Ireland's Leona Maguire was somewhat of a child prodigy growing up and has now established herself on the LPGA Tour with multiple wins. After achieving so much as an amateur, many have tipped her to become a real force in the women's game in the years to come. You can get to know her a little better with these facts.
Leona Maguire Facts
1. Leona Maguire was born on November 30, 1994 in County Cavan, Ireland.
2. Aged nine, she decided to focus on golf, having also been a promising swimmer.
3. She has a twin sister called Lisa, who is 15 minutes older and was also a professional golfer before retiring in 2019.
4. In 2006, Leona and her sister brought the Ryder Cup trophy to the stage at the presentation ceremony as Europe celebrated their win at the K Club.
5. Maguire became the youngest woman ever to compete in a Ladies European Tour event when - at the age of 12 - she teed it up at the 2007 Northern Ireland Ladies Open.
6. In 2008, Maguire and her twin sister were picked for the European Junior Ryder Cup team to take on the US at Olde Stone in Kentucky, although it ended in defeat.
7. Maguire became the youngest player to win the Helen Holm Scottish Women’s Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship in 2009 at the age of 14.
8. Also in 2009, she represented Great Britain and Ireland in the Vagliano Trophy for the first of four times, setting the record as the youngest player to achieve such a feat.
9. She has played in two Junior Solheim Cups (2009 and 2011).
10. Maguire is the youngest player ever to represent GB&I in the Curtis Cup, doing so when she was 15 in 2010. She made three Curtis Cup appearances, winning two of them (2012 and 2016) and losing one (2010).
11. In 2012, Maguire made her debut major championship appearance at the Women's British Open where she missed the cut.
12. After leaving school in 2014, Maguire went to Duke University in North Carolina.
13. By 2015, she was the top ranked female amateur in the world and won the Annika Award for the best female golfer of the year in American college golf.
14. She was invited to play in the Ladies European Tour’s 2015 ISPS Handa Championship as a guest amateur, where she remarkably finished second, just a shot behind the winner. As she wasn’t yet a professional, Maguire could not accept the €50,000 prize.
15. In Maguire’s second major appearance at the 2015 Evian Championship, she became the first woman from Ireland to make the cut in a major before going on to finish as the leading amateur.
16. In total, Maguire had to forfeit more than €68,000 in prize money in 2015.
17. Despite being an amateur, Maguire represented Ireland at the 2016 Rio Olympics, finishing in a tie for 21st place. As a professional, she has since been to two further Olympic Games - Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
18. She made the cut at the 2017 Women’s British Open at Kingsbarns and added the Smyth Salver for leading amateur to her trophy cabinet.
19. In 2017, she won the Women’s Amateur Championship for the first time, beating Spain's Ainhoa Olarra in the final at Pyle & Kenfig.
20. Maguire holds the record for the most time spent at the top of the World Amateur rankings, with 135 weeks.
21. While still an amateur, she qualified for the Symetra Tour in 2018.
22. She turned pro in June of 2018 and picked up two Symetra Tour wins - the 2019 Windsor Golf Classic and Symetra Classic.
23. Her best result in a major came at the 2022 Women's Open Championship, where she finished in a tie for fourth.
24. Maguire has represented Team Europe at the Solheim Cup on two occasions and is yet to be on the losing side, having won 15-13 in 2021 and drawn 14-14 in 2023. Maguire went unbeaten at Inverness Club in Ohio with four wins and a half-point from her five outings. At Finca Cortesin, Maguire won three and lost two matches.
25. Maguire claimed her first LPGA Tour title at the 2022 LPGA Drive On Championship, becoming the first Irish woman to achieve the feat. Her second arrived at the 2023 Meijer LPGA Classic. Maguire was in the final of the 2024 T-Mobile Match Play but fell to World No.1 Nelly Korda during a record-breaking stretch of wins for the American.
26. In 2024, she became the first Irish woman to win on the Ladies European Tour after triumphing wire-to-wire at the Aramco Team Series - London event.
