Leona Maguire is hoping the home crowd can roar her on to victory today after a best-of-the-day 65 left her just two shots off the lead heading into the final round of the KPMG Women’s Irish Open at Dromoland Castle.

Tied for 42nd overnight, ten strokes behind Sweden’s Sweden’s Moa Folke, the world number 18 shook off the let lag that saw her crash to a 75 on Friday and played her last five holes in five-under for a seven-under round that leaves her tied eight on nine-under.

Five players were tied for the lead heading down the back nine but none of them could pull way and the Netherlands’ Anne Van Dam had enough with a two-under 70 to lead by a shot from Swedes Folke (74) and Jessica Karlsson (67), England’s Annabel Dimmock (68), Denmark’s Nicole Broch Estrup (70), Finland’s Ursula Wikstrom (71) and Spain’s Carmen Alonso (72) on 11-under par.

Scores

The Co Cavan is in a six-way tie for eighth on nine-under (she will go out in the third last group at 11:20 tomorrow with Schober and Folke) and it’s a huge bonus for her to be just two shots adrift as she was four behind when she finished with the leaders facing myriad birdie chances on the back nine.

In the end, Folke finished bogey-bogey, Alonso double-bogeyed the par-three 17th while Smilla Tarning Soenderby, who was one of five co-leaders on 11-under at one stage of the afternoon, she triple-bogeyed the 17th to nine-under alongside Maguire, Austria’s Sarah Schober and Christine Wolf, England’s Felicity Johnson and the Czech Republic’s Klara Spilkova.

“The big goal today was to try and go as low as possible and the crowds were phenomenal, especially in the back nine,” Maguire said after coming home in 31 for her 65 in front of an estimated crowd of around 4,000. “I suppose I wanted to give them something to cheer about.

“It’s been fantastic. There have been so many out to watch. You just want to give them something to cheer about you and are trying to make as many birdies as you can. So hopefully we can do more of the same tomorrow and there will be even more people out.

“It’s a home Open and you don’t get to experience that very often. I haven’t in ten years so that shows how important it is for it to be back on the schedule. All the little girls and boys were out following today, dreaming of one day being in my position, holing putts in front of a home crowd.”

Such is the enthusiasm for Maguire that her post-round interviews were applauded by onlooking fans.

“We were chatting coming up nine and the girls were saying it was as close to a Major as they had ever seen,” said Maguire, who is the highest ranked player in the field ahead of world number 44 Linn Grant of Sweden.

“Irish people are the best fans in the world, we always say it and I am sure they will be out again tomorrow.”

Long before the leaders started hitting reverse gear, she said: "'I am a long way back. Yesterday was a bit of a killer but I will play as best I can tomorrow and whatever happens, it’s been a fantastic week.”

Her mere presence at the business end of the leaderboard makes her the favourite to become the first home winner of the Women’s Irish Open, which was first played as a stand-alone event in 1984, when Kathy Whitworth won at Clandeboye.

The Ballyconnell native (27) took a three-hour nap yesterday afternoon to get over a devastating, second-round 75 that left her 10 shots behind Folke overnight.

But she dug deep for the massive home crowd that grew in size throughout her round and after overcoming a bogey at the first with par saves at the second, and fifth, she played her last 13 holes in eight-under-par.

“The crowds were fantastic,” Maguire said who admitted her par save from 10 feet at the eighth, quickly followed by a birdie from just inside 15 feet at the ninth, turned her day around.

Her round truly ignited when holed a lightning-fast chip at the 12th, then birdied the 14th from three feet and the 15th with a bunker shot to 18 inches before ripping her second to 10 feet at the 16th and rolling in the eagle putt to go six-under for the day.

She had a chance from around 10 feet for birdie at the 17th and while she misread that one, she overcame a duffed attempt to go for the green at the 18th by rolling in an 18-footer for birdie to set the clubhouse target at nine-under.

“From about the seventh or eighth the crowds starting gathering and that chip in on 12 was massive,” she admitted. “I felt like I didn’t have a lot of momentum yesterday, and not much the first day either. Golf is a funny game. You don’t need much to go one way or the other and it was nice to finish strong today.

“Yesterday I felt like I couldn’t do anything right and today it seemed to slot into place on the back nine. We will come back out tomorrow and hopefully we can have more of that tomorrow and give all the people who came out to support me something to cheer about.”

Having flown in from the US west coast, she admitted jet-lag was a problem for the first two days.

“I was exhausted after yesterday,” she confessed. “I took a three-hour nap yesterday afternoon so it gave me more energy coming out here today. There has been wonderful support this week and you don’t want to let anybody down, give them as much to cheer about as possible and I did that today.”

She was hugely aggressive on the back nine and might have gone even lower had 10-footers fallen at the par-three 13th and 17th.

“That’s the position I'm in,” she explained. “[My caddie] Dermot said to me on the 13th tee that we were going to be brave and start going at pins we had nothing to lose. Sometimes it comes off sometimes it doesn’t, today it did at least I have made up some ground.”

While she might have expected to be five or six shots behind heading into the final round, she said she’s had a total in mind all week.

“I had 20-under in my head at the start of the week and I'll try get as close to that as possible,” she said.
“Yesterday knocked me back a bit but there are a lot of chances out there and you can go on a run, just have to be patient and take chances when you get them.”

She said at the start of the week that winning an Irish Open and following in the footsteps of Padraig Harrington, Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy would be just one step below winning a major.

“It’s definitely different, definitely envious of the lads getting to share the burden, it’s just me this week and hopefully there will be a few more in the coming years,” she said.

“It's been great having the crowds cheering me on good or bad. I was disappointed after yesterday we went down to Bunratty for dinner last night and we met a man out walking his dog and he said ‘I know you’re disappointed but you have no idea the amount of people who are rooting for you.’

“I felt that today.”

KPMG Women's Irish Open, Dromoland Castle (Par 72)

Final round tee-times

8:00 Skarpnord, Bringner
8:10 Malchirand, Melecka, Martin
8:20 Komulainen, Thomson, Lund
8:30 Sauzon, Carta, Caudal
8:40 Burke, Malik, Morgan
8:55 Prat, Osala, Chevalier
9:05 De Roey, Koivisto, Boqvist
9:15 Sangkapong, Pelaez Trivino, Kreuzer
9:25 Hedwall, Simmermacher, Stavnar
9:40 Witt, Alexander, Garcia
9:50 Swayne, Gainer, Young
10:00 Kapoor, Arvidsson, Cowan
10:10 Brewerton, Beveridge, Hernandez
10:25 Grant, Pettersson, Davies
10:35 Harm, Gustavsson, Dlamini
10:45 MacLaren, Sobron Galmes, Babnik
10:55 Williams, Cowley, Tarning Soenderby
11:10 Spilkova, Wolf, Johnson
11:20 Schober, Maguire, Folke
11:30 Alonso, Wikstrom, Broch Estrup
11:40 Dimmock, Karlsson, Van Dam.

Scores

205 A Van Dam (Ned) 67 68 70

206 J Karlsson (Swe) Swe 71 68 67, A Dimmock (Eng) 66 72 68, N Broch Estrup (Den) 70 66 70, U Wikstrom (Fin) 69 66 71, C Alonso (Esp), M Folke (Swe) 70 62 74

207 L Maguire (Irl) 67 75 65, S Schober (Aut) 70 67 70, F Johnson (Eng) 71 66 70, C Wolf (Aut) 67 69 71, K Spilkova 66 68 73, S Tarning Soenderby (Den) 69 65 73

208 G Cowley (Eng) 67 73 68, C Williams (Wal) 67 71 70

210 P Babnik (Slo) 70 72 68, L Sobron Galmes (Esp) 71 71 68, M Maclaren (Eng) 70 72 68, N Dlamini (Swz) 73 67 70, J Gustavsson (Swe) 68 71 71, L Harm (Ger) 70 69 71, R Davies (Eng) 70 69 71, L Pettersson (Swe) 71 67 72, L Grant (Swe) 71 67 72

211 M Hernandez (Esp) 73 67 71, L Beveridge (Sco) 69 71 71, B Brewerton (Wal) 71 69 71, O Cowan (Ger) 68 70 73 , E Arvidsson (Swe) 67 70 74

212 V Kapoor (Ind) 72 70 70, L Young (Eng) 71 70 71, C Gainer (Eng) 68 72 72, A Swayne (Isv) 65 75 72, N Garcia (Rsa) 68 72 72, C Alexander (Rsa) 70 69 73

213 S Witt (Ger) 72 71 70, M Stavnar (Nor) 74 69 70, M Simmermacher (Arg) 71 72 70, C Hedwall (Swe) 71 71 71, H Tamy Kreuzer (Ger) 72 70 71, A Pelaez Trivino (Esp) 70 71 72, M Sangkapong (Tha) 68 72 73, L Boqvist (Swe) 65 72 76

214 T Koivisto (Fin) 70 73 71, M De Roey (Bel) 74 68 72, C Chevalier (Fra) 70 72 72, L Osala (Fin)

215 M Prat (Esp) 71 72 72, B Morgan (Wal) 71 72 72, T Malik (Ind) 73 69 73, H Burke (Eng) 70 71 74, A-L Caudal (Fra) 66 72 77

216 VE Carta (Ita) 72 71 73, A Sauzon (Fra) 71 70 75, K Lund (Nor) 70 69 77

217 M Thomson (Sco) 67 76 74, N Komulainen (Fin) 72 70 75, M Martin (Esp) 69 73 75

218 T Melecka (Cze) 71 71 76, L Malchirand (Fra) 73 68 77, S Bringner (Swe) 69 70 79

219 M Skarpnord (Nor) 68 74 77

WD J Melichova (Cze) 70 68 WD