of her wizardry with putter in hand - proved to be an on-course leader in the final day’s singles.

She outduelled Jennifer Kupcho by a 5 and 4 margin as Europe ultimately claimed a 15-13 win for a rare win on American soil, especially noteworthy in circumstances where the home support heavily outnumbered the Europeans given travel restrictions into the United States.