Maguire and McVeigh peg back American duo in Curtis thriller

PHILIP REIDwatched as the Irish pairing did themselves proud in Massachusetts

LEONA MAGUIRE, sporting tattoos of the Irish tricolour and the British Union Jack on her left calf, had spent just over half an hour on the putting green before her moment of history was upon her. As two women in full regalia, purporting to be the Curtis sisters, mingled with the crowd around the first tee, the announcer summoned the 15-year-old Cavan teenager with the words, “GB and I have the honour, play away please”.

This was it, and Maguire didn’t need to asked twice. And, watched by her twin sister Lisa – who would embark on her own voyage later in the fourballs – along with their father Declan, mother Breda and brother Odhrán, Leona smashed a drive down the right-hand side of the fairway. A gentle high-five with team captain Mary McKenna and another with her playing partner Danielle McVeigh confirmed all the waiting was over.

It was match on, and what a roller-coaster of a match it proved to be as the two Irish women, one a teenager and the other a 22-year-old who has blossomed during her Paddy Harrington golfing scholarship to NUI Maynooth, took on US pairing Cydney Clanton and Stephanie Kono in a foursomes which would only be decided on the 18th green.

In matchplay, there is no place to hide and nerves were evident over the opening few holes. In fact, Maguire and McVeigh bogeyed three of the first four to trail the American pair by one hole walking to the fifth tee.

On this hole, a par five of 557 yards, the momentum changed. Maguire, who took the tee-shots on all the odd-numbered holes, matched Clanton, who had arrived here with a reputation as a long-hitter off the tee, and then McVeigh hit a three-wood approach of 220 yards to 20 feet.

When Kono missed the green right with her approach and then Clanton airmailed the green from one side to the other with her recovery, a two-putt birdie was sufficient to level affairs.

From then on, for much of the match, it was Maguire and McVeigh who held the upper hand. One up after six, where Kono pulled her tee-shot into the hazard; two up after seven, where Maguire’s seven-iron tee-shot on the 135 yards par three finished eight feet below the hole and McVeigh rattled in the putt.

Back to one up after eight, where McVeigh was seriously unlucky when her tee-shot finished in the peculiar rough down the middle of a fairway shaped like the giant M outside a McDonalds.

There was some brilliant golf from both teams, with the US pairing drawing level on the 11th where Clanton hit her tee-shot in to three feet and Kono, using a belly-putter which almost reached her shoulders, rolled in the birdie putt.

On the 12th, the Irish duo responded in kind: Maguire hit a six-iron approach from 157 yards to three feet. Another birdie, one up! The homeward run was a yo-yo affair with not one of the last five holes halved as one side took the initiative only to be pulled back.

Still, standing on the 18th, a par four of 414 yards off an elevated tee – Kono and Clanton – who had trailed from the sixth to the 15th – found themselves one up. McVeigh’s drive was followed by a wonderful six-iron approach shot from Maguire to 18 feet. McVeigh rolled in the birdie putt, and the four players shook hands to signal a halved match.

“We’d a lot of birdie opportunities and I’m just delighted I rolled that last putt in there,” said McVeigh, while Maguire, cool and calm, was glad to have got back to playing competitive golf.

“After waiting for the last couple of weeks and days, we were ready to get going,” she said. The wait, though, was worth it – as the rapturous reception of the first tee was matched by a huge roar for McVeigh’s birdie on the last.