Asia-Pacific Septet Progress at Southern Hills

Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States: Rianne Malixi will lead a septet of Asia-Pacific players into the match play segment at the 124th US Women’s Amateur Championship.

The 17-year-old from the Philippines’ capital of Manila followed an opening four-under 67 at Southern Hills Country Club with a second-round 74.

That meant Malixi ended the 36-hole stroke play portion in a share of fourth place with four other players, including Americans Asterisk Talley, whom she defeated in the final of the 2024 US Girls’ Junior, and Kiara Romero, to whom she lost in the final in 2023.

Joining them in the last 64 are China’s Xiao Kaili (tied 20th, 146) and Liu Daozang (tied 32nd, 148); Chinese Taipei duo Liao Hsin-chun (tied 32nd, 148) and Hsu Huai-chen (tied 38th, 148), Australian Justice Bosio (tied 26th, 147) and Japan’s Momo Kamiya (tied 45th, 150).

The day two performances of Bosio and Liu were especially impressive, both shooting one-under 70s, an improvement of seven and eight strokes respectively on their first-round efforts.

They will now face-off in the Round of 64, while Xiao is up against South African Megan Streicher and Liao, Hsu and Kamiya all take on American opponents in the shape of Jasmine Koo, Molly Hardwick and Scarlett Schremmer.

Malixi, the number six seed, will not discover who she will take on until Thursday morning when 20 players who finished stroke play at nine-over 151 will play-off for the final 10 spots in the match play bracket. The play-off will begin on hole 10, and go on to holes 11 and 12, repeating as necessary. This will mark the largest play-off in US Women’s Amateur history, surpassing the previous record of 16 competitors (vying for 10 spots) in 2015 at Portland Golf Club.

Twelve of the 13 top 25 players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) who entered the week survived the cut, with the last – Amanda Sambach – in the play-off for the remaining spots in match play.

The top-10 after stroke play included USGA champions Malixi, Talley and Romero, an Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion in Anna Davis, the highest ranked player in the field in Zoe Campos and the reigning champion of the Women’s Amateur Championship conducted by The R&A in Melanie Green.

Atop them all and earning the position of medallist was Maria Jose Marin, of Colombia. Currently 15th in the WAGR, the rising sophomore at the University of Arkansas posted a second successive 69 to finish one in front of Green and two ahead of Campos.

Among those failing to progress from stroke play were reigning Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific champion Wu Chun-wei of Chinese Taipei who signed for rounds of 76 and 77. She ended joint 87th alongside Japan’s Sera Hasegawa and Korean Park Bo-hyun.

Also making an early exit were Indian Avani Prashanth and Japan’s Tsukiha Nakashima (156); China’s Victoria Liu Yanjun (157); Singaporean Inez Ng (158); Hong Kong China duo Wu Siu-ee (159) and Cathy Tong Wa-yueng (160) and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Jie-en (160).