Best major finish for Maguire as Dunne and Murphy shine on tour

GULLANE, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 07: Ashleigh Buhai of South Africa poses with the AIG Women's Open trophy on the eighteenth green after winning the play-off to become the 2022 AIG Women's Open champion during Day Four of the AIG Women's Open at Muirfield on August 07, 2022 in Gullane, Scotland. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)

Leona Maguire clinched her career-best finish in a major but was left to rue the putts that got away in the AIG Women's Open at Muirfield.

The Co Cavan star closed with a best of the day, bogey-free, five-under 66 to finish tied fourth on seven-under-par, just three shots outside a playoff that saw South Africa's Ashleigh Buhai (33) beat South Korea's In Gee Chun with a par four on their fourth trip down the 18th.

GULLANE, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 07: Leona Maguire of Ireland plays their second shot on the 17th hole during Day Four of the AIG Women's Open at Muirfield on August 07, 2022 in Gullane, Scotland. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)

While she was 12 shots behind leader Buhai overnight and six behind the South African when she finished, Maguire was left to wonder what might have been had she produced her best stuff on the greens as she had 32, 29, 32 and 30 putts.

She birdied at the fourth and eagled the fifth, then birdied the 11th and 13th to get within six shots of the leader on seven-under.

But she couldn't pick up another shot as she lipped out from eight feet at the 14th, missed another eight footer at the 15th, then failed to take advantage of the reachable, par-five 17th after her second bounced into an awkward spot.

"It would have been nice to get to 10 (under)," said Maguire, who was 29th for putts per round, 14th for fairways hit and sixth for greens in regulation.

"I kind of had 10 in my head. But there's a lot of golf to be played out there either way. It's definitely a top-10 and my best British Open so far, and a really, really solid week.

"Drove it as well as I've probably driven it in a while. If I had had my week on the greens, things could have been a lot different."

Pleased with her performance, she said: "Overall, bogey-free, five-under in the last round of major, I think these conditions were possibly the toughest of the four days. It was windy from the get-go. So that was kind of the potential I knew was in there all week, and nice to sort of finish it off today.

"It's always nice to finish strong in the last round of a major, bogey-free. I felt like I kept it out of the fairway bunkers this week and didn't hit it in a single fairway bunker."

As it turned out, 10-under would have been worth a playoff as Buhai, who was five clear overnight and three ahead with five holes to go, ran up a triple-bogey seven at the 14th and carded a 75 to Chun's 70 to leave then a shot clear of Japan's Hinako Shibuno.

They played the 18th four times in sudden-death, going par-bogey-par before Chun drove into a fairway bunker and failed to make par from 12 feet as Buhai played a stunning greenside bunker shot to tap distance.

On the DP World Tour, Paul Dunne (29) clinched his best finish for more than three years when he tied for 20th behind England's Callum Shinkwin in the Cazoo Open at Celtic Manor.

While he closed with a two-over 73 and even had to take off his shirt and shoes to play a recovery from the edge of a lake at the third, he finished on one-over-par as Shinkwin (29) closed with a one-under 70 to win his second DP World Tour title by four shots from Frenchman Julien Guerrier on 12-under as Niall Kearney tied for 59th on 10-over after a 73.

Commitment to the cause 💯@dunners11 | #CazooOpen pic.twitter.com/Og8JVcgNmI

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) August 7, 2022

At the Vierumäki Finnish Challenge, Kinsale's John Murphy (24) carded a two-under 70 to tie for third on 20-under par, six shots behind Germany's Velten Meyer.

It was a second successive third-place finish for Murphy, who moved up 19 spots to 28th in the Road to Road Mallorca rankings with the top 20 winning DP World Tour cards.

Conor Purcell tied for 28th on 11-under to move up one spot to 63rd in the standings with James Sugrue up 35 spots to 190th after finishing a shot further back in 35th after a 71.

Gary Hurley is 131st after just two starts as he finished 50th on seven under after a 73.

Paul McBride has shown signs in recent weeks that he’s not far away and a final round 70 left him tied 56th on five-under.

Maguire, Dunne, Murphy, Hurley and Purcell are part of a large Irish entry for this week’s ISPS Handa World Invitational presented by AVIV Clinics at Galgorm Castle and Massereene.

At the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship, Shane Lowry’ one over 71 left him joint last on four-over as Korea Joohyung “Tom” Kim (20) closed with a nine-under 61 to win by five shots on 20-under par from Sungjae Im and John Huh at Sedgefield Country Club.

Kim is the second-youngest winner on the PGA TOUR since World War II behind 2013 John Deere Classic winner Jordan Spieth.

Padraig Harrington missed a 15 foot birdie chance on the 18th to miss out on a playoff by a shot in the Shaw Charity Classic in Calgary.

The Dubliner closed with a four-under 66 to finish in a five way tie for third as Jerry Kelly beat John Huston with a birdie four on the first extra hole.

Kelly shot 67 and Huston a 65 to tie on nine-under, one shot ahead of Harrington, Kirk Triplett, Joe Durant, Joe Wilson and Alex Cejka.