Irish star but Continentals lead Vagliano Trophy tests at Malone
Leona Maguire

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.

Scoring

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.