Leona Maguire, four back at KPMG, still dealing with aftermath of tick bites at Erin Hills

FRISCO, Texas – Leona Maguire doesn’t typically wear sun sleeves on the golf course. But, after suffering from several tick bites at the U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills, the Irishwoman went on a round of doxycycline, and it has wreaked havoc on her skin.

The medication is meant to reduce the chance of contracting Lyme disease, and she’s just finished up the two-week treatment. She wore pants last week at the Meijer but couldn’t bring herself to do it this week in steamy Texas.

“It’s made my skin like tissue paper,” said Maguire, who has a particularly nasty blood blister on her right hand that she said looks like a pepperoni. Her twin sister Lisa, who recently graduated from dental school, dressed the wound twice during Round 1 of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

Maguire opened with an even-par 72 at Fields Ranch East course to sit four strokes back of leader Jeeno Thitikul.

After four consecutive missed cuts, Maguire has found something with her driver after switching back to last year’s model. She also went back to her old putter — almost. Maguire’s Ping rep has always had a backup putter at his house that was identical to her longtime putter, and she asked him to bring it out to Texas this week.

For the last few weeks, she’d been trying a center-shafted putter.

“Sometimes, what do they say, a rest is as good as a change,” said Maguire. “It’s nice to have this familiar putter.”