After earning National Player of the Year honors as the world’s No. 1 amateur, junior Leona Maguire still feels she has more to accomplish in Durham.
The native of Cavan, Ireland, announced her unexpected decision to withdraw from the final round of LPGA Qualifying School Nov. 23 and return to Duke. Maguire now plans to finish her degree and help her team reach its full potential before focusing full-time on golf.
“I’ve had an unbelievable time here so far and I supposed I felt like I had a little bit of unfinished business here with this team,” Maguire said. “We’ve got a great team here.... I want to be part of that and be a leader for this, and try and get those two national championships in those two years, and obviously to finish out my degree. Having a Duke degree is a very special thing, and to have two and a half years of that done and not finish it out would have been a bit of a shame.”
Maguire had been playing in tournaments this fall in an attempt to qualify for permanent status on the highest women’s professional tour. The All-American had passed the tests with flying colors, tying for sixth overall in the second stage of Q-School to advance to the the final stage.
Her efforts to earn her professional card were not that surprising, given her prowess on the course at Duke. Maguire has finished in the top five in 14 of her 23 collegiate tournaments, with four individual wins.
She won ACC Player of the Year in 2015, and made the All-ACC team in both of her full seasons in Durham. However, Maguire still believed she had aspects of her game to improve before making the leap to the next level.
“Obviously the life of a professional athlete in general, people see it as quite glamorous. But there’s a lot of things that go on behind the scenes, the day-to-day, a lot of travel and hard work that people probably don’t see,” Maguire said. “Spending another year and a half here, time management skills, being part of a team, the hard work, all of that will help me be best prepared for all of that when I do make the jump.”
Blue Devil head coach Dan Brooks didn’t push Maguire too hard in either direction, but certainly endorsed her decision to stay.
“Leona has made an excellent life decision—the full, positive impact of which will grow and blossom over time, during and well beyond competitive golf,” Brooks said in a press release after Maguire announced her decision.
Despite the many hours Maguire puts in on the course, she has still been able to maintain a stellar academic record, earning a 3.93 GPA at the close of her fifth semester at Duke.
In addition to continuing her education, Maguire’s decision means she will stay with on the team her twin sister, Lisa.
An improved Lisa, going through major swing changes, is part of a short-handed Blue Devil squad that fielded only six players in an up-and-down fall, but finished the season strong.
After finishing no better than fifth in three previous fall tournaments, No. 16 Duke downed defending national champions Washington and then-No. 5 UCLA in the prestigious East Lake Cup to close out the fall season.
Lisa gave the Blue Devils one of the key match victories that put them over the top, and was one of many voices influencing her sister, along with the rest of the Maguire family and Kevin White, Duke’s vice president and director of athletics.
“Obviously she was happy to have me here. She was trying to give me as much advice as she could, but not sway me too much,” Leona said of Lisa’s role in her decision. “The whole team in general was pretty delighted. It will obviously be great to spend the next year and a half with her and finish out here and graduate with my teammates and classmates. It’s a pretty special thing.”
In their efforts to win national championships, the Blue Devils will be adding two valuable pieces next year alongside Leona Maguire and defending individual national champion Virginia Elena Carta in top-10 junior golfers Miranda Wang and Jaravee Boonchant.
“Miranda and Jaravee are great people, as well as very talented golfers,” Brooks said in a press release. “Both are team-oriented with a lot of character. We very much look forward to welcoming them onto our team.”
Maguire will certainly welcome the duo to Durham, and feels very satisfied about her decision to stay at Duke. After making what she called the biggest decision in her life, she decided not to “look back and dwell on what-ifs” or look at the scores from Q-School.
“This was the one that had the most weight on my life and what the future holds for me, but obviously the decision to come here was a big decision as well,” Maguire said. “It’s something that I’ve said before that was the best decision I’ve ever made. Hopefully in years to come, I look back on this one and say the same.”
Sameer Pandhare contributed reporting.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.
Managing Editor 2018-19, 2019-2020 Features & Investigations Editor
A member of the class of 2020 hailing from San Mateo, Calif., Ben is The Chronicle's Towerview Editor and Investigations Editor. Outside of the Chronicle, he is a public policy major working towards a journalism certificate, has interned at the Tampa Bay Times and NBC News and frequents Pitchforks.