Leona Maguire two shots off the lead in California after super second round
Fir Maguire On Palos Leona Pak Picture: The Championship Hills Round Of 12th Hits Hole Verdes Her Ramirez/getty Orlando Seri Second Shot The Club At Golf During Images Tee Of The Ireland
Leona Maguire moved into contention with a six-under 65 at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship in California.
The Cavan golfer carded seven birdies and with just a single bogey as she finished tied for fourth after the second round. Maguire is just two shots off leader Malia Nam who is on eight-under.
Maguire was a "little bit all over the place" in her opening round, one which saw her shoot a level par 71. "Sort of hanging in and scrambling and a lot of good up and downs to keep me in it," she said.
"And then [on Friday] I gave myself a lot of chances. Putter was working nice, which was good. Nice to sort of the get a birdie on our second hole, on 11, to get the round going.
"It always feels like a steal when you birdie the tough par-3s around here. So nice to have two twos today on our front nine.
"Yeah, the three birdies to close out the front nine was nice momentum heading into the back knowing there was a few chances coming up."
Maguire knows the Palos Verdes course well as she visited it at least three times while attending Duke University.
"Had a little bit of a love-hate relationship with it," she said.
"Something I started working on at the start of year is be more patient and it really tests you this course. I feel like here and Evian are similar with all the slopes. You have to be really intentional with your targets.
"The greens aren't very big, so you know when you hit a lot of greens you're going to have some chances, so it's just a case of being patient for those chances."
Maguire "made a few changes over the off-season". Some weeks, they are working and others not.
"Drove the ball really nice the first two days, which has been good to see," she said.
"Then, yeah, putted really nice as well. Kind of found a couple of things that I had been doing a few years ago, kind of gone back to them, which is nice to see that sort of paying off sort of these first two rounds as well.
"Just need to get my irons dialed in a little bit more and hopefully we can have a good weekend.
"It's going to be a really big summer, so I think everybody is sort of gearing up towards a big summer. The off-season being so short, some of those first few events were a little bit of a trial run for that.
"So working through those changes whilst still playing tournaments rather than having an extended time off, making sure everything is in a really good place come the summer for all the majors, for the Olympics, for Solheim. Really big summer ahead."
