Leona Maguire was three strokes clear of the field as she cruised into the T-Mobile Match Play quarterfinals, where she'll meet Thailand's Moriya Jutanugarn on Saturday.
Leona Maguire was on fire 🔥@leona_maguire ran away with the first seed after finishing Friday with a three stroke advantage at @LPGAMatchPlay pic.twitter.com/mxBSPlm7xA
— LPGA (@LPGA) April 6, 2024
Maguire managed four birdies in response to a single bogey on the second hole in the third round of qualifying stroke play for a three-under-par 69, six-under 210 for the tournament — three strokes ahead of Rose Zhang, Angel Yin and Minami Katsu, who will respectively meet Sei Young Kim, Nelly Korda, and Narin An in the quarterfinals.
The quarterfinals begin the single-elimination section of the tournament at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, with the semifinals taking place Saturday afternoon and the championship match Sunday.
Maguire spoke Friday of her enjoyment of the course as well as the challenging conditions:
"I love this golf course. I think it's one of the best, if not the best, golf course we play all year. It's an unbelievable test. It's really a Major championship golf course. You get punished if you hit bad shots and get rewarded if you hit good shots, and that's exactly how golf should be I think. I really enjoy the test that it brings. Looking forward to another day."
"It was so challenging and swirly and the winds and stuff, you couldn't really get too far ahead or focus on anything other than the shot at hand, which I think was quite nice. I personally didn't watch the leaderboards. I know Dermot [Byrne] was keeping an eye on them if we needed to do something. I kind of leave that to him and was trying to hit as many good shots as I could."
Maguire also spoke about Nelly Korda, who is now competing for her fourth win in four starts — a feat not achieved by an LPGA player since Lorena Ochoa in 2008.
"Nelly is the best player in the world right now," said Maguire. "She's playing great golf, so no surprise she's in the match play. The conditions on the golf course brings out the best in everybody, and it's no surprise to see some of the best players in the world up near the top of the leaderboard."
