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Leona Maguire teed off in the first round of the LPGA Mediheal Championship at Lake Merced in Daly City, California, in the company of multiple tour winners and Major champions Sei Young Kim and Lydia Ko and promptly proceeded to showcase her own star appeal with a brilliant opening round of seven-under-par 65 to claim the clubhouse lead.
The 26-year-old Co Cavan golfer - technically still in her ‘rookie’ season on the LPGA Tour stateside - seemed, for the most part, to be playing a different course to everyone else as she put on an exhibition that produced nine birdies and two bogeys, one of which came at her closing hole, to propel herself to the top of the leaderboard.
Having failed to earn an exemption into last week’s US Women’s Open, Maguire - perhaps with a point to prove - was on fire on returning to competition with six birdies on her outward run (having started on the 10th) to turn in 31 strokes and she added further birdies at the first, fifth and eighth before dropping a shot on the difficult, long Par 5 ninth.
In a year which has seen her move from 177th in the world at the start of the year up to her current position of 93rd, and with two top-10s including a runner-up finish at the Lotte Championship so far this season, Maguire’s quest for a breakthrough LPGA Tour win gained momentum in the San Francisco Bay area, not far from where she secured her maiden win in the Windsor Classic on the Symetra Tour in 2019 which set her on course to full LPGA Tour membership.
Maguire’s superb round gave her a four stroke lead over American Jane Park from the first wave of players, although it proved to be a far tougher time for Stephanie Meadow - set to represent Ireland alongside Maguire in the Tokyo Olympics - who struggled to an opening round of 80. Ko, meanwhile, shot a 72 while Kim, winner of the tournament in 2019, signed for a 73.

Leona Maguire raced into a four stroke lead on the opening day in California. Photograph: Jed Jacobsohn/Getty


In the Palmetto Championship at Congaree in South Carolina on the PGA Tour, world number one Dustin Johnson - playing for the first time since missing the cut in the US PGA Championship last month - put together a lovely round of six-under-par 65 to share the clubhouse lead with Doc Redman.
Séamus Power, finally getting to use the exemption he earned from a top-10 finish in the Byron Nelson, opened with a 71 - five birdies and four bogeys - to be well positioned to survive the midway cut.
The Palmetto is a once-off stand-in tournament replacing the Canadian Open which was unable to take place due to logistical and organisational problems due to the pandemic and Johnson was very comfortable in his home state in getting back to form.
“I feel like I’ve been playing well, just haven’t been scoring very good. The putting’s been off or it’s just like small little mistakes that you shouldn’t make, so, yeah, sometimes it’s taken a little bit of time away and kind of clearing my head and definitely it helps and putting in a lot of good work last week. I feel like I’m swinging good, so if I can keep the putter rolling it’s going to be a fun week,” said Johnson, aiming to get back to winning ways ahead of next week’s US Open at Torrey Pines.
Austria’s Christine Wolf and England’s Sam Horsfield shot eight-under-par 64s to share the lead after the opening round of the Scandinavian Mixed at Vallda Gof Club in Gothenburg, Sweden, a co-sanctioned tournament on the European and LET circuits with an equal number of men and women in the field.
With her mother Andrea acting as caddie, Wolf produced a flawless round of six birdies and an eagle in putting on an exhibition with her putter.
Jonathan Caldwell, the only Irish player in the field, opened with a two-under-par 70 to lie in tied-56th.
Collated scores to follow.