MALIXI SHARES QUEEN SIRIKIT INDIVIDUAL LEAD
CARMONA, Cavite – Rianne Malixi fired an eagle-aided 68 to join the early individual leaders and anchor host Philippines to within three off the pace in the 43rd Queen Sirikit Cup at the Manila Southwoods Golf and Country Club yesterday.
Malixi surrounded her eagle on No. 6 with five birdies against three bogeys to get herself into a three-way tie for first with Avani Prashanth of India and Fiona Xu of New Zealand in individual play.
With Rafy Singson shooting a 74 for twounder 142, the Filipinas positioned themselves within striking distance of South Korea’s Seo Kyorim (69) and Yoo Hyujo (70), who surged to the front at 139.
The Koreans held a one-stroke lead against New Zealand (140) and Thailand (140) going to the second round.
“We are not too far behind but there are a lot of things that we can improve on. We’ll try to fix some and hopefully that will translate into good scores in the second round,” said Philippine captain Ann Granada.
Malixi seconded the skipper’s assessment as she said that she could have done better.
“I scrambled for pars in the first few holes. I did not play competitive golf prior to Queen Sirikit and (still) getting rid of the rustiness. But when I eagled the sixth hole, things turned around and I got back into the groove. I kind (of) figured out what was wrong and recovered just in time,” said Malixi.
New Zealand got off to a strong start on the four-under-par 68 of Xu and even-par 70 of Vivian Lu for 140, a score later matched by Thailand in the late afternoon as Thitikarn Thapasit and Achiraya Sriwong each tallied a two-under-par 70.
Japan, which is seeking back-to-back titles and eighth overall, was in solo fourth with 141. World No. 5 Yuna Araki turned in a 70 and Mizuki Hashimoto a 71.
For the Philippines, Lois Kaye Go’s 77 did not count in the three-to-play, two-to-count format in this international tournament also known as the Amateur Ladies-Asia Pacific Invitational Golf Team Championships.