LOTTE Championship

Saturday, April 17, 2021

Kapolei, Hawaii, USA

Kapolei Golf Club

Leona Maguire

Quick Quotes


Q. Take us through this eventful fourth round here.

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I mean, I got off to a nice start again. It was 3-under through 6 and, yeah, just trying to get as many birdies as I can. Gave myself lots of chances today. Got stuck behind the tree on 7. Thought I hit a nice shot to the green and didn't get the birdie there.

I kept giving myself a lot of chances 9, 10, 11; just didn't get those putts to drop. But I just played really solid all day. Hit my irons nice. Played smart. Didn't hit a great shot into 15 and three-putted that one. Had a really nice up and down on 16.

Probably hit the best shot of week on 17 to make that eagle which kind of made up for it.

Got a little bit lucky on 18. Didn't hit my best shot into 18.

Yeah, really happy with the week. I think it's my best on the LPGA so far, so my first trip to Hawaii was a very productive one I would say.

Q. The way Nelly may finish it would be a T2 or T3 finish for you, top 3 finish. How proud are you and how much do you think it reflects the effort you've put in over the past couple years?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I've been calling home and calling my coach and saying, it's close, it's close. So it really is close now.

I played really nice this week. Drove the ball really well. Today was probably the best all week today. Irons were solid all week. Putted nicely. Not the best I've ever putted, but nicely.

So everything is trending very nicely in the right direction.

I knew Lydia was going to go low today and I was going to have to do something very special to try and catch her. Proud of the way I finished strong.

Q. LA coming up next week. How much confidence does this tournament give you heading into the L.A. Open?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, absolutely. Try and carry forward this momentum. Obviously it's a quick turnaround being a Wednesday start again. I don't know the new golf course, somewhere we haven't been before, and looking forward to that challenge.

Yeah, then I getting to home. That will be week 12 of 12 on the road.

Q. Oh, wow.

LEONA MAGUIRE: Hopefully can finish off this stretch on a positive note.

Q. I know you said you like courses that challenge you that really make you think. You really made it look easy out there. Didn't feel like a rookie, would you say so yourself?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I felt really comfortable all week. I think Gary had the course really well planned out. Went out in the mornings and had a look. We made a lot of smart choices, played away from the pins we needed to play away from; went straight at them when we could.

Overall we tried to leave it as fairly stress tree as we could this week which was nice.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
106848-1-1041 2021-04-18 03:12:00 GMT

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