Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Vincent Whelan

Leona Maguire finishes with a flourish to vault into contention at Women's Open

Leona Maguire registered three birdies over her last five holes to vault herself into contention at the AIG Women's Open in Muirfield.

Having carded a level par 71 on opening day, she wound up posting a score of 69 to leave herself in a tie for 10th place with the leaders yet to go out on what is a blustery day at the Scottish course.

Other notable moments earlier in her round included an eagle on the fifth along with three bogeys on the fourth, eleventh and thirteenth.

Her hot streak included the above 40-foot putt. Despite the bonus of that going in, the Cavan woman remained her usual calm self which is something that she highlighted as being central to her round really coming good towards the end.

She told aigwomensopen.com: "I felt like I played really well on the front nine, hit some nice shots, didn't hole the putts I would like and gave myself a lot of chances.

"I thought I hit a good shot on 11, got screwed in the bunker up the face and hit a couple of bad iron shots into the par-threes on four and 13 and dropped those shots, but I birdied 14 and 15, which are probably two of the hardest holes out there, so that was a nice boost heading into those last few holes.

"Three under for the last five is really good momentum heading into the weekend."

The world number 22 did, however, admit that there was a tinge of regret with how her putter did let her down on occasion.

She added: "I would like to have got to about four or five under, but you have got to take your chances where they come.

"So I didn't take advantage of some of the easier holes and then birdied two of the hardest holes, so that's links golf.

"You really have to be patient and I felt like I did that today.

"It would have been easy to get frustrated and finished a couple over, so I felt like I did that today and dug in for those last few. I hit it in a few bunkers today and they are very penal, so I will try to stay out of them for the weekend."

There was disappointment for Stephanie Meadow though as she looks set to miss the cut after finishing up at +6.

You can check out the live leaderboard here.

At the time of writing, South African Ashleigh Buhai leads the way on -7 after 10 holes of her second round.

READ NEXT:

Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.