Leona Maguire ready to chase history at Women's Irish Open
Leona Maguire is somewhere between Texas and Michigan when the call comes through from RTÉ Sport.
It's the Monday after the KPMG Women's PGA Championship and it's been road and air ever since, the life of a professional athlete.
There's another big leg to come yet after a stop off at the Dow Championship and that's across the Atlantic Ocean and back to Irish soil as the headline act at the 2025 KPMG Women's Irish Open, which takes place this week at Carton House and will be shown live on RTÉ.
It'll be a reinvigorated Maguire that tackles the course after her top-20 finish in Texas, where MinJee Lee tamed a ferocious course, winning by three strokes at a tournament that saw only three players finish par or better.
The Cavan golfer finished with a 76 to fall to six-over par overall, but it was good enough for her first top-20 finish at a major since the same event two years previously.
The fact that it came on the back of four missed cuts in succession suggests it came out of nowhere, but the player herself was always tranquil about her form and knew it was a matter of 'when' not 'if.'
"It was a very positive week," she told RTÉ Sport.
"It was a tough golf course, it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit here and it was very windy – the windiest conditions we've played in in a long time. Combine that with a difficult course set up and it really made for a challenge.
"It was kind of nice, you expect a challenge at majors. The KPMG PGA has become a challenging event and we were all expecting that and it was nice to put four good rounds together at this time of the year."
"I definitely felt that my game was trending in the right direction," she added.
"I played really well at the Meijer at Grand Rapids the week before.
"Golf is a funny game, sometimes all it takes is a little thing to click and away you go."
The thousands streaming through the gates of Carton House will be hoping that it has clicked completely as Ireland chases its first winner in the event.
Since the competition's return in 2022 after a nine-year absence, Maguire has been Ireland's best finisher on all three occasions – T4, T14 and T15.
Understandably, a win on home soil sits extremely high up on her golfing to-do list.
She'll have the likes of Madelene Sagstrom, Charley Hull, Anna Nordqvist, Georgia Hall and defending champion Annabel Dimmock to contend with on the O'Meara Course, but she is hopeful that history will be made at what's set to be another record-breaking event.
"I think it's testament to the investment KPMG have put into the event over the last number of years.
"Since it came back at Dromoland a couple of years ago (2022) the tournament has really elevated and built year-on-year.
"We have increased numbers of spectators and obviously the increase in the number of top quality players coming over. Anna Nordqvist, Charley Hull, they're a little bit taken aback when they see the number of Irish fans that come out.
"Even this week I've had a few friends taking pictures beside Luas signs of me and it's a bit surreal at times. It's one of the pinnacle events and one of the premier events on the Ladies European Tour."
Irish golf is especially strong right now – as will be demonstrated by the large home contingent taking part this week – and while Maguire is doing her thing Stateside, six players are currently in competition on the Ladies European Tour.
One of those, Carton House's touring professional Lauren Walsh, sits just outside the top 10 in the LET Order of Merit in just her second season with a pro card.
Maguire doesn't usually go too far without twin sister Lisa, the pair playing their first Irish Open together in 2009, and said that having so many familiar faces on the European circuit is a real tonic for the difficult stretches of life on the road.
"There's more pros out there and more girls on tour than there ever was.
"It's great for the girls when they're travelling week-on-week that they have each other.
"Historically, the Spanish and French have had lots of buddies out there and it definitely shortens the road a little bit.
"So many Irish players (16 in all) are are set to play next week and it's great to give the younger girls that exposure."
"The travel is the big component to professional golf," added Maguire, who feels this year's earlier date will help with the goal of breaking last year's 37,000 attendance figure.
"You probably don't have it on the amateur side, well definitely not as much. You finish up one place on Sunday night and you're either on a plane straight away or maybe Monday morning.
"It's a lot easier when things go to plan, it gets a bit trickier when things don't."
With another major awaiting at the Evian Championship next weekend, that trip to France will be made all the more easier if Maguire's Irish dream has been achieved.
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