Leona Maguire battling for automatic Solheim Cup spot

Leona Maguire is seeking a fourth Solheim Cup cap. Picture: LET

Leona Maguire will need to dig deep in the AIG Women's Open if she’s to avoid needing a Solheim Cup pick on Monday.

Only two players have a better winning percentage than the Ballyconnell battler, and skipper Anna Nordqvist knows her game better than most, having played together on successful European teams in 2021, 2023 and 2025.

Still, Maguire will be keen to avoid needing one of four wildcards and after showing better form last week with her tie for eighth in the Women’s Scottish Open at windy Dundonald Links, she can still play her way into the side with a top performance in the final women’s Major at Royal Lytham and St Annes.

“I'd love to be in Holland in September for a home Solheim Cup,” Maguire said in May, shortly after recording just her second top-10 finish of a transitional season given the swing changes she’s making with Sean Foley.

“The last time was incredible. There were so many Irish there, and the atmosphere was fantastic. I suppose the goal for that is to try and get my overall ranking back up and make the team automatically, and not have to rely on a pick or anything like that.”

The problem is that Maguire’s world ranking has fallen over the past two months after three missed cuts from five.

She’s not among the top two players on the LET Solheim Cup Points List— currently Charley Hull and Chiara Tamburlini —  or the top six players in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.

But with double points on the European Solheim Cup points list on offer for the Majors and huge world ranking points up for grabs, it’s still possible for her to make the team with a big week at  Royal Lytham.

Should she fail to qualify, it’s difficult to see Nordqvist leaving her out of side considering she has won eight, halved one and lost just three of her 12 matches over three Solheim Cups — a 70.8pc strike rated bettered by Janice Moodie and Carin Koch in the history of the event.

Winner of  4.5 points on her debut in Toledo in 2021 and a key player in the tied match in Spain in 2023, she was controversially left on the sidelines for three of the opening four sessions by captain Suzann Pettersen at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in 2024.

She had a point to prove in the singles and hammered Ally Ewing 4&3, remarking that “it was a bitter pill to swallow to be sat out for as many sessions as I was.”

Pettersen gave her no reason for her omission and she had a point to prove.

“The feeling I got was that I was a little bit too short and didn’t make enough birdies,” she said. “NBut I think I showed today there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and I think I made plenty of birdies today.”

Maguire took part in a recent European squad session at Bernardus Golf, which will host the Solheim Cup from September 11-13.

Her accuracy will certainly be tested at Royal Lytham and St Annes, where she is joined by Anna Foster, who qualified after winning one of six spots in an eight-way play-off at St Annes Old Links on Monday, and Lauren Walsh.

It’s also a big week for Seamus Power, who tees it up in the penultimate regular season event, the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club.

The West Waterford man will be looking to build on his tie for 10th in last week’s 3M Open, which boosted him to 105th in the FedExCup standings.

The top 100 after next week’s Wyndham Championship will be fully exempt next season, while the top 70 qualify for first play-off event, the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

On the HotelPlanner Tour, Max Kennedy, Liam Nolan, James Sugrue, Gary Hurley, Ronan Mullarney, Mark Power and Conor Purcell tee it up in the Infortar Estonian Challenge at Estonian Golf & Country Club in Tallin.

Newly-named European Ryder Cup vice-captain Pádraig Harrington joins Darren Clarke in the PGA Tour Champions’ Portugal Invitational at The Els Club Vilamoura from Friday.