LEONA JOINS OUR TEAM
EXCLUSIVE In her first column for Tee to Green Irish star Leona Maguire reveals why she thinks having men and women play a golf event together is a brilliant idea
Ihad a great time at home this Christmas which gave me a perfect opportunity to spend time with family and friends and reflect on an actionpacked 2018.
It also allowed me an opportunity for some much-needed rest after a very busy period of golf and travel. It was great to catch up with everyone, and we had a great family get together on New Year’s Day for my granny, Kathleen’s 92nd birthday. I spent much of last year away from Cavan, so I always appreciate the time I get to spend at home.
I had intended putting my clubs away over Christmas, but the weather was so lovely I enjoyed a few games at the Slieve Russell Resort with Lisa and our brother Odhran.
With Christmas now over the new season is upon us and I am now down in Australia having secured an invite to the ISPS Handa Vic Open here in Melbourne. The Vic Open is unique as it’s an LPGA and a European Tour event and we are playing for equal prize money.
Having men and women play an event together is a brilliant idea. There’s definitely a huge buzz, and hopefully, a lot of other events will follow suit. It also helps to create more of an awareness of women’s golf, which is something we are trying to do in Ireland currently with the 20x20 campaign.
Distance is always a hot topic in golf however it’s not something I focus too much on with my coach Shane O’Grady. There have been a lot of good players on the women’s side — most recently Annika Sorenstam and Lydia Ko — that got to world number one without distance being their number one strength. I’m driving it around 265 yards, and my swing speed is 97-98mph, so I am happy with that aspect of my game.
I put a lot of focus on my putting especially in the second half of last year which I marked as an area I could make improvements. I have also focussed a lot on parfive scoring over the last few months, and I will probably have a different strategy this year, laying up a lot more, so I will have more options to make birdie.
My goal this season is to continue to develop as a player and improve my world ranking. The nice thing about getting such a strong LET card in Morocco is that I get to plan my schedule compared to last year when it was more uncer- tain. It allows me to prepare better and plan my weeks off to rest.
I was chasing my tail a bit last year, graduating from Duke University in May and then turning pro and playing a lot right through to the end of the year. So it’s really nice to get out at the same time as everybody else this year and not to be playing catch up.
I will combine my schedule this season to feature on both the LET and the Symetra Tour, starting off here on the LPGA Tour, then playing the first two LET events in Australia before heading to the US to play the first four events on the Symetra Tour. Then it’s back across the Atlantic again to play in Dubai and Morocco on the LET.
I know it’s a Solheim Cup year this year and it’s an event I’d love to play in the future because I enjoyed the two Junior Solheim Cups I played in as an amateur and I enjoy team golf. However this year my main focus is continuing to adapt to being a professional golfer.
En route to Australia, I stopped off in Dubai for some warm weather practice at The Els Club with Lisa. I also got a game in with Connor Syme, who is also part of the Modest Golf stable and fellow Irish golfer Gavin Moynihan who I’ve known for a while as we share the same coach. The facilities were top class, and I would recommend it to any golfer looking for a game out in Dubai.
I’ve been very fortunate to have some great sponsors for this season including KPMG, Allianz, the Slieve Russell Resort and most recently I signed with Red Bull Ireland.
It’s great to see so many companies supporting young athletes, and I very much appreciate all the support I have received.
I am looking forward to getting the season started this week and look forward to lots of travel this year and hopefully some solid results too. I am learning every day and look forward to continuing to improve.
Leona Maguire is an Official Ambassador for the 20x20 Women in Sport Campaign