Women’s Irish Open: Leona Maguire drops eight off Dromoland Castle pace after 75

Leona Maguire’s run of four straight bogeys on her back nine started as her ball bounced off a cart path into trees on the second hole

Home hope Leona Maguire dropped ten off the Women’s Irish Open clubhouse pace after firing a disappointing three-over-par 75 on Friday.

Two off the lead after an opening 67 at Dromoland Castle, Maguire suffered four successive bogeys on her second nine to finish on two under.

Sweden’s Moa Folke leads on twelve under par.

Folke is two shots clear of Denmark’s Smilla Tarning Sonderby, Spain’s Carmen Alonso and Czech player Klara Spilkova.

Sonderby and Alonso fired rounds of 65 with Spilkova carding a 68.

World number 16 Maguire, 27, remained in contention with the leaders as she played her opening 10 holes in one under par after starting at the 10th.

However the LPGA star bogeyed the second after her tee shot bounced off a cart path into trees and three further bogeys immediately followed as she plummeted down the leaderboard.

The 2021 European Solheim Cup hero completed her round with four pars which left her sharing 39th place nearing the end of play on Friday.

Austria’s Christine Wolf was in the clubhouse on eight under after 69 with Felicity Johnson the leading Briton nearing the end of day two after a superb 66 left her on seven under alongside first-round joint leader Sweden’s Lina Boqvist, who had to be content with a 72 on Friday.

Thursday’s other leader Alexandra Swayne of the US Virgin Island dropped back to four under after carding a 75 on Friday.

Sweden’s Linn Grant, who leads the Ladies European Tour Race to Costa Del Sol season rankings after clinching four victories, finished on six under after a 67.

This week’s Irish Open sees the event returning to the tour for the first time since 2012.