Leona Maguire saw her hopes of making the knockout stages evaporate when she lost the last two holes to halve with Jin Young Ko in the T-Mobile Match Play in Las Vegas.
The Co Cavan star was gunning to go one better than last year’s defeat to Nelly Korda in the final at Shadow Creek.
She needed to beat Ko to keep her hopes alive after crashing to a 6&5 loss to Canada’s Brooke Henderson in her first Pool 8 round-robin match on Wednesday.
But after playing steady golf to take a four-up lead over the two-time major winner from South Korea through nine holes, she lost the 11th, 12th, 17th and 18th in a halved match that saw both players eliminated.
Ko was dormie two and heading out before her late rally also eliminated Maguire, who faces Chinese Taipei’s Peiyun Chien in her final group match today.
Maguire has just half a point from her two matches, which means Chien, who lost 5&4 to Henderson, can still playoff for the top spot and a place in the last 16.
She has to beat Maguire and hope Canadian Henderson loses to Ko.
Defending champion Korda must beat Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn to win her group.
Korda halved her opening match before struggling to beat Jennifer Kupcho one-up.
“Definitely don’t have my best stuff right now…” Korda said. “That’s the greatest thing about match play, is even if you don’t have your best stuff you have to grind it out.”
Lydia Ko beat Gabriela Ruffels 6&5 and plays Carlota Ciganda in a group where all four players have just one point.
“Carlota and I have very different games. She hits it a lot further than me, so I’m sure she’s going to hit much shorter clubs into the greens than me, which could be an advantage,” Ko said.
“I don’t feel like I’m too shabby at match play either. But it’s going to be a fun game. I think Carlota is an amazing player and great friend, so it should be fun regardless.”
Last week’s Ford Championship winner, Hyo Joo Kim, won her last four holes to beat Denmark’s Nanna Koertz Madsen for her second win.
She now faces Swede Maja Stark in the group decider.
Rose Zhang conceded her match against Albane Valenzuela after three holes due to a neck injury.
Valenzuela will be eliminated if Zhang can’t play against Meghan Khang today.
But if Zhang can play and beats Khang, Valenzuela could win the group by beating Russia’s Nataliya Guseva.
