Leona Maguire once again made her way to the semi-finals of the T-Mobile Matchplay Championship at Shadow Creek, Las Vegas, clinching victory over Thailand’s Moriya Jutanugarn with a scoreline of 4&3 on Saturday.
Maguire, having secured the pole position after emerging as the top scorer in the initial three rounds of stroke play, was up two within the first three holes. Jutanugarn did briefly narrow Maguire’s lead with an eagle on the fourth hole, but the advantage was quickly reestablished with a par on the fifth.
Her lead further extended to three after an eagle on the eighth, and by maintaining back-to-back pars on the 11th and 12th against Jutanugarn’s doubles, she was five up with six holes still left.
Whilst Jutanugarn had a minor victory on the 14th, equalling Maguire’s score, Maguire clinched the title with a par on the next, leaving three holes unplayed.
In the semi-finals, Maguire is set to take on Sei Young Kim, who previously outperformed the faltering Rose Zhang by 6&5, the budding American talent finishing seven over in their 13-hole match.
Elsewhere in the tournament, the breathtaking form of Nelly Korda earned her a 3&2 victory over fellow American Angel Yin, continuing her quest for a quartet of consecutive tournament wins. Her next opponent will be South Korea’s Narin An, who had a narrow one-hole success over Minami Katsu of Japan.
With a third round score of 69, for an aggregate six-under-par 210, Maguire had a three-shot advantage over Zhang, Yin, and Katsu in the stroke play. Nevertheless, these scores will be abandoned as the competition moves into the match play phase of this unique LPGA Tour event.
Maguire commented on the initial phase as a “big mental win”, as she had to battle challenging, gusty weather and firm greens. Her patience and strategic execution of shots ultimately contributed to her lead.
Maguire described her strategic approach to progressing to the knock-outs, explaining that the windy and troubled conditions made it difficult to think beyond the shot at hand. She mentioned her decision to avoid tracking leaderboards, instead entrusting this role to Dermot Byrne so she could concentrate on playing her best shots.
In the previous year’s event, Maguire secured a third place position and she expressed her fondness for the desert golf course, referring to it as one of the best, if not the paramount one, they compete on annually. Highlighting it as an exceptional challenge, she spoke of the course akin to a Major championship, where poor strokes are heavily penalised whilst outstanding ones garner significant rewards – an aspect she believes all golf should present. She emphasised her enthusiasm for the test it presents, and looks forward to facing Jutanugarn the following day.