Leona Maguire’s Year: Plans Rebound

The Solheim Cup marked a significant point in Leona Maguire’s season. This was perhaps the initial instance where people publicly expressed doubts about her ability. Throughout the initial two days, Maguire was benched for three out of four sessions by Europe’s captain, Suzann Pettersen. The easier, uncontroversial choice would have been to select her for the team. However, questions were raised whether that would have been the right decision.

There were convincing arguments both for and against Maguire’s inclusion. Following her 4&3 victory against Ally Ewing in the Sunday singles, she wrote in a social media post that “class was permanent, form was temporary.” However, this brought up the question – on what basis should team selection be made? Based on Maguire’s impressive form in two Solheim Cups? Or the form that had put a dampener on her season?

Prior to the Solheim Cup, Maguire had had a fluctuating season. She won a European Tour event in London but was unable to break par in five other LPGA Tour tournaments. She ranked last in the Olympics due to an illness. With three missed cuts in the Majors and a solitary top 10 finish in the LPGA Tour this season, she was certainly having a challenging time. This was in stark contrast to her performance in previous years where she recorded six and eight top 10 finishes.

Dan Brooks, Maguire’s former coach at Duke University, wasn’t surprised by her performance in the Sunday singles. He stated that Maguire would bring her best game in such situations. According to him, it was a tough decision to bench Maguire and a decision like that would require sound reasoning.

Pettersen didn’t publicly provide any justification. From what Maguire perceived, she thought she was “a little bit short [for the course] and didn’t make enough birdies.” Her singles win, however, saw her make seven birdies in 15 holes. Even though Maguire ranks 128th on the LPGA Tour this season for driving distance and Ewing is inside the top 50, it didn’t seem to matter on the day.

Shane O’Grady, the coach of Maguire, opines, “It was rather unfortunate how events unfolded. I was present, and she was in stellar form, both in practicals and the actual play. But people’s perspectives are beyond your control.”

Maguire’s performance this season sparked some uncertainty. Prior to the previous year’s Solheim Cup, Pettersen had taken the uncommon, deliberate action of assuring Maguire that she would actively participate in all five segments, replicating her remarkable introduction in 2021. However, this year lacked this kind of affirmation from the captain. Instead, conjectures filled the gap.

Every career trajectory has its fluctuations, and this year marked the first time Maguire has encountered difficulties.

It was five years ago, the previous week, when she first acquired her LPGA play rights. LPGA Tour Commissioner, Mike Whan, met the novices and acknowledged Maguire warmly, expressing, “We’ve anticipated your arrival.” She was up for it. She took the leap and soared.

Brooks remarked, “Hardly any of it was unexpected. She was already equipped to manage golf’s crests and troughs. She adeptly coped with success and was unaffected by setbacks. When describing Leona, I find the term ‘resilient’ fits best. I can’t think of a more accurate term. I was confident she would cope with the arduous professional grind. The tour life could be solitary, but she handles the solitude of golf remarkably.”

Maguire is typically composed; her feelings are well-camouflaged behind her oversized sunglasses and stern game face. Despite this, she couldn’t cover up her true emotions in several interviews this season. She admitted in June at the KPMG, “I likely have been overly critical with myself. Perhaps too critical. I have had my family and team remind me to be more self-compassionate.”

Three months after the Solheim Cup, the golfer opened up about her recent experiences on the course. She remarked about how she has been struggling to find joy in her sport this summer and confessed that she’s been working on treating herself with more kindness and aiming to find more pleasure in her golfing. She noted the frustration that comes from seeing little progress despite much hard work, asserting that she possesses the skill for success if she could nurture more self-belief.

Answering a query about the determinants of her game’s performance at the season’s start, Maguire spoke about her prowess in putting: “My most successful weeks are generally when my putting is at its best.”

Having demonstrated outstanding putting skills, it was during her debut season in 2020 that she earned the title for the lowest average putts per game on the LPGA tour, breaking records as the first Irish player to do so. In contrast, she now ranks at 57th place, falling nearly 40 spots since the previous year. The discrepancy between her peak performance and her current state is about 1.2 putts per round, equating to approximately five strokes per tournament – a significant decline.

O’Grady cautioned against investing too much energy into analyzing this slump. “Continuity in your approach can pave the way for a turnaround. That’s the essence of golf.”

In their pursuit for greater ranges off the tee, Maguire and O’Grady have been aiming to add more power. Mirroring the men’s game, the female golfers with the longest drives continue to increase their distances, causing the courses to be lengthened.

To reflect on this, the golfer’s caddie mused over his experiences from two different years: “I remember assisting her at Mission Hills one year, when she was an amateur competing in a Major and the course was 6,400 yards long. Contrastingly, in a different Major at Baltusrol the previous year, the course was said to be 6,900 yards but felt more like 7,000. Leona was urged to adapt, requiring greater strength and conditioning training.”

Nelly Korda’s golf club head’s speed has seen an increase of roughly six to seven miles per hour since three years ago. This change provides her with a valuable advantage on a typical 6,800 yard golf course, particularly on par 4s. Previously, she could only match her opponents’ drive and three wood with her drive and a nine iron, but her swings have become more vigorous, and she possesses an underhand long game now.

Maguire made a significant change midway through the season just two weeks after her victory in London – her caddie. Dermot Byrne, who had been assisting her for three years, was replaced by Vernon Tess, a seasoned Irish caddie with a twenty-year experience on the LPGA Tour. According to O’Grady, professional golfers resort to personnel changes during disappointing streaks, and everything has a lifespan.

Maguire has maintained her partnership with Kingspan, a multinational based in Cavan, outside the course. The corporation, which had been assembling a variety of sponsorship agreements recently, experienced a setback when Shane Lowry severed ties following the publication of the Grenfell Tower disaster report. Though Kingspan’s insulation products constituted only about 5% of the tower’s cladding and they weren’t held accountable for the fire propagation, the report implicated them in deliberately creating a false market and exhibiting a pattern of deep-seated, enduring dishonesty for profit.

A plea to Maguire from survivors and the grief-stricken group, Grenfell United, last month to terminate her deal with Kingspan received no acknowledgement, according to The Guardian. Despite another attempt to contact her management around a month ago, Grenfell United received no response, a spokesperson confirmed.

Meanwhile, Maguire’s efforts on the golf course persist. She is ploughing ahead, with Malaysia scheduled after a match in China. Her performance since the Solheim Cup is akin to her best golfing form since March, consistently good but not yet a threat to the title. Her methodical play is characteristic of her, leaving us to wonder whether Pettersen blundered or if she should have left Pettersen with no alternatives.

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