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MIAMI – Leona Maguire of Ireland fired a nine-under 63 to surge into a tie for first place with front runner Lydia Ko Saturday at the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Florida.
Her round, which included nine birdies, was by far the best of the day, with no one else managing better than a 65 at Tiburon Golf Club.
“It was just really, really solid,” Maguire said.
“Gave myself a lot of chances, which I’ve been doing the first two days, but holed a nice birdie putt on the first and just kind of went from there.”
That brilliance came on the heels of two solid, if unspectacular, rounds with matching three-under scores on Thursday and Friday. The weather, which was windy on Saturday and is expected to include rain and high gusts on Sunday, could be a factor in allowing the 27-year-old to hold on to the win, which would be the second of her career and second this calendar year.
It wasn’t lost on the Ireland native that bad weather to close things out could play in her favour.
“Yeah, I liked the weather today. It would be nice if we got another day like this,” she said.
“We’ll just play whatever is in front of us tomorrow and go back to what it was when I was 15, 16 playing at home in Ireland.”
New Zealand’s Ko (two-under 70) faltered with a pair of bogeys in her first five holes before rallying with three birdies the rest of the way to save a first-place tie at 15 under, five strokes ahead of the rest of the field.
“After a couple of bogeys on the front nine to birdie the 8 and make a good up-and-down on 9 to kind of turn even, I knew that I played the back nine well the last couple of days, so I knew the birdie opportunities were there,” Ko, 24, said.
“And even if things don’t go my way, I just wanted to stay patient and know that I can make hard holes into easy holes by just staying in that kind of mindset.”
At stake for Ko is more than just a win in this event, but also the season-long points race that determine the Rolex Player of the Year, the season-long money title and the Vare Trophy for the season’s scoring champion.
“I’m just going to go out there playing my game,” said Ko, who is currently ranked third on the Rolex rankings.
“That’s what I tried the last three days, so none of that is going to change. Obviously there’s a little bit of rain in the forecast tomorrow, so that will make the course a little bit longer. Other than that, I’m just going to stick to my same game plan and hopefully play some good golf.”
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