Leona Maguire achieves world ranking high after best ever major finish

The Cavan native surpasses her previous high from February of this year.

Leona Maguire stormed to an impressive -5 round of 66 in the AIG Women's Open, at Muirfield, and has boosted her world ranking position, and coffers. Maguire shot the lowest final round score to gain nine shots on overnight leader Ashleigh Buhai. She eventually finished on -7 in a tie for fourth place with Minjee Lee for her best ever major finish, topping her tied for sixth at last year's Evian Championship. The 27-year-old now has three Top 10 finishes in the majors, with two of them coming in recent months. Earlier this year, she finished tied for eight at the US Open. Speaking with reporters after her final round at the East Lothian course, Maguire commented, "Overall, bogey-free, 5-under, and 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." [caption id="attachment_257429" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Leona Maguire is up to a world rankings high after her fourth place finish at the Women's Open. (Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile)[/caption]

Leona Maguire gets world ranking boost

As well as receiving just over €300,000 for her tied-fourth finish at the Women's Open, Leona Maguire has shot up five places in the world rankings. She is up to 17th in the world, beating her previous high of 20th. Ashleigh Buhai, who was caught on the final day by In Gee Chun before winning a playoff, has zoomed up 57 places to 27th in the world. For all the progress she has made, especially in 2022, Maguire is still eager for more. She went out on her final round targeting a round of 63 that would have put her at -10 and put real pressure on the later starters. "I kind of had 10 in my head," she said, after her round of 66 left her -7. "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."

"It's always nice to finish strong in the last round of a major, bogey-free. Felt like I kept it out of the fairway bunkers this week, and didn't hit it in a single fairway bunker. Drove it as well as I've probably drove it in a while. "Yeah, if I had had my week on the greens, things could have been a lot different."

The Women's British Open was the last of 2022's five majors to be played, so Maguire will have to bide her time on that goal and focus on finishing the LPGA Tour as strongly as possible. The biggest prize left on the table will be the €7 million Tour Championship, held in Florida, in mid November.

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