Maguire hoping for major “click” at Chevron Championship with new caddie
Leona Maguire hopes to pull every element of her game together for the first time this season as she plays the opening women's major with a new caddie on her bag.
The Co Cavan star tees it up in the $8m Chevron Championship at The Club at Carlton Woods in Texas, looking to see her game click after a solid but unspectacular start to the season.
Maguire (30) split with Kerry caddie Verners Tess after an eight-month partnership and she's happy to have teamed up with Kinsale's Shane O'Connell, who formerly caddied for John Murphy, in Arizona last month.
"Yeah, so far, so good," Maguire said on her arrival in Texas. "Shane has come across from the men's side, so it's been a learning experience for him.
"But we've been getting along very well personality-wise. We're similar and both pretty level-headed and it's nice to have a fellow Irish person on the bag. Same sort of sense of humour and way of doing things.
"So I'm getting used to him. He's getting used to me and we're just trying to adapt as well as we can and learn as we go just a few more."
After falling from a career-high of 10th in the world just 18 months ago to 63rd this week, Maguire is hoping her improved driving will feed into the rest of her game.
She tied for ninth in her first start of the season in the Tournament of Champions and while she's made every cut since then, she's still waiting for another top finish.
"I feel like it's been taking shape nicely," she said of her game. "Played some nice golf in LA last week. I got a new putter in the bag which worked pretty well.
"It's been consistent. I just need to try and get myself into contention a little bit more… But I'm driving the ball a lot better than I did last year.
"The things we worked on in the off-season are starting to come together pretty well. I am just trying to get it all to click together in one week."
Defending champion Nelly Korda is joint favourite with Thailand's Jeeno Thitikul to win on a rain-softened course at The Woodlands and Maguire knows it won't be easy.
"I feel like the standard every year is going up and up and it's getting more and more and more competitive," she said.
"I am trying to play as well as I can. I feel like every week I've been doing something a little bit better, so just trying to keep trending in that direction."
As for the course, she's ready for a slog on a track with tricky greens.
"It's playing long this year," she said. "It's pretty soft, it's pretty wet."
Weather delays are likely, but Maguire believes a softer course will allow her to show off her prowess with the fairway woods.
"It'll just make it long," she said. "So more hybrids for me, I guess, which is never a bad thing."
As for her bid to become the first Irishwoman to win a major, she's hoping for the best in her 32nd major start and her 25th as a professional.
"Majors are always a bit more of a test than other weeks," she said. "But, I feel like now we're going to some great venues on tour where the standard of the golf course are getting better and better.
“So there's not as much of a gap between normal weeks and major weeks.
"I feel like LA was a good test last week. The way the greens were so slopey, it was good preparation for this week.
"Ultimately, whoever plays the best this week will win. So you're just trying to have all the pieces of your game together."
