Leona Maguire has made no secret of her love for the Olympic Games and her desire to both represent her country and compete for a medal, but her Olympic dream turned into a nightmare in Paris as illness robbed her of the opportunity to put her best foot forward at Le Golf National.
A fighter till the end, she battled back to finish on a high note with a one-under 71 in round four.
“Yeah, I felt absolutely rotten the last few days,” she admitted after signing her card for the final time this week. “I know that wasn’t the golf that I was capable of, and it was one of those things, if it was any other week I probably wouldn’t have played this week.
“But playing the Games and representing Ireland, there’s no bigger honour. It’s one of those things, you don’t give up till the very end even if it seems like it’s too far gone. I knew I could handle this golf course, but yeah, under par around this golf course, I’ll take that any day.”
Standing on the ninth tee at one-over for the day, she was staring at four over-par rounds in succession, but a run of three birdies in the following six holes were enough to move her into red figures and, even with a bogey on 17, she closed out the day at -1.
“Played some really nice golf,” she said of the final round. “It’s a difficult golf course and you really need your wits about you. It’s one of those things that you need to be at a hundred per cent, and I was very far from that week but proud of the way I bounced back today and try to take that into next few weeks.”
Despite not being able to give the travelling support much to cheer about over the first three days, she admitted that the volumes of Irish fans were one of the reasons why she continued to battle through her illness.
Yeah, they have been fantastic,” she said. “This is some of the biggest crowds we’ve seen, and so many jerseys. If it wasn’t for all the support, I probably would have thought about packing it in. But it’s been phenomenal, all the support the Irish have gotten both back home and over here, it’s been incredible. The support for Team Ireland, there’s been so many people working behind the scenes to help us athletes. There’s been a lot of people doing a lot of work behind the scenes.
“Yeah, very grateful to be part of a great team.”
Maguire hasn’t been able to get to any of the other sporting events, but she’s been “cheering on from afar,” and as the Games draw to a close, the Women’s 4x400m relay final offers a last chance for a medal and she’ll be fully behind them.
“I’ll be cheering for the girls tonight to hopefully go one better,” she said.