Nov 25,2024
Leona Maguire closed out a disappointing week at the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship with a best round 68 to finish 18 shots adrift of winner Jeeno Thitikul.
FINAL LEADERBOARD
The Cavan woman saw any chance of challenging for the lucrative event go up in smoke on Friday with a 76, but finished out her week with a 68 to finish on four-under par and a share for 42nd place.
One-under for her round at the turn, the 29-year-old added four birdies before dropping a shot at the last at Tiburon Golf Club.
Maguire finished runner-up at the tournament in 2022 when the winning purse was a then-record $2m.
It brings to a close a disappointing year on the LPGA Tour for Maguire, which yielded just one top-10 showing, her runners-up finish to Nelly Korda in the T-Mobile Matchplay in Las Vegas.
She did, however, make history by becoming the first Irish player to record a victory on the Ladies European Tour at the Aramco Team Series event in Hemel Hempstead in July.
At the business end of the leaderboard, Thitikul produced a brilliant finish to take home the $4million first prize, the largest in the history of women's golf.
Thitikul made an eagle on the par-five 17th and then birdied the last to finish 22-under par, a shot ahead of American Angel Yin.
Thitikul had already banked $1m this week for winning the season-long Aon Risk-Reward Challenge on the LPGA Tour.
World number one Nelly Korda, who won her seventh tournament of the season last week, finished in a tie for fifth on 15-under.
Additional reporting: PA
