Profile
Two time LPGA Tour winner Leona Maguire has played her way to global golf stardom.
A record-breaking Rookie as part of the victorious European Solheim Cup team in 2021, Maguire carried that momentum into 2022, capturing the Drive On Championship to become the first ever Irishwoman to win on the LPGA Tour. In 2023, Leona soon became a two time LPGA tour winner with her victory at the Meijer LPGA Classic and once again was a standout performer for Team Europe to help win the 2023 Solheim Cup.
Maguire concluded her career as a four-time WGCA All-American, three-time ACC Player of the Year, three-time ACC Individual Champion and four-time All-ACC selection.
She was only the second Blue Devil to earn three ACC individual titles, one of four Duke golfers to earn four First Team All-America nods, the 13th Duke student-athlete to receive four All-ACC selections and fourth Blue Devil to be named ACC Player of the Year three different times.
A runner-up at the CME Tour Championship last season, Maguire is now a Major player at the elite end of women’s professional golf, and sits on the verge of the world’s top-10 ranked women for the first time in her career.
Today, Maguire is living a dream in Florida that was first forged on the fairways of her home county of Cavan some two decades ago. It's a journey that has been very much her own.
One of the top golfers in NCAA history, Maguire completed her collegiate career rewriting the Duke University and NCAA record books. A two-time Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) and ANNIKA Award National Player of the Year, Maguire accumulated ten victories, twenty-four Top Five finishes, thirty-five Top Tens and thirty-nine Top Twenty results over her incredible career. She registered Duke records in even or under par rounds (87) and most rounds in the 60s (32).
Along with being one of the top golfers nationally each season, Maguire was a model student-athlete earning CoSIDa Academic All-America as a junior along with ACC Women’s Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Maguire was also inducted into the Phi Betta Kappa honour society in May at Duke. She was a three-time WGCA Scholar All-American and three-time All-ACC Academic Team honouree. Maguire received a degree in Psychology along with a certificate in markets and management studies before turning professional in May 2018.
Maguire finished her career with a 70.97 stroke average, which was the lowest in NCAA history for a golfer that competed in more than 100 rounds. Maguire collected the top three season stroke averages in Duke history and her 70.29 mark as a junior was the second-lowest in NCAA history at the time.
On the amateur trail, Maguire broke the Women’s Amateur Golf Ranking mark of career weeks ranked No. 1 (135), won the 2017 Ladies’ British Open Amateur Championship and competed in the 2016 Olympics while tying for the low amateur. She was honoured with the Mark H. McCormack Medal in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Maguire also earned the 2017 Global Golf Post Female Amateur of the Year in 2017.
Leona went on to secure her full playing rights on the Ladies European Tour in 2019 and after two professional wins on the Symetra Tour, secured her 2020 LPGA Tour card. Maguire’s transition through the ranks has been seamless, enjoying two 2nd place finishes at the LOTTE Championship and the Meijer LPGA Classic, along with a Top 20 finish in the KPMG PGA Championship in 2021. That same year, she also became a two time Olympian after adding the Tokyo Games to her Rio exploits of 2016 and a standout Solheim Cup player for Team Europe. The then-rookie blitzed the American team that week in Toledo, Ohio, putting up a superstar 4-0-1 performance. It was the first time that a player from Ireland had ever teed it up in the biennial team competition and the Cavan native helped propel them to their second consecutive Solheim Cup victory.
On the 5th of February 2022, Maguire became the first Irish golfer to win an LPGA tournament. At the LPGA Drive On Championship held in Fort Myers, Florida, she gained a three-stroke victory for an 18-under-par total of 198. On 7 August, 2022 Maguire achieved her highest place in a major, with joint fourth place in the AIG Women's Open at Muirfield in Scotland. Leona finished the 2022 LPGA season in second place at the CME Group Tour Championship in Tiburon Golf Club, Naples, Florida. As a result, Maguire moved to number 11 on the world rankings, her highest placing ever.
On 18 June 2023, Maguire achieved her second victory on the LPGA Tour, the first Irish woman to do so, by winning the Meijer LPGA Classic. The following week, she held the overnight lead after both the second and third rounds of the 2023 Women's PGA Championship. She finished the tournament four strokes behind the winner, in a tie for 11th place, but the result was enough to elevate her to a career high of 10th in the world rankings, becoming the first Irish woman to break into the top-ten. At the Solheim Cup 2023, Leona was once again a stand-out player and helped secure another Team Europe victory.
