Pinays bow out of US Girls' Junior Championship

FILIPINO amateur hotshots Lois Kaye Go and Mikha Fortuna struggled in one-onone matches and lost to lower-ranked foes to drop out of the US Girls’ Junior Championship at the Boone Valley Golf Club in Augusta, Missouri Wednesday.

In a cable report by National Golf Association of the Philippines, Go, who will spearhead the women’s golf team in the forthcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, landed 18th in the 36-hole stroke play eliminations.

Go failed to sustain her fightback against No. 47 Ellie Szeryk of Canada, 2&1, while the 22nd-ranked Fortuna, yielded a thrilling duel to No. 43 Stephanie Carras of Michigan on the 20th hole.

The Country Club bet, who rallied from 2-down to force an extra hole by winning Nos. 17 and 18. But after both parred the first extra hole, Fortuna stumbled with a double-bogey on the 20th, enabling Carras to steal the win on a bogey finish.

Those were just two of a number of reversals posted in the first day of the knockout matches with No. 48 So Whi Kang of Korea upending No. 17 Yealimi Noh, 1-up, and No. 57 Annick Haczkiewicz pulling off a win over No. 8 Rachel Kuehn on the 19th hole.

No. 61 Izzy Pellot of Florida came away with the day’s biggest win by upending fourth seed Caroline Hodge of New York, 3&1.

Top seed Lucy Li, however, lived up to her billing and routed Belinda Hu, 7&6, while No. 2 Paphangkon Tavatanakit of Thailand also posted a 7&6 romp over Aussie Emily Mahar in the event ruled by Princess Superal in 2014. PNA