{"id":123114,"date":"2025-09-06T01:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T01:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/123114\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T01:00:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T01:00:08","slug":"meath-man-alex-maguire-looking-to-change-his-life-one-shot-at-a-time-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/123114\/","title":{"rendered":"Meath man Alex Maguire looking to change his life one shot at a time \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two worlds collided on Friday afternoon at the back of the clubhouse in the K Club<\/a>. Tom McKibbin<\/a> came and went, his five-under total comfortably keeping him in contention for the weekend.<\/p>\n

Over an hour later Alex Maguire sank his birdie putt on the 18th hole to move to -2, walked to the side of the green, pumped his fist and snatched his cap from his head to slam it on the ground.<\/p>\n

Instead, the world number 1,678 flung the cap behind him and across the green to where Zander Lombard was crouching over his marker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s probably one of the most embarrassing things I\u2019ve ever done,\u201d says Maguire.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was more the case I looked over and I saw my dad. It\u2019s big for them. That\u2019s why the hat went miles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where every putt means a chance to play on something more than the Challenge Tour, the emotional spillover and the flying cap was understandable. This week could change Maguire\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely, because I want my life to change,\u201d he says. \u201cI want my life to go as well as possible. I want to make money. I want to have status out on the DP World Tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is where I want to be so, 100 per cent I\u2019m ready for this. It\u2019s more a case of standing on a golf course, hitting the shots that allow me to change my life that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

In August, McKibbin took his LIV Golf haul to $5.77 million (\u20ac4.91 million), a contributory factor being a share of $14 million (\u20ac11.91 million) for winning the LIV Team Championship with Tyrrell Hatton, Caleb Surratt and Jon Rahm.<\/p>\n

\"AlexAlex Maguire at the 2025 Amgen Irish Open in the K Club on Friday. Photograph: Tom Maher\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Already McKibbin\u2019s career has cut free of one of the main shackles, finance, while Maguire has set himself up over the next two days to maybe trigger his own change.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunds go low pretty fast,\u201d he says. \u201cEspecially when you\u2019re playing for very small prize funds and you\u2019re playing Challenge Tour and you finish 10th and you get eight hundred quid, which doesn\u2019t even cover your expenses for the week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf everybody had two hundred grand to go spend, I guarantee a lot more guys would make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday he came to the last four holes knowing he was right on the cut mark. He finished on a rollercoaster bogey on 15, birdie, bogey and birdie.<\/p>\n

He hit the back of the green in two at the par-5 final hole, his downhill putt coming to rest at tap-in range.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Irish Open lowdown: The K Club plays host as 11 Irish players look for memorable weekOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cHow am I dealing with it? I guess, to be honest, this week came at a really good week,\u201d said Maguire. \u201cI had a good last few weeks mentally in terms of seeing my coach, seeing my psychologist, and really getting a good mental frame of mind, that\u2019s all I\u2019m focused on. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really know how I\u2019m dealing with it. I guess if you ask me in a week, I\u2019ll tell you. I\u2019m really optimistic that it\u2019s the biggest event in Ireland, it\u2019s one of the biggest events on the European Tour and I\u2019m out there in the top 10 yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can get to that height. It\u2019s not like a fluke. I\u2019m playing lovely and I\u2019m playing steady. I\u2019m up there and I feel like I\u2019m missing chances and I\u2019m still top 50.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maguire is two shots behind Shane Lowry (-4) and five behind the world number two, Rory McIlroy (-7). In many ways he has never been so close. <\/p>\n

There are plenty of bigger names below him in 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed, Jhonattan Vegas, Matteo Manassero, Danny Willett, the 2016 Masters winner and five-time Major champion Brooks Koepka, who carded +8 for his two rounds and is going home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the goal at the start of the week was trying to get a tee time with Rory,\u201d says Maguire. \u201cBut even just seeing him around and seeing the buzz …<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could just see the crowd. It\u2019s like a sea of people. So, it\u2019s really cool to be involved in an event where he is and Shane and P\u00e1draig [Harrington]. I\u2019m pretty lucky to be here.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t want to get too far ahead of myself. I know what\u2019s at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two worlds collided on Friday afternoon at the back of the clubhouse in the K Club. Tom McKibbin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[68137,49,48,622,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-123114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-alex-maguire","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-golf","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}