Leona Maguire & Lucas Glover

Friday, December 8, 2023

THE MODERATOR: Birdie-fest out there. What was working well with your partnership?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, we got it rolling early. I think it was nice. Lucas hit some really nice approach shots and I managed to roll a few putts. Anytime you can get on a birdie run like that, it’s pretty fun.

THE MODERATOR: How did this connection and team come together for the week?

LUCAS GLOVER: I think they just assigned us each other, and we met via text and went from there, played some Tuesday. Didn’t get to play any the last couple days because of the pro-am, but we had a nice time Tuesday and realized pretty quick I was going to be in the fairway a lot so I could be a little more aggressive. She played great, putted great, and we had fun.

THE MODERATOR: You have kind of a similar vibe, kind of quiet, go about your business out there. Do you think having a similar personality helps in this format?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I think neither of us get too excited or too down on ourselves, so it’s pretty nice. We had a nice stroll out there, and it was fun playing with Madelene and Ludvig, as well. Ludvig was pretty impressive. Nice to see that up close, and Madelene is obviously a good friend of mine, as well. Plenty of chats, plenty of laughing out there, which is always nice.

THE MODERATOR: Have you watched any of Leona’s game?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, I knew pretty early on, just get her on the green as close as possible and I wouldn’t have to putt much. Yeah, when I saw our pairing, I checked everything out, and I’d watched some of the Solheim Cup recently anyway.

Play different tours, but I think we were familiar enough to know.

THE MODERATOR: Eagle on 13, just walk us through that hole.

LUCAS GLOVER: I couldn’t quite get there on the fly, so I had to bounce it in. I’m not blessed with that speed Ludvig has. Hit a nice shot and it bounced up, went to a pretty good spot, and then about eight feet.

LEONA MAGUIRE: It was a nice shot. I told him it was like a linksey shot, little draw in there, banked in, and we were almost getting ready for foursomes at that point.

LUCAS GLOVER: It was a great day, good time, and we’re going to go discuss some strategy for tomorrow and get ready for it.

Q. How do your games complement each other, especially just meeting for the first time?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, I think in a situation like this, you don’t try to overdo anything, don’t try to overthink anything. I think there was only one time where I hit a club off a tee I probably wouldn’t have hit in a regular event just because I knew she’d be in the fairway.

But I think it was — I know what her strengths her, she knows what mine are, and we just stayed out of each other’s way, not that we didn’t talk or anything, but we just let each other do our thing, and it worked.

Q. What does this event mean for fans, to see these two tours collide and join forces here?

LEONA MAGUIRE: I think it’s great. We were actually surprised how many people were out today. There was definitely really good crowds for a Friday, even though we were out early. Hopefully there will be even more over the weekend, and hopefully there will be a few more eyes on us on the LPGA side this weekend.

It’s a lot of fun having the guys here, a lot of guys we’ve grown up watching on TV over the years and every other weekend. Yeah, it’s a fun format, and nice to have it back on the schedule.

Q. Now that you guys have played one round, did you like playing with a female-male team, and could you see yourself wanting to continue doing events like this in the future?

LUCAS GLOVER: I sure did. I thought it was great. I’ve done a few pro-am type things with some of the LPGA ladies but nothing full competition. I thought it was great. I had a ball. Ludvig and Madelene were great, and we all had fun and chatted, and it was everything I expected. It was great.

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, same, for sure. It was a lot of fun. It was something different. It’s a nice event to finish off the year on. I know there’s some interesting pairings this week. We probably weren’t the star-studded pairing, but I think we’ve kind of flown under the radar a little bit today, and hopefully we can keep the momentum going the next two days.

Q. I have to ask about the news yesterday with Jon Rahm leaving the PGA TOUR for LIV. Curious what your reaction was to that news and what it means for the PGA TOUR?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, similar to when the other guys went, I don’t blame him, but at the same time I don’t really care. They can do what they want to do. They can go play there, play here, whatever. Low man still wins on Sunday. I really don’t care.

Q. Obviously an event like this is really cool. Bringing the two tours together is very unique. Do you think these kinds of things should be what’s being brought up in the game right now rather than kind of the cash grabs that are happening on the other side of things?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I think we just had fun this week, and that’s what golf is about. It was almost like being back to a kid a little bit again. I grew up playing with the guys. There was no girls in my golf club except my sister to play with, so it almost felt like we had gone back in time a little bit. It’s fun to see these guys do their thing up close. It’s really impressive.

I think they see parts of our game that are impressive, too, so I think it’s nice for the fans to get the best of both this week.

Q. What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned about each other’s games this week?

LUCAS GLOVER: Each other’s games?

LEONA MAGUIRE: He’s really consistent. His approach shots are really tight, and he’s very straight off the tee for how long they hit it, as well. So impressed.

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, same. Just the little her ball curves. I curve it a lot for the PGA TOUR now, and to see a ball not curve very much that’s leaving that I’m paying attention to is very interesting. It pretty much goes where her club face is pointing. It’s very impressive.

Q. Did you guys Google each other to learn more about each other?

LUCAS GLOVER: I did, absolutely

Q. What did you learn?

LUCAS GLOVER: She’s got a twin, Lisa, who’s in dental school in Dublin. I asked some of the younger guys on TOUR if they knew her and they said yeah. I talked to Justin Thomas. You guys are about the same age and knew each other from college stuff. I played with him last week, so that was an easy ask.

Yeah, just kind of something to break the ice, meeting somebody for the first time. Yeah, we carry around the smartest thing in our pockets, it’s easy to get information, so yeah, absolutely I did.

Q. Did you?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I did. Obviously I knew he won a major and all of that. I knew he went to college down the road in Clemson not too far from Duke. Not too big of a rivalry. Enough that we can be nice to each other.

Yeah, everybody I spoke to the past few weeks have all said what a nice guy he is, and that’s definitely been true. Really lucky.

Q. When did you guys officially meet for the first time?

LUCAS GLOVER: In person, Tuesday. I drove over from home, and we texted and our managers connected us. We exchanged texts and said we’d just play some on Tuesday around lunch. On the chipping green Tuesday morning.

Q. You both celebrated a birthday recently maybe in the last three or four weeks. What did you guys do to celebrate separately, and what does it feel like to be another year older?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, 44, I didn’t do much. Probably took a nap at this age.

No, I think I was in Bermuda. Yeah, on Sunday there. They tortured me, sang me happy birthday and stuff. I don’t feel 44, so that’s good. I usually do on Mondays, not on Fridays.

But yeah, I’m just happy to still be plugging along out here.

LEONA MAGUIRE: I was back in Orlando. My parents are in town, so we went out to dinner. Pretty low key, I suppose. One of the first few birthdays my sister wasn’t here, so we each got our own cake this year, which was nice. Didn’t have to share for a change. Called her, wished her a happy birthday, all of that, and yeah.

Q. TGL with the delay for a year, do you think this will be beneficial? The other guys I’ve talked to here said everything was kind of quick, kind of thrown together a little bit fast. Do you think this will help TGL having a full year to get everything in order?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, I think they were ready. Now I think they’ll be really ready. Yeah, a year delay is unfortunate for the owners, the teams, the sponsors, all that stuff. But yeah, they can iron out the kinks even more now and get more feedback from the technology, and I think at the end of it, it’ll be beneficial, yeah.

It’s unfortunate. Fortunate nobody was hurt and all that with the accident, but I think another year to work on it and get everything perfect, I don’t think it’s going to hurt anything.

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