Former Duke women’s golf star Leona Maguire wins first Ladies European Tour event

Leona Maguire, a two-time ANNIKA Award winner with the Duke women’s golf team, won her first Ladies European Tour event in London on Friday.

For the first time in her professional golfing career, Leona Maguire won a Ladies European Tour event on Friday.

The Irish star and former Duke Blue Devil won the individual leaderboard at the Aramco Team Series in London, shooting a final-round 73 to finish the three-day tournament at 8-under. She defeated Maria Hernandez from Spain by a single stroke.

Maguire played for the Blue Devils from 2014-18 and became the first women’s golfer to win the ANNIKA Award (given to the nation’s best player) twice when she earned the honor in 2015 and 2017. She spent more than 130 weeks atop the World Amateur Golf Rankings, a then-record for the women’s game, before turning pro in the summer of 2018.

Now 29 years old with more than half a decade of professional experience under her belt, Maguire won the LPGA Drive On Championship in February 2022 for her first win on the big stage. She won the Meijer LPGA Classic the following June, and she’s finished inside the top 10 in three different major championships since 2021 began.

Maguire will also represent her home country of Ireland in the Olympic Games this summer, one of three Duke women’s golfers to make the field.