Leona living the dream

Interview

"The secret is out, on a global stage. We’ve known all about Leona Maguire for years - from being a teenage phenomenon, right through her college years to a seamless move onto the LPGA Tour - but, now, the world is only too aware of the 26-year-old Cavan woman who stole the show in her debut appearance at the 17th edition of the Solheim Cup in Toledo, Ohio."

- The Irish Times, Monday, September 6, 2021

It can come down to one day, one hour, even one shot.

For rookie sporting superstars, in any code, that’s all it takes to change everything. One punch, one putt, one goal and an athlete who has been grinding away all their life becomes an overnight success - in the perception of the public that is.

For Leona Maguire, it was the Solheim Cup. The Cavanwoman thrived in the heated matchplay environment, under the gaze of a global audience. Her performance was astonishing and saw her lead news bulletins and adorn front and back pages of national newspapers.

Suddenly, Maguire had crossed over. For several years, serious golf fans were well aware of her and there would have been a degree of recognition among casual followers of the game. Solheim changed all that.

Here was a player who rose to the challenge against the Americans, who showed assurance and sheer grit to almost will Europe over the line. It had all the makings of a blockbuster and Maguire had suddenly been re-cast, bumped up from a supporting role to leading lady. A star was born.

Was it life-changing? She’s not one for making sweeping statements but she admits things are different now.

“I’ve always had massive support but I think the Solheim was probably a bit of a turning point,” Leona told the Anglo-Celt last week, in light of her first LPGA Tour win.

“I think a lot of people tuned in to Solheim that wouldn’t normally watch women’s sport, women’s golf or golf in general so I suppose it was to continue the momentum from that.

“Mam and Dad have been inundated with messages and calls and the kids at school were all excited coming in last Monday to talk about it. Granny has been inundated with people, there are a lot of cards at the house… Yeah there’s a massive buzz. Even people in the airport there this morning when I landed.

“It’s fantastic to see how proud and delighted so many people are.”

When the Solheim was over, the European team partied that night before jetting off the next morning. Few if any of them, other than Maguire, would have enjoyed a homecoming parade.

“After we were done in Toledo, we all celebrated that night and then the next day we went our separate ways. Some were going back to different places in Europe, England or wherever, some were going back to Orlando, Arizona, they were all scattered around.

“The big thing at home as well was there were a lot of Olympic homecomings, there were a lot of towns around Ireland which were having homecomings. I’ve always had tremendous support here in Cavan and I suppose with the lads not doing quite as well in the football, there was no homecoming for them this year.

“To go round Ballyconnell in a gold BMW convertible, with all the escorts and everything else (laughs), that’s not a moment I’ll forget. And to have Granny in the front as well waving to everybody, she was as proud as punch to see everybody out supporting as well.”

Returning from the Solheim, she was instantly struck by the reception. She was now, in the eyes of the public, a genuine Irish sporting superstar.

“It’s definitely different. It was something I’ve never experienced before. I wasn’t expecting the reaction when we came home, the amount of people that were watching it from all walks of life really.

“For me, the best golf I played all year was the 61 at Evian and then that singles against Jennifer Kupcho. Solheim was a team event, you’re in that team environment, it’s matchplay and it’s very different but I still took confidence from the fact that I hit the shots when I needed to, holed the putts when I needed to and that I just played my own game and that was enough to beat Nelly Korda twice.

“You take confidence in that but at the same time, it is matchplay and it is a team event and ultimately the majority of our events are individual strokeplay events so it’s nice to sort of back it up with an individual win as well and prove that it wasn’t just a once-off.

“The European team all got along so well all week. We were quite good friends, all of us, leading up to the Solheim and then afterwards even better friends probably, but I definitely think I earned a lot of respect from the Americans that weekend – Americans that were on that team and Americans that weren’t on it.

“A lot of people came up to me on the putting green or on the range and said ‘well done, well played’, that even if they were cheering for America, it was so nice to see me do what I did.

“And there were a few of the Australian players and the Asian players who were probably cheering for Europe and they were delighted to see it as well. I suppose there was maybe a new-found respect there. That’s what you want among your peers.

“And also, in the pro-ams as well, a lot of the time the group would maybe have googled me or something and would be able to quote things from Wikepedia or wherever. Whereas now they bring up the Solheim straight away, they don’t have to ask. Whether they were watching it or if they were there, that’s a little different in that environment too.”

That, then, was September. Over the winter, she put in heavy work, on the range and in the gym. The success at Solheim had given her confidence and validation and a taste for winning at the elite level. She was desperate for more yet it is important in golf not to peak too early.

Still, when the chance arose at Crown Colony in Florida to claim that first victory, she wasn’t going to shy away from it.

“Golf is a fickle game. I put in a lot of work over the winter, I only really took Christmas Day off, I was back at it again St Stephen’s Day. I spent a lot of time in the gym and working when I was here at home.

“The goal is always to get off to the fastest start possible each year and you never know when all that work is going to kick in. You plan to peak around the Majors or in the summer like I did last year but at the same time, you take your chances when you get them and you need to be ready when you get them.

“You never know when that chance is going to arise. Going into the Saturday, I knew it was as good a chance as I’ve had. Two of us were, whatever it was, three or four shots ahead.

“I knew Lexi [Thompson] and Patty [Tavatanakit] and some of them were going to make a charge but I felt like I was playing well, I was comfortable in my game, if I posted a number… The goal was to get to 20 under par, I thought if I could get to 20 under par nobody could catch me.

“We nearly got there, I got to 19 going down the last. I am proud of how I stuck to that game plan and didn’t get too distracted by what everybody else was doing.”

The win, she told interviewers afterwards, was 17 years in the making. Seventeen years of constantly practising, competing, travelling, learning. And then, it happens and you’re an LPGA winner; just like that.

“I suppose it’s something that you look forward to for a long time and then when it happens, you don’t really plan for it happening, you plan for everything leading up to it.

“Relief but also delight at the same time, delighted to see the reaction of everybody else as well that got to take so much joy from the win. A mixture of the two, relief and delight at the same time.”

For someone less grounded, it could be dizzying, all this acclaim and new-found fame. Social media has lit up whenever Leona has been in contention. At an event, she will check in an odd time, scroll through her timeline, but at the Drive-On Championship, it was strictly business.

“It kind of depends. Early in the week, a little bit more. I’d be using the phone to keep in touch with people anyway so I’d have an eye on it but Friday night beforehand, I didn’t go on Twitter at all because I knew there would be people tweeting, ‘will this be the first win? Is this it? She has a good chance’… All those sort of things.

“I knew what people would probably be saying so I didn’t need it confirmed so I didn’t go on Twitter at all the night before. I just tried to focus on the job at hand.”

That clear-headed focus has always been a feature of her play. When she’s in contention, she has always tended to raise her game. Her father Declan stated as much in an interview with Off The Ball recently:

“I think Leona is one of those characters who works on pressure,” he said.

“I’ve always said that Leona is always at her best when she’s in the mix in the last round. If she is in the mix at that stage, whatever it is, she just seems to go into a different zone at that stage, she never backs off. She won’t back off from anything.

“I’d never fear for Leona in that situation. “

Leona herself doesn’t make too much of it. She’s a competitor and she’s there to win, she says. Her natural instinct is to go for it.

“The more you’re in those situations, you learn how to deal with them. I’ve always been competitive, I suppose growing up with Lisa we’d always have been trying to beat each other.

“That competitiveness was always there. That’s sport, that’s what you practise for and that’s what you prepare for, to be in those situations.

“You want to be able to pull off those shots when you need it most. That’s why you get up on those early mornings and long nights and all the cold winter days, it sort of makes it all worthwhile when you’re able to do it in those moments.”

While she has referenced several times how close a lot of the European players in particular are on tour, it’s still professional sport and by definition, that means it’s a cut-throat business.

“There’s 144 girls competing every week, I wouldn’t say it’s all sunshine and rainbows. It’s like anything, you have your group of friends who you practise with and travel with and go to dinner with and all of that. I mean there are obviously some rivalries there, some people get along and some don’t and ultimately everybody wants to win.

Friends on tour

“There are definitely people that you are more friendly with than others. I’d say the Europeans are probably friendlier among each other than you would be with anyone else, just because a lot of us have known each other for such a long time. We grew up playing junior golf and amateur golf and college golf together. There are girls that I’ve known 12, 14 years at this stage.

“We’d be all quite good friends but there are obviously others that you don’t know as well and I suppose you take more delight in beating certain people over others, like anything.”

An interesting sub-plot to her rise to prominence has been how she become an ambassador for growing female sport. That hasn’t happened by accident – ‘woman does well, woman becomes role model’ - rather, she has embraced it, publicly putting her weight behind the 20x20 campaign to increase media coverage and routinely posting on social media on the subject.

At the same time, she has perspective about it, about where it’s come from and where it can go.

“I’m only one person. We’ve come a long way in the last while, obviously there is a long way to go. I don’t think we’re ever going to achieve an equal footing with the men, the men are just earning such ridiculous money, I don’t think it’s reasonable to think we are going to make up for the historical deficits that are there.

“I mean, you see the US Open this year, the prize fund going to $10 million. And I think the big thing as well is the opportunity is there of getting to play on golf courses like Congressional, Pebble Beach and Muirfield, all these venues where a few years ago, that wouldn’t have been possible.

“I think there are huge strides being made in the women’s game and not just in golf but across all sports, there is a lot more awareness there. It’s nice to see so many Irish female athletes doing well, it’s not just me.

“Rachael Blackmore is obviously doing well, all the girls that did so well in Tokyo. There is a great buzz about women’s sport and it’s not just support for the sake of support, it’s athletes doing well and people enjoying seeing them doing well. It’s not just sort of getting coverage for the sake of getting coverage.

“Bit by bit there is a bit more TV coverage and a bit more in the media and obviously social media is probably helping as well. We are heading in the right direction.

“I think people are appreciating it for what it is, I don’t think you necessarily have to compare the men’s game to the women’s game in any sport. They both can be appreciated for the skill and ability that’s there. Obviously they’re not going to be the exact same but I think people are appreciating it for what’s there and the more they watch, they more they can analyse it.

“They are starting to analyse the women’s game in the same way they would the lads. And I suppose that’s the thing, you don’t just want to get a pat on the back, say ‘aren’t they great’… If I don’t play well, I’m going to be criticised just like the lads are. It has to go both ways.”

When the Celt caught up with her, she had just flown in from her base in Lake Nona, Florida. She returns to Cavan at every opportunity.

For the few days that followed, she was intending to “keep it very low key, under the radar”. The plan was to get some time with her coach, Shane O’Grady, and the physios at the Sport Ireland Institute. After that, it was off to Singapore and Thailand for the next events.

The life of a pro whose career is in the ascendancy means there isn’t much time for taking stock; there are planes to catch, cuts to make. Having gate-crashed the world top 20, the sense is that she won’t rest until she’s another 19 places higher.

The world now knows her name and, as she said a fortnight ago, she’s only getting started.