Leona lurking after third-round 66 in Ohio
Leona Maguire of Ireland watches her tee shot on the 14th hole during the second round of the Dana Open presented by Marathon at Highland Meadows Golf Club on September 02, 2022 in Sylvania, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Leona Maguire is gunning for a low final round and her second LPGA Tour title today after making six birdies in a five-under 66 to lurk just three shots off the lead in the Dana Open in Ohio.
The Co Cavan star missed just two greens in regulation as she birdied the first, third, sixth and ninth, then followed her lone bogey of the day at the 11th with birdies at the 16th and 17th.
At 11-under par, the world number 15 is in a seven-way tie for fourth behind Lucy Li, whose 67 gave her a one-shot lead over Germany's Caroline Masson and American Lexi Thompson, who both shot 65, on 14-under.
"Yeah, got off to a really nice start," said Maguire, who is 13th in the Race to CME Globe standings with one win, five top 10s, and $1,169,531 from her 18 LPGA starts. "Birdied three out of my first five holes, which was nice. Gave myself a lot of chances, hit a lot of greens. Probably the best I've hit my irons in a while, so really happy with that.
"Would've been nice to birdie 18. Didn't quite get there. Yeah, 16, 17, 18 are three really good chances to finish.
At least I got two out of three of them. So I have some good momentum heading into tomorrow."
With the top-10 covered by just four shots, she knows she's going to have to go low again to contend for her second LPGA Tour win this year as she's tied for fourth with New Zealand's Lydia Ko (64), Korea's Sei Young Kim (65), Australia's Hannah Green (66), China's Xiyu Lin (66) and Ruoning Yin (68) and Japan's Nasa Hataoka (67)
"Yeah, the leaderboard is really bunched. There is a lot of big names up there. Obviously Lydia was going low today and there is a low score out there.
"I think the weather is not supposed to be quite as nice tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. But in good shape heading into tomorrow, and just try and post another low one.
"Hopefully, it's not quite as rainy as it was last year on Sunday. But birdies will be a little trickier to get maybe in the rain, so try to get as many of them as you could today."
Maguire is refreshed after spending the last two weeks at home in Cavan after a busy summer in Europe.
"I really enjoyed my time at home," she said. "It was nice to be back in Europe for six, seven weeks or whatever it was. And then two weeks at home to sort of reset, recharge, and go again and be excited for the second half of the season.
"I think at this point in the season, it's kind of easy to get frustrated and lose patience, so that time at home, kind of come out with a little bit fresher perspective and just enjoying being out here."
Li (19) battled on a hot and humid day in Sylvania and follower her second-round 64 with a 67 to sit one stroke ahead of the pack at 14-under.
Although she's already secured her LPGA Tour card for 2023 through the Epson Tour top 10, Li could accept immediate Membership with a win on Sunday and become the season's ninth Rolex First-Time Winner.
"It's been a kind of a whirlwind couple of months," said Li, who has won twice on the second-tier Epson Tour this year.
"Definitely didn't expect to be here a couple months ago, so I'm just really grateful to be here and have this opportunity. Whatever happens tomorrow will happen."
