15 hours ago
Leona Maguire will make history at KPMG Women's Irish Open along with 15 other Irish golfers
LEONA Maguire will be hoping to respond well to her late disappointment in the PGA Championship and star in what's set to be a record-breaking KPMG Women's Irish Open.
The KPMG Women's Irish Open tees off on Thursday 3 June for the fourth year running since it's 10-year hiatus.
2
Maguire has been the highest Irish finisher for the last three years in a row
2
Anna Abom was the only other Irish golfer to make the cut in the 2024 Irish Open and did so as an amateur
Last year 37,000 spectators flooded Carton House to set a record attendance for the event.
Maguire was the highest Irish finisher in
The pair will be joined by
There will also be a record number of Irish players - 16 in total, including seven professionals and nine amateurs - competing in Kildare.
Read more on Irish Sport
Maguire will be joined by fellow Irish professionals Olivia Mehaffey, Sara Byrne, Lauren Walsh, Annabel Wilson, Anna Foster, and Canice Screene.
An Irish golfer is yet to win in the competition's 30 year history with 18 opens, this year the 16 representatives will be looking to change that.
When
"Since it came back at Dromoland a couple of years ago (2022) the tournament has really elevated and built year-on-year.
Most read in Golf
"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."
Brooks Koepka suffers meltdown and smashes tee marker into fans before withdrawing from LIV Dallas claiming 'illness'
The Cavan native had a tough end to her PGA Championship just last week. She started the final day in sixth place and remained in contention as opponents around her dropped shots.
But a double bogey on the 12th hole and another on the 13th meant last year's Ladies European Tour winner had to settle for tied 19th along with world number one Nelly Korda.
The highest ranked Irish golfer - 84th - said: "It was a very positive week.
"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."
