GREAT MEMORIES OF THE K-CLUB
Leona Maguire has not had a great year on the LPGA Tour in 2026, with eleven missed cuts out of twenty outings, but she has great memories of The K-Club and has to be seen as one of the favourites to win the KPMG Women’s Irish Open this week on the Palmer South Course at the K-Club.
“It’s such an iconic venue and I have great memories of coming here with my sister and dad for European Opens back in the day watching the guys. Then the Ryder Cup in 2006, bringing up the trophy to the closing ceremony. It’s a little bit of a full circle moment to be back here playing at an Irish Open.”
“I can’t actually remember how it came about. Some part of it was to do with the Solheim bid [for 2011] going on at the time. I remember mum and dad being approached about the possibility.”
“Tickets at that point were like gold dust and we didn’t have them, it was one of those, ‘can we do this and then watch the Ryder Cup?’ It just kind of got better and better.”
“I was definitely nervous bringing it up. We were only 11. I remember the lid was a little wobbly so they blue-tacked it shut to make sure we didn’t drop it!”
“Very cool memories.”
The historic 2006 Ryder Cup which saw Ian Woosnam’s side triumph was played on the Palmer North Course and now Maguire along with the stars of the Ladies European Tour (LET) will be looking to make their own history as the KPMG Women’s Irish Open tees up on the neighbouring Palmer South Course.
“There’s some shorter holes on the South,” Maguire explained. “It will be a good test for wedges. Then there’s some holes where you know par is a good score. The back-nine in particular has a few more demanding tee shots. I’d expect scoring to be pretty good this week. It’s going to be entertaining.”
Following The Irish Open the next event on the LET schedule is the Solheim Cup at Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands, where Maguire will be playing in her fourth Solheim Cup courtesy of a wildcard pick from captain Anna Nordqvist.
“I think it’s a very young team and it’s almost going to be a little bit of a changing of the guard,” Maguire said when asked about making the team once again. “It’s quite a new and exciting, young team. Some new rookies, although I guess Lottie [Woad] doesn’t seem like a rookie! But the others will definitely bring some new energy to the team. It should be great and a home Solheim is always special.”
“We were there in the Netherlands a few weeks ago and it’s a great venue. The excitement is definitely building. We lost last time out and winning is definitely more fun than losing so there’s definitely some extra incentive there to try and bring the cup back.”
Maguire, 82nd in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, gets underway at the 2026 KPMG Women’s Irish Open at 8:18am local time on Thursday playing alongside Singapore’s Shannon Tan and amateur Olivia Costello from Ireland.
Photo: Leona Maguire during a press conference at KPMG Women’s Irish Open. (Photo: Mark Runnacles/LET)