Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow yet to commit to KPMG Irish Women's Open

06/08/2022. Ladies European Tour 2022. AIG Women's Open, Muirfield, East Lothian. Scotland. July 4-7 2022. Leona Maguire of Ireland during the third round. Credit: Tristan Jones/LET

Leona Maguire will be one of the headline acts in this week’s tri-sanctioned ISPS HANDA World Invitational in Co Antrim but it could be the last chance to see her in action in Ireland this year.

The Co Cavan star (27) finished tied fourth in the AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield on Sunday to match her career best position of 17th in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings.

She also won the biggest cheque of her professional career — €303,245 — to move up to 13th in the LPGA points list and take her career earnings in the US to €2.15 million and a whopping €1,114,654 this year alone.

She will have a chance to add to that fortune this week in the €1.46 million (US$1.5m) but while Sky Sports flagged her appearance at Galgorm Castle and Massereene as her “home open” when she spoke after her round on Sunday, she has yet to commit to the return of the €400,000 KMPG Women’s Irish Open at Dromoland Castle in Co Clare next month.

We understand neither Maguire nor Stephanie Meadow were consulted about the September 22-25 date offered by the Ladies European Tour with the only alternative to the week after the Horizon Irish Open, which clashed with the JP McManus Pro-Am.

Golf Ireland’s push for the event to go ahead in September came about as the tournament is being supported by Government, which was keen to see the tournament back on the schedule after a 10-year absence.

KPMG, one of Maguire’s main sponsors, is backing the event for the next three years but as yet, six weeks out, there is no news on whether or not our two LPGA stars are going to play.

Maguire’s management company created the ISPS HANDA World Invitational which is sanctioned this week by the DP World Tour, the LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour.

The event comprises two separate tournaments where men and women compete on the same courses at the same time for two equal prize funds of US$1.5 million each.

Maguire and Meadow are joined in the women’s event by Lahinch amateur Aideen Walsh and Olivia Mehaffey.

But at least 15 Irishmen will tee it up in the men’s event, including Tom McKibbin and John Murphy, who are opting to seek victory on  the DP World Tour rather than chase promotion via the top 20 on the Challenge Tour by joining Ruaidhri McGee, James Sugrue and Rowan Lester in the clashing Challenge Tour event in Denmark.

Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy and Séamus Power return to action in Memphis for the first Playoff event, the US$15 m (€14.7m) FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind, where the winner will take home US $2.7m (€2.65 m).

They join Shane Lowry, who endured a marathon week in the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina last week when he headed home to Florida on Friday night believing he would miss the cut.

He had to use a private jet to back back to Sedgefield Country Club but apart from using up his airmiles, he at least knocked some rust off his game for Memphis after finishing joint last behind Korea’s Joohyung “Tom” Kim (20), who became the second youngest PGA TOUR winner since World War II.