Maguire and Meadow hoping to hit major form at PGA Championship

Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow are back on the hunt for a maiden major as they tee it up at this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

The third major of the year takes place at the Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington, 30 kilometres west of Seattle on America’s west coast.

And it is fair to say that neither of the Irish pair are showing the required form to be considered among the favourites to challenge on Sunday.

Maguire slipped out of the world’s top 20 at the tail end of 2023 and has fallen further throughout the first half of 2024, currently ranked 32nd in the Rolex list.

Runner-up to world number one, Nelly Korda, at the T-Mobile Match Play in April was the standout performance for Maguire this year, and a tied-12th finish at the Cognizant Founders Cup last month will offer some element of confidence ahead of this week’s event.

Meadow, similarly, has been moving in the wrong direction in the rankings, having fallen out of the top 100 at the end of 2023.

Currently sitting at 132 on the list, Meadow’s best showing came at the Blue Bay in March, where she finished eighth, however, she arrives at the PGA having missed three cuts in her last four tournaments.

And yet, Meadow has a habit of bringing her best golf to the majors, going right back to her first tournament as a professional, where she finished third at the 2014 US Women’s Open.

She was back in contention at last year’s PGA Championship and ended up in a tie for third place, having also enjoyed a top ten finish in 2022.

Likewise, Maguire was also in contention at Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey at last year’s event, and the Cavan native actually took a one-shot lead into the final round as she searched for her first major win to go with the two LPGA