Leona Maguire in Major contention as Shane Lowry shoots scintillating 62

As Shane Lowry fired a sensational eight-under 62 in the Travelers Championship to move up to sixth, just four shots behind Tom Kim at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut, Maguire chiselled out a one-under 71 that left her just three shots off the pace at Sahalee Country Club in Washington State.

The Co Cavan star birdied the last to go into the weekend tied for sixth on three under behind Americans Sarah Schmelzel and Amy Yang in the third women’s major of the season.

“The golf course is drying out quite a bit,” Maguire said on a day when world number one Nelly Korda missed the cut. “Greens are firming up. Fairways are firming up.

“It’s just try and hit as many fairways as you can. Give myself as many chances as I can, so I feel like I’ve been hitting my irons and hybrids well, so for me, the big thing is keeping it in the fairway and not having to bend it around those trees as much as possible.”

Last year, the Co Cavan star took a one-shot lead into the final round at Baltusrol but closed with a three-over 74 to finish four shots behind winner Yin Ruoning in a tie for 11th.

She felt she was too hard on herself 12 months ago and has vowed to be kinder this year as she looks to break her major duck.

“I think I learned that I could contend,” Maguire said after mixing five birdies with two bogeys and a double bogey at the 17th in her 71.

“I had the lead I think it was Friday night going into Saturday, going into Sunday, so I knew I hung on to it Saturday and didn’t hang on to it Sunday, but at the same time, I knew I could do it.

“This is a very different test to Baltusrol. At the same time, it will test patience and execution in the same way.

“So I think the biggest takeaway was knowing that I don’t have to play perfect golf to be able to contend. I haven’t by no means played perfect golf this week. Nobody will.

“So I think that’s going to be a big key this weekend, just trying to play as well as I possibly can and just, yeah, patient and be kinder to myself.

“I wasn’t very kind to myself on Sunday at Baltusrol last year. Be a bit kind for myself this weekend.”

Schmelzel shot a five-under 67 to set the pace at six-under before being joined at the top by Yang, who shot 68.

They lead by two strokes from Japan’s Hinako Shibuno (70), first-round leader Lexi Thompson (72) and Korea’s Jin Young Ko (68) with Maguire in a three-way tie for sixth with Haeran Ryu and Miyu Yamashita

Maguire turned in level par and was two under for the day with two to play when she followed a double bogey at the 160-yard 17th, where she was short in water, with a closing birdie four.

“Completely mishit it and came up short in the water,” she said of the 17th. “It was one of those just take my medicine with the pitch and make five and move on.

“It was nice to finish strong and make a birdie on 18 to give some momentum into tomorrow.”

The big surprise came from world number one Korda, who followed her first round 69 with an 81 to miss the five-over cut by one shot as Stephanie Meadow added a 78 to her opening 77 to miss out on 11-over

“It’s just golf recently for me,” Korda said. “No words for how I’m playing right now. I’m just going to go home and try to reset.”

As for Lowry, his eight-under 62 left him just four shots behind Kim on nine-under after a weather-disrupted second round where placing was allowed due to an impending storm.

He got off to a sensational start, almost holing out from the fairway from 110 yards at the first before tapping in from a few inches for birdie.

He then birdied the third and fifth and picked up another shot thanks to a wedge to eight feet at the ninth.

Out in 31, he showed no sign of letting up on the back nine, knocking in a 10-footer at the 10th and a 15-footer at the short 11th for three birdies in a row before rolling in a 25-footer for eagle at the 507-yard 13th to go eight under for the day.

His momentum was halted when play was suspended for three hours due to a thunderstorm but he returned to par his last four holes.

His eight-under 62 matched Robert MacIntyre for the low round of the day and kept alive his chances of notching his first individual win on the PGA TOUR since the 2019 Open Championship.

Kim shot 65 to lead by two strokes on 13 under from world number one Scottie Scheffler, who carded a 64 to share place with Collin Morikawa and Akshay Bhatia on 11-under.

PGA Championship winner Xander Schauffele was along in fifth on 10-under with Lowry tied sixth with Sungjae Im and Justin Thomas on nine-under.