Leona Maguire says she hopes to feed off the inspiration of Ireland's Olympic heroes as she heads into the closing stretch of the 2024 season.
Maguire tees off shortly before 2pm on Thursday at the O'Meara Course at Carton House as the KPMG Women's Irish Open comes to the Kildare venue for the first time.
She returns to home soil after a patchy year, in which she made history by becoming the first Irish player to win on the Ladies European Tour in London last month, but also struggled in the majors, failing to make the cut in three.
However, the two-time LPGA Tour winner is remaining patient and saw evidence of green shoots in her performance at the Women's Open in St Andrews last week.
"It's been a mixed year," Maguire told RTÉ Sport's Greg Allen on Wednesday. "Obviously, I didn't contend in the majors the way I'd like to. But that's golf.
"I've been working on a few things. Some of it's worked. Some of it hasn't.
"You just try and keep plugging away. You never know when it's going to turn.
"You see that with Keegan Bradley last week on the PGA Tour. He just got into the FedEx and then won. So, you never know when something really great is around the corner.
"Ultimately, all I can do is keep working as hard as I can and keep having a really good attitude. And try to keep being inspired by the heroics of our great athletes in Paris a few weeks ago."
World class. 🏆
— Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) July 5, 2024
The winning eagle from Leona Maguire who becomes Ireland's first LET winner 🇮🇪#RaiseOurGame | #SEETheImpact pic.twitter.com/1kPbYtwRNy
After suffering a bout of flu during the week, Maguire endured a miserable Olympic tournament on the course at Le Golf National, finishing at the foot of the field among those who completed the full 72 holes.
However, she wasn't inclined to let that dampen the experience of being part of Team Ireland, which pulled in a record haul of medals.
"The team did incredibly well. It was fantastic to see Kellie (Harrington) get another gold, Mona (McSharry) get her medal and Dan Wiffen's heroics and for Rhys (McClenaghan) to get the first ever gymnastics gold for Ireland.
"There were so many high points of the Paris Olympics. Yes, my golf wasn't where I wanted it to be. But there was such a great buzz around the Irish team and it was fantastic to see all that hard work pay off. Hopefully, I can bring that momentum into the second half of my year."
Maguire's prominence has been an influential factor in the return of the Irish Open to the Ladies European Tour schedule after a 10-year absence.
As a teenaged amateur, Maguire played from 2008-12, it's second run on the tour after dropping off initially following the 2003 event.
It finally returned in 2022, Dromoland Castle hosting the last two tournaments. With Maguire the undoubted star attraction, the revival edition racked up 24,000 spectators across the four days, a huge tally by LET standards and comparable to that year's AIG Women's Open at Muirfield.
This week, there are a whopping 13 Irish players in the field, including eight amateurs. Maguire and her regular tour partners Lauren Walsh and Olivia Mehaffey tee off, while Anna Foster and Annabel Wilson make their pro debuts.
"Legacy and stuff like that is not something you really focus on when you're still playing. Golf is a very humbling game and you have to focus on one event at a time.
"But I've always said how important it is to have this event on the schedule. I was very fortunate to play in it as an amateur and it was a great learning experience.
"It's fantastic that it's back on the schedule and even better to see so many young Irish girls in the field this week. Hopefully they can enjoy it and take something from it.
"We don't get to play in front of Irish fans very often. There was an incredible amount of them in Paris, it seemed like there was tricolours and jerseys everywhere you looked. Really excited to play in front of a home support again. I'm grateful to have that support and backing no matter where I go in the world but to play in Ireland again is very special."
A tied-fourth finish in 2022 is Maguire's closest shave with glory. In an incredibly congested leaderboard at the top, an eagle at the par-five 18th would have seen her scrape into a four-way playoff.
In the end, she had to settle for birdie and fell one stroke short, the Czech Republic's Klara Spilkova winning the ensuing play-off.
A similar Sunday charge failed to materialise last year, with Maguire finishing eight strokes adrift in tied-14th and Denmark's Smilla Soenderby shooting a sensational final day 62 to come from way back to take the title.
"I put too much pressure on myself. Tried absolutely too hard. Probably drained myself too much mentally and didn't have enough in the tank come Sunday.
"I'm trying to treat it as any other week. Trying to go through the same routines and play as well as I possibly can. And if that's good enough come Sunday, it's good enough.
"A very different test the last couple of weeks in links golf in wind and rain.
"Carton House - I feel like it suits my game quite well. I think it'll be a little bit more target golf this week. Hopefully a lot more birdies and things for people to cheer than in the last few weeks."
Watch the Women's Irish Open on Saturday and Sunday from 2pm on the RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. Live coverage also available on Thursday and Friday from 4pm on the RTÉ News Channel and RTÉ Player.
