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Leona Maguire recorded the highest finish for an Irish player ever on the LPGA Tour as she carded a final round of 67 for a total of 21 under par and a tie for second alongside Sei Young Kim and Nelly Korda at the Lotte Championship in Hawaii.
Lydia Ko fired a closing 65 to win for the first time in three years and claim her 16th LPGA Tour title at 28 under.
For Maguire the tie for second represents the best finish of her LPGA Tour career so far which is still, technically, in its rookie season. The Cavan native picked up a cheque for $125,834 as she continued her run of recent good form.
Birdies at the first, third and sixth moved the 26-year-old up the leaderboard at the turn before she picked up another shot at the 14th. A bogey on the 15th was the only blemish on her final round scorecard and she would finish with a flourish thanks to a stunning approach to a few feet at the Par 5 17th which set up an eagle three.
Maguire has made the cut in every event she has played since last year’s Women’s British Open and after her final round she said she knew a big performance was coming - something she had been telling Shane O’Grady, her coach back in Ireland.
“I’ve been calling home and calling my coach and saying, it’s close, it’s close. So it really is close now,” said Maguire.
I played really nice this week. Drove the ball really well. Today was probably the best all week. Irons were solid all week and I putted nicely. Not the best I’ve ever putted, but nicely. So everything is trending very nicely in the right direction.
“I knew Lydia was going to go low today and I was going to have to do something very special to try and catch her. I’m proud of the way I finished strong.”
It was that strong finish which sealed Maguire’s tie for second with the eagle on the 17th showing some real grit down the stretch after she had dropped a shot at the 15th with a three-putt bogey. The Slieve Russell player now heads for the LA Open which begins on Thursday. The tournament will be Maguire’s 12th week in a row on the road during what has been a hectic early season schedule and she plans to head back to her home at Lake Nona in Orlando afterwards.
“I don’t know the new golf course, it’s somewhere we haven’t been before and I’m looking forward to that challenge. Then I’m getting to go home. That will be week 12 of 12 on the road but hopefully I can finish off this stretch on a positive note.”
Stephanie Meadow closed with a final round of 70 to finish in a tie for 57th at eight under par.
For Ko, the win marked her first since the 2018 Mediheal Championship and she was relieved to have ended her 1,084-day drought between victories.
“When you’re in that position [to win]and it doesn’t happen, you do doubt. If I said, no, I didn’t doubt myself at all, that would be a lie,” Ko told Golf Channel after her victory and her return to the winner’s circle.
“Hand on my heart, there were times when I wondered, ‘Hey, I don’t know if I’m ever going to be back in the winner’s circle.’ ... To be back in this kind of position is obviously super cool. You know, with Jordan Spieth and Hideki Matsuyama winning the last couple weeks - and I know it’s been a while since they won, as well - that kind of gave me a little bit of hope that maybe I could follow that trend.”
Collated final round scores at the Lotte Championship (USA unless stated, Par 72)
260 Lydia Ko (Nzl) 67 63 65 65
267 Sei-Young Kim (Kor) 67 68 67 65, Nelly Korda 65 68 63 71, Ind-Bee Park (Kor) 71 66 67 63, Leona Maguire (Irl) 68 67 65 67
269 Yuka Saso (Phi) 64 64 71 70, Jenny Shin (Kor) 69 70 67 63, Wei Ling Hsu (Tai) 67 73 63 66, Sarah Schmelzel 69 69 65 66
270 Amy Yang (Kor) 69 68 64 69, A-Lim Kim (Kor) 70 64 70 66
271 Hannah Green (Aus) 70 67 66 68, Georgia Hall (Eng) 70 68 66 67, Matilda Castren (Fin) 71 69 65 66, Esther Henseleit (Ger) 71 68 66 66, Klara Spilkova (Cze) 69 68 67 67
272 Alexis Thompson 68 67 67 70, Hyo-Joo Kim (Kor) 68 65 69 70, Yu Liu (Chn) 68 69 68 67, Som-Yeon Ryu (Kor) 65 68 71 68, Austin Ernst 69 68 68 67
273 Caroline Masson (Ger) 74 65 66 68, Jennifer Kupcho 68 69 70 66, Kelly Tan (Mal) 72 69 66 66, Alison Lee 70 67 71 65, Luna Sobron (Spa) 69 64 70 70
274 Paula Reto (Rsa) 69 67 69 69, Brooke Henderson (Can) 68 68 68 70, Brittany Altomare 64 71 68 71, Su-Hyun Oh (Aus) 73 68 66 67, Angela Stanford 69 70 67 68, Linnea Stroem (Swe) 69 67 67 71
275 Hinako Shibuno (Jpn) 68 71 66 70, Rose Zhang 67 68 70 70, Danielle Kang 68 69 68 70, Ally Ewing 65 69 69 72, Nicole Broch Larsen (Den) 68 70 66 71, Stacy Lewis 66 70 71 68, Jeong-Eun Lee (Kor) 69 71 67 68, Yealimi Noh 69 70 66 70
276 Lizette Salas 71 68 69 68, Nam-Yeon Choi (Kor) 69 72 68 67
277 Jeon-Geun Lee (Kor) 69 72 67 69, Amy Olson 69 68 70 70, Ind-Gee Chun (Kor) 68 69 70 70, Xiyu Lin (Chn) 69 72 64 72, Lauren Coughlin 70 69 67 71
278 Jessica Korda 67 70 70 71, Mi-Hyang Lee (Kor) 67 68 70 73, Kristen Gillman 70 70 71 67, Pernilla Lindberg (Swe) 73 67 68 70, Lindsey Weaver 72 67 70 69, Mina Harigae 71 70 67 70
279 Azahara Munoz (Spa) 69 68 71 71, Louise Ridderstroem (Swe) 70 71 69 69, Brianna Do 68 66 71 74
280 Chella Choi (Kor) 70 70 69 71, Kanphanitnan Muangkhumsakul (Tha) 72 68 67 73, Aditi Ashok (Ind) 69 69 70 72, Stephanie Meadow (NIrl) 67 70 73 70, Hae-Ji Kang (Kor) 69 72 68 71, Jennifer Chang 72 69 65 74, Dana Finkelstein 73 68 71 68
281 Anne van Dam (Ned) 68 70 72 71, Tiffany Chan (Hkg) 70 71 67 73, Giulia Molinaro (Ita) 72 69 71 69, Haley Moore 70 71 69 71, Kyung Kim 69 72 71 69
282 Jing Yan (Chn) 75 66 70 71, Jillian Hollis 70 69 71 72, Celine Palomar-Herbin (Fra) 70 69 68 75
283 Nasa Hataoka (Jpn) 71 69 71 72, Alena Sharp (Can) 71 66 72 74, Gerina Piller 71 70 70 72
288 Sarah Burnham 70 68 76 74, Anne-Catherine Tanguay (Can) 72 69 71 76