Below-Par Malixi ‘Grinds Out’ Quarter-Final Victory

Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States: Rianne Malixi may not have been at her best. But it was still good enough to see off the challenge of Catherine Rao and reach the semi-finals at the 124th US Women’s Amateur Championship.

By her own admission, the 17-year-old from the Philippines failed to scale the peaks she reached earlier in the week. Nonetheless, a gutsy performance enabled her to post a 2&1 quarter-final success at Southern Hills Country Club.

In Saturday’s semi-final, Malixi will face Arkansas Razorback Kendall Todd. Should she win that then she’d take on either stroke play medallist and number one seed Maria Jose Marin or Asterisk Talley in tomorrow's 36-hole final.

Just last month, Malixi, 10th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, defeated high school sophomore Talley in the final at the US Girls’ Junior Championship, claiming her first USGA title.

Now, Malixi is looking to become just the second player ever to win the US Girls’ Junior and US Women’s Amateur in the same year, emulating Korean Seong Eun-jeong, who achieved the feat in 2016.

With her triumph over Rao, Malixi extended her remarkable record to 10-0 in match play in USGA championships this summer. Talley’s USGA championship match play record in 2024 is 14-1, extending back to her victory at the US Women’s Amateur Four-Ball in May. Her sole loss came at the hands of Malixi.

Playing in the anchor match on quarter-final day, Malixi and Rao were back-and-forth on the front nine before the Manila native won three straight holes from the seventh to the ninth to go two-up at the turn.

Rao was visibly frustrated with her performance throughout the round but kept the pressure on Malixi early on the second nine with a win on the par-three 11th with par. She matched her opponent every step until the 15th hole, where she made bogey to hand Malixi another two-up lead with three to play that she saw out for a 2&1 win.

“It was a really hard-fought match. Both of us, me and Catherine, didn’t have our ‘A’ games,” Malixi said of the duel. “I just happened to be a lot more patient than I usually am, so just stuck around there, kept on grinding, and just waited for putts to drop. They didn’t, but I was still grinding it out.”

In the other quarter-final clashes, Colombian Marin ousted Anna Davis on the 21st hole, while Todd triumphed on the 20th hole against Kelly Xu and Talley edged Adela Cernousek of France, one-up.

Down one on the 18th, Marin made par to Davis’ double to not only force a play-off but foreshadow what was to come.

Each made par on the first two play-off holes – 10 and 11 – but on the 12th Davis put herself in a tough spot after a tee shot found the left rough under a tree. She hit her approach into the water after Marin found the green, and then hit her fourth shot into the bunker guarding the front of the green.

After splashing out from the sand and onto the green with her fifth shot, she picked up and conceded the match to Marin. The 21st hole was the first lead of the day for the rising sophomore at the University of Arkansas, who advanced to the semi-final in her first US Women’s Amateur appearance.

The match between Talley and Cernousek looked destined for a runway victory in the American’s favour, but Cernousek battled back from a three-down deficit through 11 holes with birdies on 12 and 13.

“It was tough out there. I got three-up and then I feel like she just kind of switched the momentum after making a long par putt,” said Talley. “I feel like after that I was trying to keep the momentum on my side, keep trying to make birdies and pars, and it just wasn’t really working out. Toward the end I was trying to keep the match on my side, and I didn’t want it to get tied because then it would’ve been in her favour, sort of.”

Talley, who seemingly made every clutch putt she needed to, handled the pressure like a seasoned veteran and never lost another hole en route to her one-up win.

In the third match of the afternoon, Xu of Stanford claimed an early lead over Todd with a par on the opening hole and birdie on three and didn’t give up the lead until the back nine.

“We had a little chat about attitude and staying positive and taking it one shot at a time and not getting ahead of myself and there is still a lot of golf to go,” Todd said of a conversation she had with her caddie and boyfriend, Hayden. “We did good on the back nine.”

After Xu made the turn two-up, Todd got back in the match with birdies at 10 and 12 to tie the match, but Xu then reclaimed a one-up lead with three holes to play thanks to a birdie on the 15th. A clutch birdie on the par-five 16th from Todd would eventually send the match to the second play-off of the afternoon.

The pair traded pars on the first play-off hole before Todd sealed the deal with a two-putt par for the win after Xu missed the green with her tee shot.