In just her second start on the LPGA Tour, Leona Maguire - the 25-year-old Co Cavan player who is a rookie on the main circuit having graduated from the Symetra Tour - produced an outstanding performance to finish tied-fourth in the ISPS Handa Vic Open at the 13th Beach Golf Links on the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria.
South Korea’s Hee Young Park beat two of her compatriots, Hye-Jin Choi and So Yeon Ryu, in a three-way play-off to take the title after they finished the 72-holes tournament locked together on 12-under-par 281.
Maguire finished just one stroke outside of gatecrashing that play-off, after a final round 70 for a total of 11-under-par 282 eventually left her in tied-fourth alongside Sweden’s Linnea Strom. Her top-five finish, however, earned Maguire a payday of €48,000 for her efforts in a tournament where she moved incrementally up the leaderboard from T-28th after the first round, T-20th after the second, T-11th after the third and to eventually finish in fourth.
In a round which produced five birdies and three bogeys, Maguire battled the windy conditions to stay very much in the hunt right to the end. With Irish sporting legend Sonia O’Sullivan among her supporters over the weekend, Maguire showed great resilience to bounce back from a bogey on the 17th to finish with a birdie on the 18th.
Maguire will aim to take that momentum onto the next LPGA Tour stop, the Australian Open which takes place at Royal Adelaide this week.
Stephanie Meadow closed with a final round 76 for 287, to finish in a share of 20th place.
The men’s tournament was won by Australia’s Min Woo Lee, who finished with a 68 for a total of 269. Lee finished two strokes clear of New Zealander Ryan Fox.
Selected final round scores & totals in the LPGA Tour ISPS Handa Vic Open (USA unless stated, par 72):
(a) denotes amateurs
281 So Yeon Ryu (Kor) 71 70 68 72, Hye Jin Choi (Kor) 69 68 75 69, Hee Young Park (Kor) 68 68 72 73 (Park won play-off at the 4th hole)
282 Linnea Strom (Swe) 66 69 76 71, Leona Maguire (Irl) 69 69 74 70
283 Su Oh (Aus) 73 68 74 68, Robyn Choi (Aus) 70 65 77 71, Minjee Lee (Aus) 69 67 74 73
284 Christina Kim 67 70 77 70, Alena Sharp (Can) 68 69 70 77
285 Tiffany Joh 67 73 73 72, Pei-ying Tsai (Tai) 68 68 73 76, Hannah Green (Aus) 69 73 71 72, Ally McDonald 68 65 81 71, Wichanee Meechai (Tha) 72 69 74 70
286 Perrine Delacour (Fra) 69 69 75 73, A-yean Cho (Kor) 69 66 70 81, Ho-Yu An (a) (Tpe) 70 71 72 73, Yu Liu (Chn) 70 71 72 73
287 Madelene Sagstrom (Swe) 65 67 74 81, Stephanie Meadow (NIrl) 67 70 74 76, Dottie Ardina (Phl) 70 70 75 72, Cheyenne Knight 67 75 73 72, Anne Van Dam (Ned) 71 71 73 72, Jin Hee Imn (Kor) 69 70 75 73
Selected fourth and final round scores in the European Tour ISPS HANDA Vic Open (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
269 Min Woo Lee (Aus) 66 67 68 68
271 Ryan Fox (Nzl) 67 71 69 64
274 Marcus Fraser (Aus) 70 65 69 70, Travis Smyth (Aus) 65 67 72 70, Robin Sciot-Siegrist (Fra) 66 64 76 68
276 Jake McLeod (Aus) 65 68 76 67
277 Darren Beck (Aus) 69 70 69 69, Sam Horsfield 70 67 73 67, Jed Morgan (Aus) 66 67 74 70, Sami Valimaki (Fin) 69 69 70 69, Ashley Hall (Aus) 67 68 71 71
278 Lucas Herbert (Aus) 70 69 70 69, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 70 67 72 69, Nick Flanagan (Aus) 67 67 74 70
