FIR HILLS SERI PAK CHAMPIONSHIP

March 22, 2024

Leona Maguire

Palos Verdes Golf Club

Quick Quotes

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Q. Here now with Leona Maguire after her second round at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship. Just take us through your first two rounds. I mean, especially today, the three birdies to end your front.

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I mean, was a little bit all over the place yesterday. Drove it well, but miss the a lot of greens. So yesterday was a really good day. Sort of hanging in and scrambling and a lot of good up and downs to keep me in it.

And then today I gave myself a lot of chances. Putter was working nice, which was good. Nice to sort of the get a birdie on our second hole, on 11, to get the round going.

It always feels like a steal when you birdie the tough par-3s around here. So nice to have two twos today on our front nine.

Yeah, the three birdies to close out the front nine was nice momentum heading into the back knowing there was a few chances coming up.

Q. What is it about this course that brings out some of your strengths and what are you still trying to figure out or things you were trying to work on a little bit?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, we used to come here in college. Came here maybe three, maybe four times. Had a little bit of a love-hate relationship with it. I feel like it's one of those courses that really tests your patience.

Something I started working on at the start of year is be more patience and really tests you this course. I feel like here and Evian are similar with all the slopes. You have to be really intentional with your targets.

Yeah, the greens aren't very big, so you know when you hit a lot of greens you're going to have some chances, so it's just a case of being patience for those chances.

Q. Few events into the season. How do you feel your game is? What are some of the things that are clicking for you? What are some things that you still need to maybe kind of fine tune?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, made a few changes over the off-season. Been working on a few things. Some weeks they're there, some weeks they're not. Drove the ball really nice the first two days, which has been good to see.

Then, yeah, putted really nice as well. Kind of found a couple of things that I had been doing a few years ago, kind of gone back to them, which is nice to see that sort of paying off sort of these first two rounds as well.

Just need to get my irons dialed in a little bit more and hopefully we can have a good weekend.

Q. What are some of the things you're really focused on this year, some goals and things of that nature?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I mean, it's going to be a really big summer, so I think everybody is sort of gearing up towards a big summer. It's sort of the off-season being so short, some of those first few events were a little bit of a trial run for that.

So working through those changes whilst still playing tournaments rather than having an extended time off, making sure everything is in a really good place come the summer for all the majors, for the Olympics, for Solheim. Really big summer ahead.

Q. How important is it to kind of balance with so much happening? How important is it to balance wanting to keep working on your craft, fine tuning, and staying warm, also kind of giving your body and your mentals a little bit of a break, too?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, absolutely. I think getting the schedule right is really key. It's probably something that is very underrated. It's hard to get right.

You're playing well, you just want to play everything and keep going. If you're struggling a bit you want to take some time off and work on things. You can practice all you want, but I feel like once your scorecard is in your hand it's the real test of whether what you've been working on is working or not.

So just getting that balance to make sure that you stay fresh and enough energy in the tank to be really clear on the golf course.

Yeah, I wouldn't say I've got my schedule 100% perfect yet, but we're working on it all the time.

Q. Last one: What do you think it's going to take from you the last two days to keep yourself in contention and maybe put yourself over the top?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I mean, it's a really packed leaderboard. Doesn't take much around this golf course to go a shot either way.

So I know it's a cliche, but a lot of patience and I mean, still trying to make birdies. I feel like it's a golf course you can get very defensive on. But you really have to just sort of not attack it, but you do have to take your chances where you get them.

So just try and give myself as many chances as I can over the weekend and hopefully the putter keeps behaving itself.

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