KPMG WOMEN'S PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

June 21, 2025

Leona Maguire

Fields Ranch East

Quick Quotes

Q. Leona Maguire is with us new at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship. Leona, even par today. What did you do well out there?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Stayed very patient I think. Obviously didn't get off to the best of starts, but accepted that everybody was going to make mistakes today. At least I got mine out of the way early.

Didn't feel like I had done a whole lot wrong to be 3-over through 5, and, yeah, just stayed patient. Tried to hit as many fairways, as many greens as I could, and made a really nice birdie on 7 and that kind of got the ball rolling.

Few really key up and downs to keep the momentum going on 11 and 14; then nice to birdie 17 coming in.

Q. Are you feeling that your game is coming back together? And no better place for a major than that in a way.

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I feel like I've been actually playing really well for four, five weeks now. I've been sort of telling my team and everybody I'm playing better than I'm scoring, and I feel like this week it's kind of come together a bit nicer.

I like hard golf courses. I always have. I like the challenge. This one is a challenge for sure, and it's nice to be able to execute the shots that I want to.

Q. How do you embrace the conditions, the setup, what it means to play a major like this?

LEONA MAGUIRE: I think you just have to embrace it for the challenge it is. It's going to be hard for everybody. It's nice that it's not like a British Open that there is girls going out flat calm in the morning and then getting up in the afternoon. It's pretty much the same for everybody. Maybe the greens are a bit softer in the morning, that's all.

But I grew up in Ireland, grew up in the wind. You just have to like you said embrace the challenge knowing you're going to have to aim 20 yards right for the ball to come back or hold it up if you want to. You just have to be that little bit more creative.

Yeah, I mean, it's a major. It's supposed to be hard.

Q. What was the most creative shot you had to hit in the last few days with the wind?

LEONA MAGUIRE: I mean, on Thursday we stood on the eighth tee and we were like, how do we keep this ball on the green? That was the strategy. I hit a 6-hybrid that was too much club, but I cut it so much it stayed on the green and held the green. I was quite proud of that.

There has been plenty of shots. It really requires all of your attention all day. That's what a major does. You can't switch off for a second and you just have to be careful of angles and shot shape.

So it's demanding but, yeah, you have to -- there is certain shots that you're standing over and you can hit three different ways if you really wanted to. I think I feel like me and my caddie did a really good job talking through certain shots and committing to the shots that we picked.

Q. How close are playing conditions and architecture to what you're used to back home in Ireland?

LEONA MAGUIRE: I mean, I grew up in rural countryside so generally it's not that windy. Didn't grow up on links. Played a lot of tournaments on links, but not every day on links.

Architecture not really similar at all. These fairways are quite a bit wider. We don't have bermudagrass in Ireland. We don't have grainy greens in Ireland. So in terms of architecture-wise not similar at all.

People have been asking me what it reminds me of. The closest I can think of is the Olympic course that Gil designed in Rio. It was a little bit windy down there as well; looks linksy but doesn't play linksy I guess.

Q. So doesn't demand the links style shots that you're used to back in Ireland?

LEONA MAGUIRE: I think some of them do. Some of the short are flighted wedge shots and some shots, but you can't run it up the way you can on links. Some of those raised elevated greens there is a bank of bermuda rough, or a generous bunker so you can't run them up. There is not the bump and runs that would get on links, but some wind shots, deciding whether to ride the wind or hold it up into the wind and those sort of decisions.

Q. The front nine was taking a little over three hours to play. Is there anything you think can be done to help pace of play?

LEONA MAGUIRE: It's hard. There is lots of decisions to be made. It's just a bottleneck when it gets to 7, 8, 9. I don't know if there is really much. We were calling up on -- yeah, we called up on 7, but I don't think they were early in the day. They could have maybe started that earlier.

Yeah, 7 is a demanding one. Even if you're 20 yards to the green, I mean, I had a 36-yard pitch shot today and it's -- not quite sure if it you can stop it on the green.

So it's just going to take more time than a normal shot.

Same, 8 is a very demanding tee shot. 9, people going for the green. Just takes time. Yeah, just gets a little bit of a bottleneck. Felt like it opened up a little bit after that.

Yeah, the wind and the conditions, just takes that bit longer.

Q. It's not just one challenge. There are so many with the heat and the wind and obviously the course being difficult. How does this setup, just everything you're facing here this week, compare to some of the others? Is there anything quite like it that you think of that you dealt with this many challenges?

LEONA MAGUIRE: I mean, it's a major. It has -- this is a little bit more how I thought Erin Hills would play but we didn't get the weather in Erin Hills I thought we would. If we got wind in Erin Hills would've played very similar.

Yeah, I mean, the wind is a bit like what I remember the final round being like in Muirfield a few years ago at the British Open. Yeah, you just have to be very disciplined and execute your shots, which I don't have a problem within a major championship.