Ireland's new golf superstar Leona Maguire believes her late granny was looking down on her as she became the first Irish LPGA winner in history.
In an exclusive interview, the family from Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, told how the ace reckons Marian – who died last September – played a part in her triumph in Florida last week.
The 27-year-old won the Ladies Professional Golf Association’s Drive On Championship.
It catapulted her into the world top 20 rankings and made her Ireland’s greatest ever female pro golfer.
Dad Declan said: “We all think she [Leona’s granny] had a hand in last Saturday.”
Mum Breda – Marian’s daughter –added: “That’s what Leona said too. It was my birthday and she said, ‘I’m sure granny had a hand in getting this lovely present for mammy this year’.”
A framed photo of Marian with her identical twin granddaughters, Leona and Lisa and their brother Odhran, sits pride of place on a coffee table in the sitting room of their bungalow.
Leona and Lisa were both marked out as golfing prodigies from the age of 10, and Marian was their greatest supporter – saying decades of the rosary for their success.
Schoolteacher Declan said: “She used to say, ‘If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be’ but she made sure to say the rosaries anyway and light all the candles to be sure – she’s definitely saying them up above too.”
Marian’s rosaries – and Leona’s 17 years of hard work – paid off on the fairways on Fort Myers, Florida, last Saturday.
Less than a year after Leona’s incredible performance during Europe’s Solheim Cup win in the US, the golfing star is once again making headlines around the world.
And in her interviews, this down-to-earth girl from a small town in Cavan never forgets to credit her family and supporters back home – before telling the world: “We’re only getting started”.
Dynamic duo Leona and Lisa have been scoring “firsts” since they picked up a putter aged nine “by accident”.
Before that, they were doing galas as competitive swimmers, but when Lisa had a playground fall and fractured her elbow, medics advised she play tennis for physio.
Instead, Declan got them some clubs and within a couple of years the girls were making headlines as ones to watch.
At 10, Leona won the 10th British Wee Wonders Championship at St Andrew’s.
The following year Lisa won the Young Masters Golf Series in Spain with Leona coming second.
When Leona was 13, the then Loreto College Cavan student was crowned youngest-ever winner of the Irish Close Championship, with Lisa coming second.
Their tit-for-tat winning streak continued through school, before they set off for America after they both won scholarships to the prestigious Duke University to play golf while studying Psychology with Sports Management.
Growing up they were inseparable and spent every waking moment together. They wore identical clothes, went to the same schools, shared friends, did their homework and practised golf together before and after school.
Breda said: “They lived together on campus at Duke and always shared a room – they never split up.
“Even here we’ve plenty of room in the house and they could have their own room, but they still share a bedroom.”
Declan reveals how academically-gifted Lisa always wanted to study dentistry and got the points in her Leaving Cert.
Leona’s top Leaving marks won her a spot studying Actuarial Studies – but Duke won out.
The talented twins were even invited to turn pro straight after their Leaving Cert but opted for student life instead – and loved every minute at the North Carolina university.
While there, Leona spent a record-smashing 135 weeks at the top of the Women’s Amateur Golf Ranking before they both turned pro in 2018.
But before Covid, Lisa decided to change direction. Pal Niall Horan asked her to join his sports agency Modest! Golf to manage Leona.
Then, lockdowns pulled the twins apart. During much of Covid, Leona and her caddy Dermot Byrne – who used to hold the clubs for Shane Lowry – were forced into training and hotel “bubbles” between competitions.
Lisa returned to dentistry and is now in second year at UCC.
But she’s still Leona’s right-hand woman and come summer, they’ll be back on the road together again.
Despite everything, the pandemic had a silver lining for the close-knit family.
In early 2020, busy Leona and Lisa returned from competition in Australia on a Tuesday, and had flights back to the US booked the following Monday.
But then, the lockdown was announced. It proved an unexpected gift. Breda said: “My mother lived with us for five years and a lot of
that time the girls were in college or in tournaments, so it was such a special time, being together in the lockdown.
“It was so lovely having that quality time all together.”
In the early days of lockdown, with golf clubs closed and tournaments cancelled, the twins returned to where it all began – the back field behind their house.
Breda said: “We have a field and a net and Leona could chip, putt and do wedge play.
“They’d hit the balls and Declan went about the garden with a bucket.”
Poignantly, Leona’s “breakout” LPGA moment, when she led the Europeans to victory over the US in September last year coincided with a heart-breaking time for the family.
Breda said: “Mammy was very sick and was with us the week of the Solheim Cup but it was the first tournament she wasn’t up checking scores and rounds.”
Leona got a hero’s homecoming staged by cheering locals who lined the streets and lined up pipe bands, Garda escorts, the fire brigade and later, a bash at the Slieve Russell Hotel, where Leona and Lisa played from day one.
Breda said: “It was only a couple of days after Leona won the Solheim Cup that mammy passed.
“We all found the celebrations very difficult, but we tried to put out a good face and that’s what mammy would have wanted.”
Locals would love an even bigger party to welcome Leona home next Monday, but Breda and Declan insist: “No party this time.”
Next up it’s competitions in Singapore and Thailand.
Declan added: “It’s a tough life – nobody sees the early mornings and late nights.
“It’s very tough on the road living out of suitcases – it’s not all glamour.”
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