Leona Maguire completed her Olympic bid shooting three-under for her final nine holes having dropped out of contention.
“I think it’s a week of what could have been” said Maguire who reached eight-under par during her third round.
“There were flashes of medal golf in there, just not enough of it. I’ll take the positives from it, I played a great front nine yesterday and a great back nine today.
“I kind of got it going on the back today" explained Maguire, "I just didn’t drive the ball well enough this week. I got on the wrong side of a few slopes and things like that”.
“It was a week of near misses and what could have been, but at the same time hung in well to still post a score” added Maguire who tied for 23rd place.
“It’s not going to be your week every week” Maguire added. “At the same time I’ll finish 20-something out of the best field in golf.”
“It’s still early on in my LPGA career. I’ll learn what I can from this week and take it into the next two. We’ve two big weeks coming with the Scottish and Open so just keep trying to keep myself in contention and keep knocking on the door.”
Stephanie Meadow
With a final round 66, Stephanie Meadow secured herself a seventh-place finish.
Meadow kicked off her final round with six pars before birdies on the seventh and eighth moved her to nine-under-par and within sight of the leading pack.
The Jordanstown native held a 25-foot putt on her 12th hole in the first round to stop herself from dropping to four-over-par.
“It’s funny to look back on that point, that putt goes in and all of a sudden I’m 12-under so, it’s been a great week” declared Meadow.
“I’ve played some really good golf over the last few days. I’m really happy with that and just overall to finish top 10 in the Olympics which is something I’ll cherish forever.”
“It’s an interesting mentality here, there’s no cut and all you think about is getting a medal so I think I might take some of that and set the sights higher and kind of focus on that and let nothing else slow you down. That’s something I’ve learned from this week and hope to take on to the next coming weeks.”
Gold, Silver, Bronze
Just as Meadow was signing her card, play was suspended with three groups remaining out on the course.
The leader, Nelly Korda (USA) held a one-shot advantage over Mone Inami (Japan) with two holes remaining. Aditi Ashok (India) and Lydia Ko (New Zealand) were tied for the bronze medal.
Play resumed with Korda securing gold and Inami taking silver in a play-off. Ko added a bronze to her 2016 Olympic silver medal.
