This blog first appeared in the Andersonstown News
“Nice to see ya!” yipped Ryan Tubridy (THE LATE LATE SHOW, RTÉ ONE) to golf sensation Leona Maguire. The stand-out player at the Solheim Cup, where she led Europe to victory over the US, smiled in a way that was at once modest and assured.
Tubridy kept mentioning Leona’s twin sister Lisa. It appears the two girls got into golf only when Lisa broke her arm and they were looking for a sport she could play successfully. They chose golf and the rest is history.
Tubridy kept asking her about competing with her twin, but Leona told him that actually having a twin was a “built-in best pal”. They cheered each other on, sometimes they competed in finals against each other, but their dad, who was sitting there in the studio with their mother and granny, told them it didn’t matter who won, the point was, the trophy was coming to home and to Cavan.
And where is Lisa now? “She played golf for a long time and is now part of my management team.”
Tubridy declared that Leona’s granny was a stand-out star too. Granny just sat there, smiling, the way grannies do. And then we were told her age – 94 – ‘Strewth! And how many children she’d had -16. SIXTEEN? ‘Strewth X 10! And how many grandchildren?– 50. Crikey. So who was her favourite grand-child, Tubridy wanted to know. “Leona”, Granny replied obediently. “You’ve just lost 49 Christmas presents!” Tubridy told her.
Leona comes across as a sweet young woman, devoid of vanity. But when she spoke, you knew she had that steely inner core of which champions are made.
But it was hard not to wonder, if Mum and Dad and Granny could turn up on the Late Late, where was Lisa? Wouldn’t it have been fascinating to see how identical they still are and whether they finished each other’s sentences? And would Tubridy have been able to winkle out how it feels when your twin surges into the big time, leaving you choking on her victory dust?
Besides which, it would have been absorbing to see an interview with Granny on her own. When you’re ninety-four and have had sixteen children and fifty grand-children, you deserve dedicated air time as much as any golfer.
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