Irish star but Continentals lead Vagliano Trophy tests at Malone
Leona Maguire
Leona Maguire won twice and Olivia Mehaffey was unbeaten as the Continent of Europe came back from a 4-2 mid-afternoon deficit to lead 6.5 to 5.5 at the halfway stage of the two-day Vagliano Trophy match at Malone.
Maguire and Mehaffey teamed up in the morning foursomes and beat Celine Boutier and Justine Dreher 3 and 2 as the session was shared 2-2.
In the afternoon singles, Leona Maguire again lived up to her world No 1 ranking, beating Duke team mate Boutier 2 and 1 as Mehaffey lipped out at the 18th for birdie and a win over her Ladies' British Open semi-final nemesis Linnea Strom of Sweden.
"I'm quite happy with our position although it's a pity that Olivia Mehaffey's putt for a birdie on the last green of the last match lipped out," said Elaine Farquharson-Black, the GB and I captain.
"If you had offered me this scoreline before the start of play I would have taken it. We were strong at the top and at the end of our line-up today, but we hit too many slack shots, missed too many fairways."
Leona was two up after six holes but Boutier won back the eighth before seven holes in a row were halved.
Maguire holed a 10ft birdie putt to go two up at the 16th and a half at the the next ended a classic singles tie between two quality players.
Mehaffey was two up after 13 but Strom hit back with gains at the 14th and 16th to set up a nail-biting finish in front of a big gallery on the 18th only to see the Irish star lip out.
Junior Vagliano Trophy — The Continent of Europe ended the opening day with a 6-3 lead, reversing Team GB & I's winning margin of 2-1 from the morning foursomes.
Killarney's Mairead Martin and Lurgan's Annabel Wilson beat Isabella Holpfor and Mathilde Claisse 5 and 4 in their foursomes but in the afternoon singles session Mairead lost by 4 and 3 to Mathilde and Annabel fell 3 and 2 to Emma Spitz.
