‘NIALL IS ALWAYS ASKING FOR TIPS’
Lisa Maguire lauds efforts of singer Horan to popularise golf, especially among girls
GIVEN the celebrated career path from child prodigy to touring golf professional, it makes sense that twin sisters Lisa and Leona Maguire would have Niall Horan on speed dial. The Irish singer in the global boyband phenomenon of One Direction gets in contact, asking for the occasional golf tip.
There are so many examples of Irish talent performing on the world stage, in sport and music and so many spheres, and now all three are working together at the frontier of growing the game.
Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy may have nabbed a share of the headlines for different reasons at The Players Championship this weekend but the Irish golf story of the previous weekend was the sight of Leona’s birdie-birdie finish to finish tied-sixth at the Drive On Championship in Toledo, Ohio.
The sisters graduated from stellar amateur careers to high achieving at Duke University, where they both graduated with psychology degrees before the inevitable step on to the LPGA Tour.
Stepping back from her own professional golf career, Lisa is currently in the first year of studying dentistry at UCC and is also working as a client manager with Modest! Golf. She was signed up by the management company, founded by Horan with a singular vision to grow the game, before the firm began representing Leona.
With Leona one of the faces of the 20x20 campaign and a movement aimed at closing the gender gap in sport, what the company is doing is in tune with the prevailing mood.
They may have the Atlantic between them right now but 26year-old Lisa is delighted to see her twin making waves. ‘We’d be in touch most days. There was a bit of coverage on television over the weekend. Sky had the red button. I kept refreshing the live scoring to see how she was doing. We’d usually catch up after the round, or every other day. Same as everyone else – lots of WhatsApp and Zoom.
‘This is her sixth week out in Florida; she headed out after Christmas. She recently joined Lake Nona [Golf & Country Club] in Orlando at the start of the year so it was great to kick it off with what was a home event for her two weeks ago. She got some momentum, was playing well and brought it into last weekend. She had a good finish in the end, a really good start. She has two weeks off now before they head for the west coast with a couple of events in California. All going well so far.’
Lockdown didn’t stop Leona doing her prep over the winter with longtime coach Shane O’Grady who has had a guiding hand in both their golfing careers since the start. The exemption for elite players allowed Leona to link up with him at the Black Bush Golf Club in Meath where he is based and where both Maguires are honorary members. Covid has restricted his hands-on involvement but they are in constant contact and the joys of technology mean Leona posts videos every week for him to check over the different aspects of her game.
Her top-10 finish is also a positive reflection for Modest! Golf who made the news a couple of weeks ago as a driving force behind the ISPS Handa World Invitational which runs from July 29-August 1 at Galgorm in Antrim where men and women will compete on the same courses for equal prize money. The tournament’s new, elevated status sees it become the first northern hemisphere event to be sanctioned by the three Tours – European Tour, LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour – having featured on the European Challenge Tour for its inaugural edition in 2019 and then being cancelled last year due to Covid-19.
‘Golf can sometimes be considered an older person’s sport, so it’s been great working with Modest,’ explains Lisa, ‘and to see the likes of Niall so heavily involved, being an avid golfer and with such a huge following. It’s great to use his influence to attract more people to the game. Make it more appealing. Like Bryson [DeChambeau] at the minute, people like that fun aspect, that excitement, that it’s not all the monotony of going from one hole to the next. It spices it up a
bit.’
Horan has serious celebrity status, yet that rare quality too of coming across as down to earth, qualities which make him a perfect fit to help open up the game to new markets. Like the twins, he is a lesson in how talent and hard work can go a long way.
‘He has no airs or graces,’ says Lisa. ‘He won’t promise anything that he can’t deliver. If he says he’s 100 per cent invested in something, you’re guaranteed he will be. We’re all huge fans of Niall.
‘For us, as Irish people, we’re very proud of our own. It’s nice with the management company having that Irish influence. It’s nice to have that connection.
‘He’s always looking for tips. As far as I know he tries to play golf no matter where he is.
‘I know a few times, the year before, even when he was in Asia, he was ringing, looking to book a tee-time before he’d have a concert later that night.
‘Unfortunately the event didn’t go ahead last year but the World Invitational is going ahead this year in Galgorm. Two years ago when Niall was at the event you could see the crowd he drew to it, the crowd of younger girls he drew to it especially. If you could tap into that market and get a percentage of them playing golf in the next two, three, five years, that would be kind of incredible really to grow the game.’
In a week when International Women’s Day continued the conversation about equality and promotion, she says it’s a big statement to have a mixed tournament with equal prize money. ‘I think that’s huge. To have that level of support between the tours is significant. It’s at a really good point in the schedule where you’ll have a lot of the players that will have been over for the British Open, just before heading to the Olympics. So we’re going to have a really strong field. Expose people to top quality golf.
‘I remember, when we were younger and dad used to bring us to Irish Opens when they were in Carton, that was the big thing. You looked up to Pádraig Harrington or Darren Clarke or Paul McGinley – they were the big idols.
‘Having an event here at home is really important for young people. We always wanted that person to look up to, a female role model on the golf side, but they just weren’t there. So I think with Leona on tour, with Stephanie [Meadow] on tour, there’s a number of good players coming through.
‘If girls can have that exposure from a young age and see that it is possible, that it’s not just Rory or Shane doing well… it’s great obviously to grow the game over the whole island but it’s good to relate to people who are like you.’
‘WE NEEDED A FEMALE ROLE MODEL TO LOOK UP TO IN GOLF’