Maguire lights it up on the greens as Carey, Murphy and Dunne shine
Leona Maguire of Ireland in action during the pro-am. Credit: Tristan Jones/LET
Leona Maguire produced a stunning putting performance and birdied her last three holes to open with a five-under 68 that left her just a shot off the pace in the ISPS HANDA World Invitational at sun-baked Galgorm Castle.
The world number 17 closed with a 66 and tied for fourth in the AIG Women’s Open despite not putting well at Muirfield.
But while she struggled off the tee yesterday, hitting her opening drive out of bounds, she had just 23 putts as she mixed four bogeys with seven birdies and an eagle three to roar right into contention.
“It’s never ideal when you hit your first tee shot out of bounds, but I’ve done well,” said Maguire, who is tied for second with American Lauren Coughlin, Denmark’s Emily Kristine Pedersen and England’s Georgia Hall, just one shot behind LPGA rookie Amanda Doherty, who birdied all five par-fives in a six-under 67 at Galgorm Castle.
Men’s leaderboard / Women’s leaderboard
“I didn't hit the ball particularly well today off the tee. Few dropped shots but putted really nice to keep myself in there. Always nice to finish with three birdies at the end.”
After starting with a bogey six, Maguire rolled in a nine footer for par at the second, then followed an eagle from 18 feet at the third with back to back birdies.
Struggling at times from the tee, she bogeyed the sixth, eighth and 12th but birdied the ninth and 13th before knocking in 25 footers at the 16th and 17th and a 15 footer at the last for a hat-trick of closing birdies.
While Olivia Mehaffey shot a three-over 75 and Stephanie Meadow a 76 at Massereene, Maguire is looking to pull all elements of her game together at the neighbouring venue today.
“If I had the putted today like I putted on Sunday, it would be a bit of a different story,” she said. “If I can take the ball striking from last week and add it to the putting today, I would be very happy.”
As for leader Doherty, the American was pleased.
“I was really just trying to stay in the moment today, and I feel like I was just kind of in that mindset starting the day,” she said
“I stayed patient. I know it's kind of cliche, but it works. I was hitting the ball well. I made a couple of good putts and there were some reachable par-fives, so it just kind of came together.
“I thought it was awesome out there. This is like perfect weather for me, and the course is in great shape. You don't often get to play two courses, so it's definitely interesting. A totally new game plan tomorrow. I’m just trying to stick to the same thing and stay patient and hopefully have a good round.”
In the men’s event, Kinsale’s John Murphy birdied three of his last six holes to post a three-under 67 at Galgorm Castle as David Carey shot a three-under 67 at Massereene to share 16th place, six strokes behind Scotland’s Ewen Ferguson.
“I took a week off about four weeks back there and this is my fourth week in a row and I've been playing great ever since,” said Murphy, who has finished third in his last two Challenge Tour starts. “That week was great just to refresh and get ready to go again and that's what we did. It was a great decision.”
As for Carey, who feels 100pc again after testing positive for Covid after The Open, the Dubliner was pleased to take advantage of perfect conditions.
“It’s tricky because the greens are a lot softer than around the greens so if you miss, you can end up in quite a lot of trouble,” said Carey. “Basically you have to keep hitting greens.”
Ferguson made two eagles and five birdies in a course-record nine-under 61 at Galgorm Castle to lead by four shots from Spain’s Borja Virto, Sweden’s Felix Palson and England’s Richard Bland.
Paul Dunne, who had his best result for three years when he tied for 20th in the Cazoo Open at Celtic Manor last week, birdied three of his last five holes at Galgorm Castle to joint 23rd after a two-under 68.
Tom McKIbbin got to three-under when he chipped in at the 11th but he bogeyed the 15th and 16th to end that day tied 36th after a 69 with Conor Purcell and Gary Hurley 45th after level par 70s.
At the Frederikshavn Challenge in Denmark, Mallow’s James Sugrue and Tramore’s Robin Dawson shot three-under 69s to lie tie 14th, just four shots behind Germany’s Freddie Schott with Rowan Lester 87th after a 74.
At the opening FedEx Cup Playoff event in Memphis, South Korea’s Si Woo Kim holed a 168-yard approach for an eagle two at the 18th to open with an eight-under 62 and share the early lead in the FedEx St. Jude Championship with JJ Spaun, two clear of JT Poston and Tony Finau at TPC Southwind.
