Leona Maguire is looking forward to giving back at this week’s KPMG Women’s Irish Open, but she jokes she can’t wait for the next generation of Irish stars to hit the tour and help carry the load.
The Co Cavan star (29) has almost single-handedly carried the event for the past two years, but with another 12 Irish players set to tee it up at Carton House this week — including two rookie professionals in Annabel Wilson and Anna Foster— she sees a bright future ahead for the women’s game here.
“For me, the Irish Open is a little bit of a bonus week,” Maguire said in the build-up to this week’s €400,000 event, which will be staged on the O’Meara Course at Carton House following two years at Dromoland Castle, which stepped in to help revive the event after a 10-year hiatus.
“I think it’s a bit more about giving back. Yes, obviously, I’d like to play as well as I possibly can. But it’s nice to see so many people root me on, and with the amount of pictures and autographs you do, you can see they are genuinely happy to see you do well.
“We had a fantastic crowd down in Dromoland the past couple of years, and hopefully this year will be just as good, if not better.”
Foster is a reserve for the Curtis Cup this week, where future pros Sara Byrne and Aine Donegan are joined by Beth Coulter, another budding star.
The Elm Park star will make her professional debut alongside Wilson this week, joining Maguire, Olivia Mehaffey and Lauren Walsh in playing for pay.
They are joined by eight Irish amateurs in Emma Fleming, Kate Lanigan, Olivia Costello, Aideen Walsh, Roisin Scanlon, Kate Dillon, Canice Screene and Anna Abom.
And Maguire has plenty of advice for the young players hoping to follow in her footsteps, telling them to do it for themselves and nobody else.
“The more, the better,” she said of the next generation that’s getting ready to hit the tour. “We see it out on tour with the Spanish, the French and the Aussies. We’ve been kind of slow in that conveyor belt of approach, but obviously, Olivia and Lauren are out on the LET, and you’ve got a bit of a crop there when it comes to the American collegiate system in the last couple of years.
“Aine has played a couple of US Women’s Open, and Sara’s obviously turning pro. Obviously, the standard is there, and I wish them all the best. Hopefully, we’ll see them out on tour soon.”
Playing golf for a living is not all it seems, and Maguire believes our young amateur stars can see if they like the lifestyle by playing on invitations this week.
“I think it’s all the extra stuff, not the golf, per se,” she said of the biggest challenges they face. “There’s managing the schedule of playing week after week after week. In amateur golf or college golf, you play an event and have a couple of weeks off. In the summer, it gets a little bit more hectic, but you have a lot more built-in breaks to practice, recover, and get ready again.
“Whereas for us, it’s week after week after week, and you’re deal with pro-ams, you’re managing sponsors, you’re dealing with all the travel, your visas. There’s a lot of extra stuff behind the scenes.
“So, I think it would be very important for the girls who are turning pro to surround themselves with good people. People who maybe have a little bit of experience and can sort of guide them through the do’s and don’ts and potential pitfalls before they happen. “If they’ve got the people around them, I don’t see any reason why they can’t go on and achieve big things.”
While there are huge demands on her time during Women’s Irish Open week, Maguire admits she’s living the dream.
“I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else,” she said. “For me, it’s the best job in the world. But I think it’s a very personal thing. I think you you have to really love what you do and love the grind and love that competitiveness and trying your hardest every week.
“If it goes well, great. If not, you pick yourself up and go again. It’s not as glamorous a lifestyle as people maybe think it is. But at the same time, it’s a very nice lifestyle when you do well.