{"id":56536,"date":"2026-08-26T16:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T16:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/56536\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T16:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T16:10:13","slug":"womens-golf-is-so-strong-here-leona-maguire-hopes-an-ireland-player-wins-irish-open-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/56536\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Women\u2019s golf is so strong here\u2019: Leona Maguire hopes an Ireland player wins Irish Open \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The numbers game, which golf is all about, has brought a distinct edge to this latest KPMG Women\u2019s Irish Open on the South Course of the K Club<\/a>: a record 16 home players \u2013 11 professionals and five amateurs \u2013 are among the 132-player field and where traditionally Leona Maguire<\/a> has carried much of the weight of expectation the load this time is spread.<\/p>\n

This season alone has provided evidence of the growing strength-in-depth of Irish touring players, with a number knocking on the door on the LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour<\/a> (LET). And, of course, Beth Coulter, who actually got the job done in her pro debut in the Irish Challenge on the LET Access.<\/p>\n

Those other near misses, though, demonstrate why heightened expectations are attached to the Irish prospects for this \u20ac450,000 purse tournament. <\/p>\n

Maguire was runner-up in the Aramco Championship on the LPGA Tour; Lauren Walsh<\/a> was third in the LPGA Shoprite; Sara Byrne was runner-up in the French Open; Anna Foster was runner-up in the Swiss Open and \u00c1ine Donegan was tied-10th in the PIF London.<\/p>\n

Coulter \u2013 who has finished one-two in her two starts on the LET Access, that maiden win in Malahide followed by a bizarre playoff loss in Denmark \u2013 has hit the ground running since swapping college life at Arizona State for the professional game. <\/p>\n

Her primary focus for the rest of the season is on the LET Access with the aim of securing a full tour card, currently ninth on the points list after just two appearances with seven cards available. But this week\u2019s stand-alone opportunity \u2013 playing on a sponsor\u2019s invitation \u2013 offers the prospect of an even quicker route to the LET for Coulter.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously the depth on the LET is huge. You have Major winners here and Solheim Cup<\/a> stars here, so the depth is unbelievable,\u201d said Coulter, who would aim to carry \u201cdefinitely the same mindset\u201d that she had in Malahide into this tournament, the 20th edition of the Women\u2019s Irish Open. <\/p>\n

\"InternationalInternational field at the tournament remains strong and features seven winners from the LET this year and current order of merit leader, Casandra Alexander, above. Photograph: Nick Elliott\/INPHO <\/p>\n

As the 22-year-old from Co Down \u2013 who has kept that potential winning combination with her boyfriend Owen flying over to caddie \u2013 said: \u201cI\u2019ll just be focusing on myself and focusing on the next shot, and just having fun with it. I think seeing some of your best friends do really well [this season] is really cool and knowing that we can compete is a good motivator, knowing we can go out here each week and win, which is really nice. Hopefully one of us will get it over the line in the next couple of weeks or months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maguire has been for so long a lone standard-bearer for women\u2019s professional golf in Ireland, certainly in a pioneering manner. It has seen her nicknamed \u201cMVP\u201d by her team-mates for her Solheim Cup performances, also she acknowledged the sea change of recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really nice to see so many Irish girls on the LET right now. It\u2019s become really strong. The guys had that for a long number of years on the DP World Tour and it\u2019s almost like the girls have passed it. They\u2019ve dropped in numbers out there [on the men\u2019s circuit] and we\u2019ve significantly gained, and that\u2019s a testament to how strong women\u2019s golf is in Ireland right now. It would be fantastic to see someone get over the line this week,\u201d said the Cavan golfer, playing in her last outing before the Solheim Cup in the Netherlands in a fortnight\u2019s time.<\/p>\n

That bond between the Irish players on tour formed back in the amateur and collegiate days of many, with Cork\u2019s Sara Byrne explaining: \u201cWe had Leona, but when I was growing up she was still in college, so there was nobody on tour and it\u2019s just incredible to think there are so many of us now. I was able to go to the Solheim Cup in 2011 [at Killeen Castle] and because of that event I said I was going to be a professional golfer, that\u2019s what I want to do with my life. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see the shift from having the Solheim here to bringing so many of us on tour and, having such a good Golf Ireland<\/a> programme, it shows the hard work over the last 15 years. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun. You go on tour and the first person you see in the room is an Irish person, so it\u2019s a home from home. Even some of the caddies. The Irish are taking over the LET and it makes travelling so much easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever about taking over the LET, the Irish influence is stronger now than ever, although a missing piece in the jigsaw is that no Irish woman has yet won the Irish Open.<\/p>\n

While the decision of Charley Hull to head to play this week\u2019s clashing LPGA Tour event in Boston and that of teenage Canadian sensation Anna Huang \u2013 a three-time winner on the LET this season \u2013 also to accept an invite to that tournament took away two big stars, the international field here at the Palmer South remains strong and features seven winners from the LET this year (Kelsey Bennett, Leonie Harm, Smilla Tarning S\u00f8nderby, Eleanor Givens, Esme Hamilton, Agathe Laisn\u00e9 and Noora Komulainen) and the current order of merit leader, Casandra Alexander, and last year\u2019s top-ranked Shannon Tan in a quality field.<\/p>\n

If one of the 16 Irish women were to lift the trophy come Sunday evening, it will be hard won. But the odds have never been better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The numbers game, which golf is all about, has brought a distinct edge to this latest KPMG Women\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[44,654,21149,21196,903,4792,3981,17011],"class_list":["post-56536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-golf","tag-golf-ireland","tag-k-club","tag-kildare","tag-ladies-european-tour","tag-lauren-walsh","tag-leona-maguire","tag-solheim-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}