Leona Maguire’s upward trending in professional golf took another big leap with a career-best runner-up finish on the LPGA Tour behind Lydia Ko in the Lotte Championship in Hawaii, as the 26-year-old Co Cavan golfer moved into the world’s top-100 and up to 10th on the season’s order of merit.
Maguire - into her second season on the LPGA Tour, but technically still a rookie after that category was voided last year due to Covid - produced a superb final round 67 for a total of 21-under-par (267), which netted a payday of $125,834 for her performance.
Ko as imperious in ending a three year winless drought on tour as she finished with a 65 for a total of 28-under-par (260), which gave her a seven shot winning margin over Maguire, Inbee Park, Sei Young Kim and Nelly Korda. It was the New Zealander’s 16th LPGA Tour title win.
@leona_maguire leaves herself a short eagle putt to take a share of second place
— LPGA (@LPGA) April 18, 2021
Watch the @LPGALOTTE now on @GolfChannel! pic.twitter.com/DdhcrN9O67
For Maguire, the upward progression in her career - which could see her become the first Irish player on a European Solheim Cup team later this year - has come on the back of a winter strength and conditioning programme that has seen her increase her swing and ball speed and resulted in longer distances off the tee.
Maguire’s finishing round featured four birdies - on the first, third, sixth and 14th - and a bogey on the 15th before a magnificent eagle on the 17th gave her just reward of a second place finish.
“I’ve been calling home and calling my coach and saying, it’s close, it’s close. So it really is close now,” said Maguire.
I played really nice this week. Drove the ball really well. Today was probably the best all week. Irons were solid all week and I putted nicely. Not the best I’ve ever putted, but nicely. So everything is trending very nicely in the right direction.
“I knew Lydia was going to go low today and I was going to have to do something very special to try and catch her. I’m proud of the way I finished strong.”
Afterwards, she tweeted: “Enjoyed every minute of my first trip to Hawaii @LPGATour My Best finish so far on the @LPGA T2! Thank you everyone for the support, especially those who stayed up all night to watch!”
Collated final round scores at the Lotte Championship (USA unless stated, Par 72)
260 Lydia Ko (Nzl) 67 63 65 65
267 Sei-Young Kim (Kor) 67 68 67 65, Nelly Korda 65 68 63 71, Ind-Bee Park (Kor) 71 66 67 63, Leona Maguire (Irl) 68 67 65 67
269 Yuka Saso (Phi) 64 64 71 70, Jenny Shin (Kor) 69 70 67 63, Wei Ling Hsu (Tai) 67 73 63 66, Sarah Schmelzel 69 69 65 66
270 Amy Yang (Kor) 69 68 64 69, A-Lim Kim (Kor) 70 64 70 66
271 Hannah Green (Aus) 70 67 66 68, Georgia Hall (Eng) 70 68 66 67, Matilda Castren (Fin) 71 69 65 66, Esther Henseleit (Ger) 71 68 66 66, Klara Spilkova (Cze) 69 68 67 67
272 Alexis Thompson 68 67 67 70, Hyo-Joo Kim (Kor) 68 65 69 70, Yu Liu (Chn) 68 69 68 67, Som-Yeon Ryu (Kor) 65 68 71 68, Austin Ernst 69 68 68 67
273 Caroline Masson (Ger) 74 65 66 68, Jennifer Kupcho 68 69 70 66, Kelly Tan (Mal) 72 69 66 66, Alison Lee 70 67 71 65, Luna Sobron (Spa) 69 64 70 70
274 Paula Reto (Rsa) 69 67 69 69, Brooke Henderson (Can) 68 68 68 70, Brittany Altomare 64 71 68 71, Su-Hyun Oh (Aus) 73 68 66 67, Angela Stanford 69 70 67 68, Linnea Stroem (Swe) 69 67 67 71
275 Hinako Shibuno (Jpn) 68 71 66 70, Rose Zhang 67 68 70 70, Danielle Kang 68 69 68 70, Ally Ewing 65 69 69 72, Nicole Broch Larsen (Den) 68 70 66 71, Stacy Lewis 66 70 71 68, Jeong-Eun Lee (Kor) 69 71 67 68, Yealimi Noh 69 70 66 70
276 Lizette Salas 71 68 69 68, Nam-Yeon Choi (Kor) 69 72 68 67
277 Jeon-Geun Lee (Kor) 69 72 67 69, Amy Olson 69 68 70 70, Ind-Gee Chun (Kor) 68 69 70 70, Xiyu Lin (Chn) 69 72 64 72, Lauren Coughlin 70 69 67 71
278 Jessica Korda 67 70 70 71, Mi-Hyang Lee (Kor) 67 68 70 73, Kristen Gillman 70 70 71 67, Pernilla Lindberg (Swe) 73 67 68 70, Lindsey Weaver 72 67 70 69, Mina Harigae 71 70 67 70
279 Azahara Munoz (Spa) 69 68 71 71, Louise Ridderstroem (Swe) 70 71 69 69, Brianna Do 68 66 71 74
280 Chella Choi (Kor) 70 70 69 71, Kanphanitnan Muangkhumsakul (Tha) 72 68 67 73, Aditi Ashok (Ind) 69 69 70 72, Stephanie Meadow (NIrl) 67 70 73 70, Hae-Ji Kang (Kor) 69 72 68 71, Jennifer Chang 72 69 65 74, Dana Finkelstein 73 68 71 68
281 Anne van Dam (Ned) 68 70 72 71, Tiffany Chan (Hkg) 70 71 67 73, Giulia Molinaro (Ita) 72 69 71 69, Haley Moore 70 71 69 71, Kyung Kim 69 72 71 69
282 Jing Yan (Chn) 75 66 70 71, Jillian Hollis 70 69 71 72, Celine Palomar-Herbin (Fra) 70 69 68 75
283 Nasa Hataoka (Jpn) 71 69 71 72, Alena Sharp (Can) 71 66 72 74, Gerina Piller 71 70 70 72
288 Sarah Burnham 70 68 76 74, Anne-Catherine Tanguay (Can) 72 69 71 76
