BANK OF HOPE LPGA MATCH-PLAY

May 26, 2021

Leona Maguire

Shadow Creek

Quick Quotes

Q. Leona Maguire, 2&1 winner this afternoon over Ally Ewing. Nice win obviously over someone who is competing for a U.S. Solheim Cup. I would imagine this week is kind of a Team Europe Solheim Cup audition for yourself. Take us through your initial approach when you entered this week.

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I haven't played match play in quite a while, probably since nationals senior year, so getting back into that mindset a little bit. But it's such a tough course. You really just have to focus on your own game, hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens, and I did that today, which was nice.

Kept pressure on Ally all the way. She played some great golf. We both did. I think I was level par through eight holes and 2-down, so we kind of thought early on going out that pars were going to win holes and staying out of that rough and that, but then got to the 8th hole and was going, Pars aren't going to be good enough today.

Got on a nice run and clawed my way back. Yeah, finished it off nicely.

Q. You hit three birdies over a four-hole stretch between 9 and 12 that flipped the script from 2-down to 2-up. Just take us through that stretch and the mentality, the approach to the competitive nature during that stretch?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, like I said, going 2-down after 8, Ally made a great birdie on 8 and I holed a nice putt on 9. Hung on the edge for a little bit and decided to drop in. That gave me momentum heading into the back nine.

Made a really good up and down on 10 and stuck it close on 11 and 12 to make two good birdies there. Yeah, gave me some really good momentum going into those last few holes, which it's a tough finish, so I -- it's nice to have that advantage heading into the end.

Q. She birdied or par'd 14 to cut it to one, and you immediately responded with a par to go back up two. When you drop a hole and then can respond like that, what does that say about your fortitude to stay the course and stay with the game plan?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I mean, I really tried to treat it no differently to making a bogey. If you lose a hole, just try and get it back, try and hit the fairways, hit the greens here. I putted really nice today, holed a lot of really nice putts early on for halves when I needed to and then for birdies then on the back nine to win those holes.

And the greens out here are so pure so you know if you get the ball online, give yourself a chance, that you have a good chance of holing putts. So did that when I needed to today, which was could you.

Q. Curtis Cup you played quite a bit. Obviously different environment this week. Have you looked back or tried to recall any memories from those years?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, absolutely. We played a lot of match play in amateur golf growing up, Curtis Cup, Solheims. I suppose my last big amateur win was the British Am in 2017, which was a match play event.

Plenty of experience playing match play. It's just a case of getting back into that mindset again. Like I said, everybody this week is a good player, so you know you're going to have to play really well to beat anybody. Doesn't matter who it is.

Just trying to play as well as I can and seeing where it stacks up.

Q. Has Solheim been on the radar this year, and did you enter the week thinking this could be a possible audition for that?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I mean, I suppose I got off to a nice start. Some good ranking points, and the better I do every week it can only help for Solheim. This is a very American group this week with Ally and Jennifer and Christina. Yeah, potentially some of them are going to be on the U.S. Solheim Cup, so if I can beat them and get some points in my group standings, I'm sure that will help along the way.