Leona Maguire fully embracing the Major challenge at Muirfield

Definitely more than just a number, her image on marketing signage along the entrance route to the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers at Muirfield tells a story in itself of Leona Maguire’s star appeal in women’s professional golf.

Maguire is one of 144 players striding into history on famed golfing terrain in this latest edition of the AIG Women’s Open championship, at a club which up to five years ago banned women members until the archaic bar was removed.

But, for the 27-year-old Cavan woman, it’s about finding her own destiny and doing so in a championship that has seen its prize fund increased 26 per cent last year’s figure, to over €7 million.

So far this year, Maguire’s career path has enabled her to follow up her Solheim Cup heroics of last season with a breakthrough win on the LPGA Tour, in the Gainbridge Drive On Championship in February.

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And, having made the cut in all four Majors so far this season, with a best finish of tied-eighth in the US Open, this final Major championship of 2022 offers another opportunity to showcase her ability to compete and contend with the world’s best.

Expectations?

“It is trying not to put too much pressure on yourself, I think,” said Maguire. “There’s a lot of factors need to go your way to do well in a week like this. I will try and play as well as I possibly can, try and be in the mix come the weekend, and see what happens.”

Maguire has regular caddie Dermot Byrne back on the bag again this week, after her sister Lisa took on the role in recent weeks, and the preparatory work on a links that is an unknown quantity for this star-studded global field has been done since her arrival at the weekend.

“It’s a great golf course. I think it is going to be a very fair test, hopefully we get the wind and you are going to have to pick your shots,” said Maguire, almost relishing the fact that serious questions will be asked in a form of the game where target golf is taken out of the equation and yardages go out the window.

And, indeed, as ever on a links course, the wind is likely to be the key factor over the four days of championship play.

There have been murmurs on the range and around the putting green that a winning score could be around level par given the expected wind factor, with gusts of up to 30 miles an hour anticipated, and the demands of the links itself. To complicate matters, the wind is forecast to switch in different directions through the championship.

“It is a case of just having to execute [shots] the next few days, keeping it out of the fairway bunkers, which obviously, like any British Open, is going to be big.

“I think it will come down to who holes the most putts. It is links greens, which always brings a bit of unpredictability to it and judging the speed, judging the wind, and there’s a few exposed greens out there that the wind will play a factor in, but it is a case of dialling it in,” said Maguire with her game face on.

Maguire – one of two Irish players in the field along with Stephanie Meadow who, too, is enjoying a hugely successful season – has decided to take her favoured 9-wood out of the bag this week and to replace it with a 4-hybrid for a lower flight in anticipation of the challenge ahead.

Currently ranked 22nd in the Rolex world rankings, Maguire had a mid-season blip in uncharacteristically missing three straight cuts (which she put down to a dislike of the poa annua greens on the west coast of the USA in that stretch of events) but she rebounded with that tied-eighth finish in the US Open and skipped last week’s Scottish Open to instead play practice rounds at Portmarnock GC and Portmarnock Links in readying for this challenge.

“I don’t play much links any more, it is like once a year. It is still the same shots, just flighting the ball down, hitting those wind shots.

“It is a lot more feel, a lot less trying to hit the perfect shot and a lot more feel and being creative and think a little bit more which I quite like. It is a challenge for everybody,” said Maguire who is in a marquee group, as she usually is these times, with Lydia Ko and Nasa Hataoka.

Lowdown

AIG Women’s Open

Purse: €7.2 million (€1.08m to the winner)

Where: Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland

The course: The Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers at Muirfield – 6,649 yards Par 71 – is an iconic links venue that has played host to the men’s Open on no fewer than 16 occasions, most recently in 2013 when Phil Mickelson lifted the Claret Jug. The club’s decision to finally end its male-only membership rule has opened the door for a first British Women’s Open at the links, which features design work of Harry Colt (in the 1920s) and Tom Simpson (in the ‘30s) and, more recently, Martin Hawtree (in 2011). There are 148 bunkers throughout the layout. In that 2013, the fourth hole ranked as the most difficult.

The field: World number one Jin Young Ko returns to the championship for the first time since 2019 and Nelly Korda’s full recovered from her early-season illness . . . . this is the fifth and final women’s Major of the year, with Jennifer Kupcho (Chevron Championship), Minjee Lee (US Women’s Open), In Gee Chun (KPMG Women’s PGA) and Brooke Henderson (Amundi Evian Championship) all in the field.

Quote-Unquote: “I’ve learned that you’re not going to hit every shot perfect, so you just have to take what it gives you. I’m used to golf where there’s not so many outside elements, and here there is . . . you just have to hit the shot and honestly hope for the best” – Jennifer Kupcho, a three-time winner on the LPGA Tour this season, on combatting the wind.

Irish in the field: Leona Maguire is in a group alongside Lydia Ko and Nasa Hataoka (12.27pm); Stephanie Meadow is in a group with Mo Martin and Sarah Schmeizel (1.49pm).

Betting: Lydia Ko – with five top-5s in her last six outings on tour – is joint market leader with Nelly Korda at 11/1 . . . . world number one Jin Young Ko’s lack of familiarity with links is behind her 18/1 rating . . . . Leona Maguire looks good each-way value at 50/1, while Stephanie Meadow is also in that ew value at odds of 250/1.

On TV: Live on Sky Sports (live coverage from 11am).