Leona Maguire

A native of County Cavan, her parents are schoolteachers Declan and Breda Maguire. At the age of nine, she gave up a promising swimming career to concentrate on golf. Her twin sister, Lisa is 15 minutes older. They played together as 15-year-olds on the GB&I Curtis Cup team in 2010. Also played on the Duke golf squad.
Leona Maguire is a three-time All-Ireland Schools Champion and a member of the Irish National Team starting in 2007.
Maguire represented Europe in the 2008 Junior Ryder Cup and the 2009 and 2011 Junior Solheim Cup. She played for Great Britain and Ireland in the Curtis Cup in 2010, 2012, and 2016. She and her twin sister Lisa became the youngest participants ever in 2010 at the age of 15. She helped lead GB&I to victory in 2012 at Nairn and in 2016 at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club outside of Dublin. She had a 1-3-1 record in 2010 with a singles win over Tiffany Lua. In 2012, she was 1-2-1 with a singles loss to Brooke Pancake. She did not play in the 2014 Curtis Cup In 2016, she was 4-1 in the GB&I victory in 2016. She turned pro prior to the 2018 Curtis Cup.
At just 14, she won the Helen Holm Scotland Women's Open Amateur in 2009. She repeated as the French U21 Champion in 2010 after taking it for the first time in 2009.
She won the 2011 Portuguese Women's Amateur Open by a remarkable 15 strokes. She also partnered with her sister to claim the Nations Cup at the Portuguese Women's Amateur Open. She was the youngest to win the British Ladies' Open Amateur in 2011, winning by six shots. She repeated as champion in June. She was the 2011 and 2012 Irish Women's Amateur champion and became the first from Ireland to win the Irish Girls Open (eight-shot win).
She qualified for the 2013 U.S. Women's Amateur, advanced to Round 32, and won the 2013 Hermitage Scratch Cup. For a second time, she won the Annika Award, given to the nation's top college golfer.
Freshman Season (2014-2015) Notes: Named WGCA and Golfweek National Player of the Year, Annika Award winner as National Player of the Year, WGCA National Freshman of the Year, WGCA & Golfweek First Team All-America, ACC Player of the Year, ACC Rookie of the Year, All-ACC, ACC Golfer of the Month for March and April and was a Golfstat Cup winner. She was named to the WGCA Scholar All-America academic team and received All-ACC Academic Team accolades. She had 10 top 10s in just 11 events with nine top 5s. She won the ACC Championship, earned medalist honors at the NCAA South Bend Regional, and was 2nd in stroke play at the NCAA Championships. She also won the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate.
Summer 2015 Notes: She finished 2nd at the ISPS Handa Ladies European Masters and helped push Ireland to a Euro Ladies Team Championship. Maguire earned medalist honors at the Ladies' British Open Amateur, reaching the round of 16 in match play. On the LPGA Tour, she finished T-34th and was the low amateur at the Evian Championship.
Sophomore Season (2015-2016) Notes: Named WGCA & Golfweek First Team All-America, All-ACC, NCAA Baton Rouge All-Region, ACC Golfer of the Month for October and February, WGCA All-American Scholar, and All-ACC Academic Team accolades. Tallied two Top-5, six Top-10, and eight Top-20 finishes. Won Tar Heel Invitational, T-7th at NCAA Regional, and T-32nd at the NCAA Championship while fighting an illness. Concluded the season ranked No. 4 in the Golfweek Individual rankings.
Summer 2016 Notes: Advanced to the quarterfinals of match play at the Ladies British Open Amateur Championship in Scotland. Led Great Britain & Ireland to an 11.5 to 8.5 victory over the United States in the Curtis Cup, played in her home country, Ireland. She competed in her first U.S. Women's Open, failing to qualify by a shot. Finished as the low amateur and 25th at the RICOH Women's British Open. Represented Ireland in the 2016 Rio Olympics, finishing T-21st.
Junior Season (2016-2017): Named WGCA National Player of the Year, Annika Award as the National Player of the Year, ACC Player of the Year, All-ACC, WGCA First Team All-America, Honda Award nominee for golf, ACC Golfer of the Month selection in March and April, CoSIDA Academic All-America, and was a GolfStat Cup Award winner. Garnered three wins, eight Top-5 finishes, nine rounds in the 60s, and did not finish lower than tied sixth in 10 tournaments on the season. She won the ACC Individual title for the second time in her career and helped lead Duke to its 20th ACC Championship. Runner-up at the 2017 NCAA Championship and T-6th at the NCAA Albuquerque Regional. Earned the European Ladies' Amateur Golf Ranking Golf Medal. Helped lead Ireland to a bronze medal at the World Amateur Team Championship in September. Finished the season ranked No. 1 in the Golfweek Individual rankings.
In 2016, she won the McCormack Medal, given to the leading male and female player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. This award secured her an exemption into the 2017 U.S. Women's Open (she missed the cut). She then won the 2017 Women's Amateur Championship, defeating Spain's Ainhoa Olarra, 3 and 2, in the final.
Senior Season (2017-2018): She was named ACC Player of the Year, WGCA First-Team All-American, and All-ACC. She won the ACC individual championship in a playoff and was T-2nd at the NCAA Madison Regional. She holds the Duke University women's golf record for the best career scoring average of 70.97.
In 2018, she turned pro and got her LET and Symetra Tour cards.
2018 notes: She made 10 cuts in 13 events on the Symetra Tour. She was ranked 37th on the money list and recorded two top-10s, a T-3rd at the Forsyth Classic and a T-3rd at the Sioux Falls GreatLife Challenge. Played once on the LPGA Tour, finishing T-15th at the ShopRite Classic. Played once on the LET, finishing T-18th at the Andalucia Open De Espana.
2019 notes: Maguire played in 16 Symetra Tour events, making 14 cuts. She had two victories on the Symetra Tour, the Windsor Golf Classic and Symetra Classics. She finished 7th on the money list with $92,517. Played in six LET events with one top-ten, T-5th at the Omega Dubai Moonlight Classic. Missed the cut in four LPGA starts.
2020 Notes: Played in 14 LPGA Tour events, making 11 cuts with one top-ten finish. She was 65th on the money list with $180,387 in earnings and finished 59th on the CME points list. She was T-4th at the ISPS Handa Vic Open, one shot back of the Hee Young Park/Hye-Jim Choi/So Yeon Ryu playoff. She played in three LET events. Her best was T-18th at the ASI Ladies Scottish Open.
2021 Notes: Played in 20 LPGA Tour events, making 17 cuts with five top-ten finishes. She was 19th on the money list with $885,941 in earnings and was 17th on the CME points list. She was T-6th at the LPGA Drive On Championship at Golden Ocala. Had a T-2nd finish at the LOTTE Championship, seven shots back of winner Lydia Ko. She was runner-up again at the Meijer LPGA Classic, opening with rounds of 65-64 to lead. Lydia Ko passed her with a 62 in the third round; Maguire shot a closing 66 for a 23-under 265 total, two shots behind winner Korda. Maguire tied the major championship 18-hole record with a 61 in the final round of the Amundi Evian Championship to finish T-6. She was T-23rd at the Toyko Olympics as a member of Ireland's women's golf team. She was a captain's pick for the European Solheim Cup team and led Europe to victory by going 4-0-1 in her matches, including a 5-and-4 singles win over Jennifer Kupcho.
2022 Notes: Played in 24 LPGA Tour events, making 18 cuts with eight top-ten finishes. She was 9th on the money list with $1,812,831 in earnings and was 10th in CME points. She also played in 6 LET events, making 6 cuts and 4 top-ten finishes. She was 45th in the Race to Costa Del Sol and was 7th on the money list with earnings of euro425,034. She scored her first LPGA Tour victory and became the first player from Ireland to win on the LPGA Tour at the LPGA Drive On Championship. With rounds of 66-65-67, she won by three shots over Lexi Thompson. After her win, Maguire was congratulated by Ireland's President Michael Higgins. She was T-8th at the U.S. Women's Open. Was runner-up at the Meijer LPGA Classic for the second straight year. Shot a final-round 65 to come from seven shots behind and reach a playoff with Nelly Korda and Jennifer Kupcho, Maguire missed a three-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole, where Kupcho won with a birdie. Shot a final round 66 at the AIG Women's British Open to finish T-4th, 3 shots from the Ashleigh Buhai/In Gee Chun playoff. Was 10th at the ISPS Handa World Womans and Dana Open. Was T-4th at the KPMG Women's Irish Open, a shot back of the Klara Spilkova/Ursula Wikstrom/Nicole Broch Estrup playoff. Finished 4th at the Andalucia Open De Espana, two shots back of the Caroline Hedwall/Morgane Metraux playoff. She was 2nd in the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, two shots back of the winner, Lydia Ko.
2023 Notes: Played in 20 LPGA Tour events, making 19 cuts with six top-ten finishes. She was 22nd on the money list with $1,195,726 in earnings and was 19th in CME points. She also played in 6 LET events, making 6 cuts and one top-ten finish. She was 79th in the Race to Costa Del Sol and was 35th on the money list with earnings of euro162,154. Started the season with a T-9th finish at the Hilton Tournament of Champions and T-6th at the Honda LPGA Thailand, she shot 65 in the final round. Was 4th in the Aramco Team Series - London. She finished T-3rd at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play, losing in the semifinals to Ayaka Furue 2 & 1. She was T-7th at the Mizuho Americas Open. Maguire won the Meijer LPGA Classic, she played her last six holes in 6 under to shot a 64 in the final round to beat Ariya Jutanugarn by two shots. The next week went into the final round of the KPMG Women's PGA Championship with the lead. Shot 74 in the final round to finish T-11th, four shots back of winner Ruoning Yin. Was T-7th at the Ascendant LPGA Volunteers of America. She also was 4th at the Aramco Team Series - London on the LET. Finished T-36th at the CME Group Tour Championship, her last event for the year.
2024 Notes: She was 2nd at the T-Mobile Match Play, losing in the finals to Nelly Korda 4 & 3. Maguire was the medalist during the three-round stroke-play portion of the tournament, then beat Moriya Jutanugarn, 4 and 3, in the quarterfinals and Sei Young Kim, 3 and 2, in the semifinals. Maguire won the Aramco Team Series - London for her first victory on the LET with an eagle on the final hole to win by a shot over Maria Hernandez. She played in the Paris Olympics as a member of Ireland's women's golf team, finishing 59th.