By:
Conor Martin
Irish golfer Leona Maguire has made a frustrating start to this year’s US Women’s Open.
The 30-year old had found herself in unwanted bad form going into this week’s competition. In her last two competitive outings she missed the cut, something she’d love to avoid at Erin Hills.
Maguire needed a good start to the US Women’s Open and said in an interview prior to her first round that she wanted to work on her approach play and predicted long hitters would have an advantage in Wisconsin.
A frustrating first round for Leona Maguire
Beginning her round on the 10th, a good start looked on the cards after the first couple of holes, picking up four pars on the trot. However, things would soon nosedive when she double bogeyed after making such a positive start.
Maguire did earn herself a reprieve after a few more dropped shots on the 17th and second holes when she claimed her first birdie at the third. However, a bogey on the penultimate hole of her round left her eight shots off the first-round leaders.
She would then find herself eight shots off the leaders and will need to find some form of bouncebackability in order to stay in contention.
Going into the second round, Maguire sits in 105th place and is four over. A far cry from her best-ever finish at the competition, which was back in 2022 when she finished eighth.
She is also looking to improve her world ranking after it took a heavy hit following her poor form.
Leaderboard congested at the top
Incredibly, there are six golfers leading the way after the opening round. Yealimi Noh, Angel Yin, A Lim Kim, Jinhee Im, Julia Lopez Ramirez and Rio Takeda are all tied for the lead on four under.
Making her debut at the US Women’s Open, Lopez Rameriz had a faultless, bogey-free round. Fellow joint leader Takeda made six birdies in her opening 18 holes.
Noh, one of the six leaders, closed out her day on a high note, birdieing the par-five 18th to secure her share of the lead going into the second round said:
“US Opens are always very grand, and coming in, Erin Hills definitely lived up to the expectations. Everything’s big – the fairways, the walks, need big drives, but it’s an incredible golf course,” she told LPGA.
“It was a very solid day. Hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens. My putting was good around the greens. I didn’t chip around too much, so that made it more simple.”
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