Leona Maguire returns to action for the first time since her Solheim Cup heroics in the Shoprite LPGA Classic in New Jersey and while she already considers the season a massive success, she’s love to clinch her maiden LPGA Tour win in one of the five tournaments that remain this year.

"If the season ended today, I would be still incredibly happy," she said at Seaview near Atlantic City, where she made her professional debut in June 2018. "I couldn't have asked for a better season in what's still my rookie year technically.

"We've got five events left… it would be sort of cherry on top to finish off the year with a win. If I do, great. If not, take all the experiences from this year and bring them into next year."

Maguire could not have imagined she would make such stellar progress in the three years since she tied for 15th that week.

She came through the Symetra Tour with ease at the end of 2019, winning twice, and while her rookie season on the LPGA Tour was curtailed by the pandemic, she has blossomed this year.

With a game built on excellent putting and a stellar short game, she added distance over the winter and took off in the summer after taking on Shane Lowry's former caddie Dermot Byrne in June.

Since that move, she's had seven straight top 15 finishes on the LPGA Tour, equalled the lowest round in Major championship history with a 61 in the final round of the Evian Championship, and risen to a career-high of 42nd in the world.

"Yeah, the consistency has been something that I've been very proud of," she said. "I think I learned a lot from last year. Made some tweaks at the end of the year. Changed my irons. Went back to graphite shafts. Put on a little bit of distance. Worked on my putting a lot. Sort of and all just coming together quite nicely.

Changed my caddie starting from MEDIHEAL. That's where those top 15s started. Dermot has been a huge help to me as well on the bag, keeping me calm and making a few better decisions. It doesn't take much. All these girls are such great players, it doesn't take much to go from a Top 5 to a Top 10 to a Top 40.

"I think I've just been saving a few more shots around the greens and not giving away silly mistakes, which has been a big thinking with the consistency."

She was a revelation for Catriona Matthew's European team in the Solheim Cup, winning four and a half points from five in an epic display before heading home to Co Cavan for a hero's welcome.

"Yeah, we had an incredible week at Inverness," she said. "It was obviously special for me to be a part of that team. It was something I had dreamed about for a long time, and to get that win, we knew as a team we knew how big of a deal it was, but I don't think I really understood.

"I had seen things on Twitter and Instagram and social media of how excited people were back home, but I don't think I fully grasped it. My dad picked me up from the airport in Dublin and stopped by his school on the way down. He's a teacher, and all the kids had prepared poems and dances and songs and all of this, so we stopped for that.

"Then I went to bed for a few hours and dad kind of said, yeah, there is something in our local town that evening. I suppose a lot of Olympians and Paralympians had been coming home celebrations like that, so I think it was just another continuation on.

"It was fun for me to see how excited everybody was. There hasn't been a lot for people to be happy about. I suppose in the last two years, rural Ireland has been hit hard with lockdowns and COVID and all that. It was nice to see people that normally would never watch golf tuned into the Solheim Cup because there was an Irish person involved, and obviously a bonus that you were born.

"The response was just incredible. I wasn't expecting anything like that. Went through my local town in like a convertible, gold convertible car, and my 94-year-old grandmother was in the front waving to everybody. It was fun for me to see her enjoying it so much. It's been a quiet two years for her, so for her to see a lot of people she hadn't seen in a while and everybody sort of congratulating and messaging her. She's on Facebook, she had fun sort of seeing all the messages all around the world we're coming from, everybody commenting on things. So that was probably one of the most special things for me.

"It was so much fun being at Solheim Cup playing in the Solheim Cup, but it was almost just as much fun seeing everybody else enjoy it. The Solheim Cup wasn't about me. It was about whatever I could do for the team. Getting that team win, seeing everybody else, for Beany, the captains, for the rest of my teammates, and then also coming home and getting -- for everybody else to enjoy as well, it was -- I suppose that is the special thing about Solheim Cup or a Ryder Cup. You're part of something a lot bigger than yourself.

"I kind of knew that at that time, but going home, I really sort of felt that. Hopefully, it's inspired a young generation of Irish players who hopefully someday want to be on the Solheim Cup or even take part in any sport. I don't really care what sport it is, but I think there is a great buzz about the country in general right now about sport and women's sport, and I suppose things like the Solheim Cup and all of that can only help.

"I would like to think I'll take some confidence from it. It's not something I'll dwell on too much. Obviously, it's back to business this week and it's back to regular life on tour.

"Nobody cares about the Solheim Cup when I tee it up on Friday morning. Still have to go out and play golf. You're only as good as your next round. Yeah, I take the confidence from that, knowing I can compete with the best golfers in the world. You dream about those moments, and you practice for those moments, and you don't know how you are going to deal with that until you actually end up in that situation. Can you hole those putts when you need to? Can you pull off the shots when the moment is right?

"Was able to do that at the Solheim Cup, and I suppose it's just a case of bringing that back to regular LPGA events week in and week out and taking all I can from being around so many great players, my teammates, Beany, vice-captains. Yeah, it was a big goal of mine to be on the Solheim Cup, but there is still a lot of golf to be checked off the list.

"I think that's the good thing about being home. You kind of get brought down to earth quickly being at home. It was nice to be around friends and family. They'll definitely not let me get too big of a head."

Her newfound fame has changed her life in Ireland with people keen to come up and ask for a picture and say, well done.

"I think the response at home was not something I was expecting," she said. "I think the fact that so many people watched it that would not normally watch golf, and even when I was out practising the past few weeks, a lot more people coming up. Usually, I can just go practice, and every once in a while, someone will come up and recognise me.

"There was a lot more people looking for pictures and wanting to talk about the Solheim Cup and things like that. Same when I went to see my coach, Shane, at his golf club [Black Bush]. When I was leaving one of the days, it took a while to get out of the car park because people were coming over and just so excited and wanted to tell me they watched and how proud they were and get a picture.

"Yeah, I went back into my secondary school as well. Seeing everybody, it was seven years since I'd been back there. Yeah, it's not something I was expecting, but at the same time, it's nice to sort of share that experience with everybody, especially seeing as we didn't have all that support over in Inverness that we potentially could have.

"I would imagine quite a few Irish people would've travelled over, so it's nice that they sort of got to share in that a little bit since I got home."

She's clearly a far more accomplished and confident player than the rookie who turned up with her twin sister Lisa to make her debut in 2018. But while she's the leading European at 13th in the Race to CME Globe standings and second to ANA Inspiration winner Patty Tavatanakit in the Louise Suggs Rookie of the Year race, she's looking to push on now and contend for that maiden LPGA win.

"Wow, I would like to think I have a bit more experience under my belt since then," she said of the journey she has taken over the last three years. "It's been three years, and they have gone by pretty quickly. Obviously, that year and a half on Symetra under my belt, I learned a lot. And then the last year and a half on LPGA, the same.

"The big thing I'll take from Solheim Cup is feeling like I belong out here. Bit by bit this year, I felt more and more comfortable every week. I suppose when I was here back in 2018, I was still probably kind of in awe of a lot of the girls out there.

"They were the girls I watched on TV, was still watching them on TV. A little bit of probably star struck up and down the range and on the putting green and all that. It's nice to sort of be a little bit more comfortable out here three years on. A lot of familiar faces and the same players I play with week in and week out.

"My game is also in really good shape leaving college. It was still quite consistent all the rest, but I would like to hope I have a few more shots in my bag than I had three years ago. Putting has improved and added a bit of extra yardage.

"I had a local caddie that week as well, and then I have Dermot this week. Yeah, a few things have changed, but a lot is still the same as well at the same time."

As for thoughts of winning the Rookie of the Year award, she said: I'd like to finish off the season as strong as I possibly can. The season has been going well so far. If the season ended today, I would be still incredibly happy with how -- I couldn't have asked for a better season. Still my rookie year, technically.

"We've got five events left. Try and put myself in contention in as many of them as I possibly can. A lot of that momentum from Solheim and off the back of the majors, Evian and British Open and all those events. Yeah, I mean, it would be sort of cherry on top to finish off the year with a win.

"If I do, great. If not, take all the experiences from this year and bring them into next year. I've never been one to worry about rankings or any of that sort of stuff.

"I'll just keep sort of playing my golf, trying to do as well as I possibly can, and let Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year and all that sort of look after itself."

As for the passionate Leona Maguire who fist-pumped her way through the Solheim Cup — a very different person to the normally steely and reserved player we have seen so far — she could only smile.

"It's Solheim Cup. It's a different dynamic to every other week. It's a lot of fun playing match play. Matchplay, that one-on-one thing is a bit of a different dynamic. Yeah, who knows. I suppose holing a birdie putt on the 5th hole this week won't be quite the same as doing it at a Solheim Cup, but I'm excited to have crowds back this week, hopefully cheering for every shot, which will be nice again.

"It's just nice when you saw that emotion from Shane Lowry too at the Ryder Cup. It doesn't come out all that often, but if there is a reason to this week, why not?

"If I have a putt to be in contention on Sunday, I'm sure there will be a few fist pumps."