Leona Maguire has watched speculation grow on who should be Ireland's Sportswoman of the Year as the achievements have racked up in 2021.
From Rachael Blackmore, Kellie Harrington, Katie Taylor, Ellen Keane, Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal to Maguire herself, the list has exploded in recent weeks.
As an ambassador for the 20x20 campaign to increase recognition of women in Irish sport, Maguire is delighted to see how much of an impact has been made, particularly in recent weeks, though she doesn't see the point in the awards speculation.
"One of the coolest things is seeing the impact of those sorts of things on people," said the 26-year-old.
"Seeing the little kids out at the homecoming in Cavan – the power of sport is huge and sometimes maybe we don’t even realise the reach we have.
"If I've inspired some young kids, that’s fantastic. We’re very fortunate that we've so many talented Irish athletes right now - and our female athletes are leading the charge.
"Over the last few months we’ve been a bit more to the fore and hopefully we can build up this momentum.
"Seeing things on social media, it's been like, 'Who's going to get Sportswoman of the Year', and I don't think it's about that.
"I don't think there's a need to pit one against the other - we should be celebrating them for the successes they are.
"This is something we've wanted for a long time. The 20x20 campaign was great, but to see it actually put into action, it’s not lip service anymore.
"It’s Irish female athletes achieving phenomenal things on a world stage and that's the most important thing."
Now Maguire is fired up to go "gung-ho" in 2022 after her record-breaking Solheim Cup heroics.
The first Irish golfer to make the European team to face the USA, Maguire returned to a heroine's welcome in Ballyconnell on Wednesday night after becoming the first rookie to score 4.5 points out of five in the event.
It has been a whirlwind few months for the Cavan woman, whose rise has been "methodically and meticulously" planned out.
As her performance in Toledo underlined, nothing fazes Maguire, who Padraig Harrington claimed this week could become Ireland's greatest golfing superstar.
"It's kind of hard to put that into words," she smiled. "Padraig is someone that I've looked up to my entire career.
"When I was starting up golf, he was winning his Majors, and it's an honour for him to think that I'm up to that level.
"I'm only at the start of my career, and I've a lot of golf hopefully ahead of me and a lot more things to achieve.
"He has been a huge supporter of mine, as has Paul McGinley and Shane Lowry – all the lads have been fantastic to me and that has been a really important part as well.
"Seeing as there were no Irish ladies on the LPGA to look up to, they have been a tremendous help for me in my career starting off. Hopefully, we can inspire each other to bring Irish golf to even more heights in the next few years."
Lowry admitted in Wentworth this week that he was inspired by Maguire's performance in the Solheim Cup and was aiming to emulate her success.
"We had got messages before we started from all the Ryder Cup lads and Padraig and that, and the over-arching message was, 'Go win, bring the Cup home and give us some momentum'," she explained.
"So we've done our bit and it's over to them now to try and do the same in Whistling Straits in a couple of weeks' time."
Next on her list, after two second places on the LPGA Tour this year, is to claim a victory and she hopes that her Solheim Cup exploits will help in that quest.
"I hope so," said Maguire. "A big part of this year on the LPGA was believing I belong there, believing I could contend with the best players in the world, week in, week out.
"I've shown that a few times this year with a few second-place finishes."
Maguire points to her head to head with world number one Nelly Korda at the Meijer in Michigan in June as being huge for her confidence, despite Korda's victory.
"Knowing I could tee it up beside her, the best player in the world right now and play my own golf, that was massive for me," she said.
"That helped going into the Solheim Cup and anything can happen in matchplay, that's the beauty of it.
"It's you against the other person and anything can happen. I will try and bring whatever I learned from this week, try and soak it all up and bring it into the rest of the year.
"It's such a fine balance between a couple of putts dropping here or there and the outcome can be very different. Hopefully, I can finish off the season as strong as possible."
Having targeted this block in the calendar involving two majors - the Evian and British Open - plus the Olympics and Solheim Cup, only her form in Tokyo left her disappointed.
With up to eight Tour events left, she is eighth in the Race to CME Globe rankings and will strive to get into the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.
"Mathematically I've no idea," she said, when asked if she could win. "I would assume Nelly is well ahead with all her wins, her major and all the rest.
"But there are maybe seven or eight events left - I will try and finish as high up as possible in all of them.
"If I get a win, great. If not, I'll take everything from this year and go gung-ho next year.
"The nice thing is that most of these golf courses I'm going back to for this run, I played last year starting in Arkansas and then Shoprite, where I started my professional career.
"So it's nice to be going back to a familiar setting for these three weeks as opposed to earlier in the year, where they were all brand new golf courses.
"I'm looking forward to trying to get myself into contention as much as possible.
"If we get the win, great. If not, it has still been a fantastic year."
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