Ireland’s Leona Maguire is 12 strokes off the pace halfway through her first LET event since turning professional but feels that an early tee time will give her the best chance to post a low number on Saturday.
With two days to go, she lies in a share of 37th on four-over-par, but her second round score of 75 doesn’t tell the whole story, as a near gale blew through Bonville Golf Resort on Friday afternoon, which made scoring extremely difficult for the later starters.
“We definitely got the rougher side of the draw, so I’m happy with how I managed that,” she said. “I mean, there were some tough winds out there today. I felt like I played pretty nicely coming in on the back side. Those last six holes were really playing tough. Most of them were back into the wind and it was swirling around. I was really patient. I didn’t have any birdies today but made some good pars which felt like birdies.”
Although Maguire was raised in Cavan, she has spent the last four years in North Carolina and said that she is not used to playing in such strong winds in general.
“It was probably as strong as this at the Vic Open on Saturday, but today was pretty strong. Quite a few times I had to back off shots and leaves and branches were falling. Some holes we were allowing 30 yards. It just depended on which gust you caught,” she said.
Maguire will tee off at 7.40am from the ninth with China’s Xi Yu Lin and fellow rookie Diksha Dagar from India.
“Two more days to go so I’ll get out earlier tomorrow and try to post a low number.”
