Dazzling Leona falls just short
Brilliant Leona Maguire produced an inspirational final round yesterday to consolidate second place in the Portuguese Ladies Open Amateur Championship in Lisbon.
The 16-year-old 2011 champion from Slieve Russell fired a closing four-under-par 68 to reduce Roberta Roeller's advantage to just three strokes.
Roeller had taken an eight-stroke lead into the last round, but three birdies in the first seven holes by Maguire cut the deficit to six.
She then birdied the 13th and 14th despite being bunkered on both and, after further birdies at 16 and 17, she was just one stroke adrift. But the Curtis Cup international missed the final green to the right and failed to get up and down while Roeller canned a putt the full length of the green to win by three.
Maguire's twin sister Lisa finished in fourth spot with a 291 aggregate, a stroke behind third-placed Perrine Delacour.
Cork's Gillian O'Leary was the only other Irish player to survive the 54-hole cut, but she finished at the tail end of the field with a 313 total.
- Chris Smart
Irish Independent
