Leona Maguire creates more history by becoming the first Irish golfer to win on Ladies European Tour

Rain started to fall heavy and Leona Maguire trailed Hernandez by one shot heading to 18th tee. “It was tough out there”, said Maguire to Sky Sports Golf. Maguire hit a sensational second shot from 185 yards at 18 to set up an eagle putt. Maguire found a great stroke, the putt dropped for eagle to shoot level par and win Aramco Team Series. “That putt was for me, that putt was for my family, and that putt was for Ireland”, said Maguire to Sky Sports Golf. This win sets up a great couple of months for Maguire especially the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews.

Maguire -8 took a two-shot lead over her fellow 2023 Solheim Cup teammate Georgia Hall into Friday’s final round of 54 hole Aramco Team Series. The event took place at Centurion Golf Club London and a par 73 layout included six par fives. a lot of rain fell on Thursday night which meant conditions under foot were significantly softer for Friday’s round. The two Solheim Cup stars had each other for company in a final group alongside Sarah Schober. The Cavan native made a surprising mistake at six going out of bounds resulted in a double bogey and dropping back to -7. The leaderboard took a massive change especially with Aison Lee -1 achieving seven birdies in nine holes to jump into first position on -8. Maguire a two-time LPGA Tour winner started her back nine -6 and two shots behind -8 leader Lee. The entertainment continued especially with a bogey by Lee at 11 and two birdies in a row at nine & 10 resulted in Hall becoming new -8 leader. The Cavan native gave herself a timely confidence boost with an excellent wedge shot from 85 yards at 12 and a tap in birdie to return -7. Maguire wasn’t the only Irish star at Centurion as Lauren Walsh +2 achieved six birdies in 10 holes to reach -4 and finished with an eagle at 18 to post -6.

It started to get extremely tight at top of leaderboard as Hall missed two putts at 11 & 13 and returned -6. 13 and 15 at Centurion are two reachable par fives but Maguire unfortunately played these holes in level par and remained -7. Lee struggled to get out of fescue rough resulting in a bogey at 18 and tied Walsh in third on -6. Hernandez went under the radar and finished with two birdies in three holes to set a clubhouse target of -7. Cavan native -6 achieved an important up and down for bogey at 16 to keep her chances alive with two holes to play.

 

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