Maguire and Irish golf come to the fore again
Return of Open delights Leona as she narrowly misses play-off
EVEN though a brave back nine packed with five birdies left Leona Maguire one shot outside a play-off in the KPMG Women’s Irish Open, the Cavan star declared the return of the tournament after a 10-year gap as a ‘roaring success’.
Her final round of 68 left her on 13 under par, tied for fourth, and left to watch a three-way play-off.
Ultimately, Czech Republic’s Klara Spilkova claimed a second LET title with a birdie on the first hole of sudden death to see off Nicole Broch Estrup and Ursula Wikstrom.
It was a display of real character from Maguire over the back nine at Dromoland Castle.
After the body blow of a bogey-bogey start to the round, she thrilled the galleries with a red-hot back nine, rolling in birdies on 10, 13, 14 and 16 to bring herself right back into contention.
However, low scoring elsewhere meant she needed to eagle the last to force a play-off, and went close with her effort before sinking the birdie putt.
‘I was just a little bit too far back after Friday,’ she said of a costly 75 which saw her tumble down the leaderboard. If you had have told me on Friday night that I would have finished on 13 under, I would have taken it.
‘There’s been some great golf played. The Irish fans have had a lot to cheer about this week – they’ve come out in their droves. The first Irish Open in 10 years has been a roaring success.’
Asked if she was aware how close things were coming down the stretch, she replied: ‘I knew I had to make birdie.
‘That was the only plan. I wasn’t really looking at leaderboards or anything like that. I knew I had a lot of ground to catch up.
‘Personally, I thought 16 under was the score to get to, just trying to get to there.’ If there was one shot to define the tournament, it belonged to the 27-year-old Spilkova, who removed her shoes and socks to stand in the water and play a hazardous shot to the green on the par-three 17th.
With so much riding on that gamble, she managed to chop out the ball to close to the flag and sink the putt. ‘That was definitely the best up and down of my whole life, and I’ve been playing golf for 24 years,’ she declared.
‘I got there and it was lying really nicely. I felt “this is not too bad”, even though my legs were in there.
‘I said, “I am just going to try it, just try and get it somewhere on the green”. Make a two-putt bogey and try and make a birdie on the last whole.
‘But it ended up a metre from the flag, so I’m just really fortunate about that because I couldn’t really control the shot.
‘It was luck. I’m really grateful for that shot because it definitely saved my whole day.’
For Broch Estrup, losing the play-off represented an agonising finish after she missed a sinkable birdie putt on the last to be the
“The golf has
been great - it’s a roaring success”
outright winner. She was clearly downbeat after seeing the chance slip by, and could only manage par when the three players went down the par-five 18th again.
When Wikstrom also missed her birdie putt, it left Spilkova with a straightforward putt to claim the Waterford Crystal and winnings of €60,000.
‘To make the putt, I was trying to stay calm. I knew it is a metre uphill putt and I’ve made millions of those in my life – I just knew I was going to make it,’ she added.
Meanwhile, in Paris, a brilliant birdie at the last capped a superb final round for Italian Guido Migliozzi as he surged through the chasing pack to win the Cazoo Open de France.
The 25-year-old began the day five shots off the lead but a course record-equalling 62 at Le Golf National saw him edge past Denmark’s Rasmus Hojgaard for a third DP World Tour win and his first in three years.