California, United States: Covered from head to toe, including a facial mask, China’s Kinsley Ni Nixin was shielding any exposed skin from the searing Southern California sun.
What Ni didn’t hide during the stroke play portion of the 75th US Girls’ Junior Championship at El Caballero Country Club was her remarkable golf talent.
The 16-year-old, who has spent the last three years living in the Inland Empire of Greater Los Angeles, backed up Monday’s opening-round 66 with a bogey-free, six-under 65 on Tuesday to earn medallist honours by four strokes.
Her 11-under 131 total was just one shot off the 36-hole championship record set in 2005 by American Taylor Karle at BanBury Golf Course in Idaho. Three others have posted 131, including 2021 US Girls’ Junior champion Rose Zhang, now a two-time winner on the LPGA Tour.
Californian 18-year-old Jasmine Koo, an incoming University of Southern California freshman who was just named to the 2024 USA Curtis Cup Team, and 2023 US Girls’ Junior runner-up Rianne Malixi, 17, of the Philippines, both posted seven-under 135s.
They are the two highest-ranked players in the field according to the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) at eighth and 19th respectively.
Koo followed her opening 69 with a 66, while Malixi posted rounds of 68-67. She was also bogey-free on Tuesday.
Reigning US Women’s Amateur Four-Ball champion and US National Junior Team member Asterisk Talley registered seven birdies in carding a 67 to finish solo fourth at six-under 136. Talley, 15, shared low-amateur honours in the 2024 US Women’s Open.
First-round co-leader Aphrodite Deng, 14, of Canada, was another two strokes back at 137 (65-72), along with 2023 US Women’s Open qualifier Kaili Xiao (68-69), 15, of China, Yuka Nishina (68-69), 14, of Japan, and 18-year-old Canadian Vanessa Borovilos (70-67), a 2024 Texas A&M signee who made six consecutive threes to close her round.
Kylee Choi, 17, who matched Deng’s 65 on Monday, shot a two-over 73 and was among the group at 138, along with fellow-Americans Natalie Yen, 17, and 2024 US Women’s Open qualifier Amelie Zalsman, 15.
The cut for match play came at five-over 147, with an eight-for-three play-off to decide the final spots in the 64-player draw.
Joining Ni and Malixi among the Asia-Pacific contingent to progress to match play were the Hong Kong China duo of Sophie Han (tied 12th, 139) and Arianna Lau (tied 14th, 140), Australian Sarah Hammett (tied 16th, 141), China’s Liu Yujie (tied 22nd, 142), Alice Zhao Ziyi, also of China, and Korean Dangela Chanel (tied 28th, 143), Japan’s Isaka Sakashita, Indian Avani Prashanth and Thai Thanana Kotchasanmanee (tied 35th, 144) and China’s Grace Xu Zilin (tied 44th, 145).
Stevie Umali of the Philippines suffered the anguish of losing out in an eight-for-three play-off for the final spots in the 64-player draw.
With temperatures creeping into the low 90s for a second consecutive day, Ni, who battles sun allergies, took every precaution to ensure her golf game, and not the extreme heat, would take centre stage.
Coming off a runner-up finish to Canadian 13-year-old Clara Ding in the American Junior Golf Association’s RLX Ralph Lauren Classic at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course, and the Ryder Cup-style Wyndham Cup in South Carolina, where she beat 2022 US Girls’ Junior runner-up Gianna Clemente in singles, Ni had plenty of good mojo for her second USGA championship and first US Girls’ Junior (she missed the cut in last year’s US Women’s Amateur at nearby Bel-Air CC).
“She’s just really solid all-around,” said Clemente, the 2023 US Women’s Amateur Four-Ball champion and 23rd in the WAGR who advanced to match play with a 36-hole total of one-under 141 (72-69). “There’s not really a strength or a weakness. Very solid. She doesn’t hit a lot of shots offline and she’s really good with the putter. She’s a really good player and I saw that last week,” added Clemente.
Two years ago, at 14 years, 11 months, six days, Ni became the youngest winner of a China LPGA Tour event when she captured the Golf Liquor Challenge. Last summer, she was runner-up in the Girls’ Junior PGA Championship in Arkansas. Those performances have boosted Ni to 149th in the WAGR.
Taking advantage of near-windless conditions and receptive greens, Ni went out in two-under 34 and posted four back-nine birdies, including a 15-footer on the par-four 18th to close stroke play in style. She also made three consecutive birdies from the 12th.
“That was a pretty solid round,” said Ni, a rising high school junior at Orion International Academy in Ontario, California. “Six birdies was pretty good. My iron shots are pretty good this week, and also putting. But I did miss one [birdie putt] today.”
Asked about her philosophy heading into match play, Ni said: “I am just going to play pretty aggressive.”
Malixi, who has played tournaments in 12 different countries over the past two years, including the US, Cambodia, Australia and the United Arab Emirates, got off to a blistering start with four birdies over her first seven holes, but then settled in for a streak of 11 consecutive pars.
Like Ni, Malixi, who has committed to attend Duke University in 2025, has enjoyed a solid competitive year that includes a win in the Women’s Australian Master of the Amateurs, a runner-up finish to Asterisk Talley in the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley, and the same result in The Royal Junior in Japan.
She also finished fifth in the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP) and Korean Women’s Open, and eighth in the Australian Women’s Amateur.
Malixi said: “I’ve been training a lot with my dad back in Manila. I play with a local pro and then we do match play just really prepping for this event and keeping the competitive juices. [My dad] just keeps the pressure alive whenever I practice, which is really helpful for this week.”
Koo’s meteoric rise up the WAGR started a year ago when she won the Women’s Western Amateur, a title she couldn’t defend this year due to the conflict with the US Girls’ Junior.
A 13th-place showing in the Chevron Championship, a win in the recent Toyota Junior World Cup in Japan, second in the AJGA’s Rolex Tournament of Champions and third at Sage Valley were all part of that surge, which landed her a spot on the Curtis Cup team that will travel to Sunningdale Golf Club in England next month.
On Tuesday, Koo played a three-hole stretch on her second nine – she started on the 10th – in four-under, which included an eagle-three on the par-five seventh. Facing a 233-yard second shot, Koo hit driver off the deck to 15 feet. “That was always the plan ever since I first saw that hole,” said Koo, who is making the 45-minute daily commute from her parents’ home.
Talley, meanwhile, has an opportunity to do something only three previous females have achieved: win multiple USGA titles in the same year. Pearl Sinn (1988), Jennifer Song (2009) and Seong Eun-jeong (2016) are the only players to pull off the feat.
In May, Talley teamed with fellow Northern Californian Sarah Lim to take the US Women’s Amateur Four-Ball title at Oak Hills Country Club in San Antonio.
That came on the heels of attending the inaugural US National Junior Team camp, qualifying for the US Women’s Open, winning the prestigious Junior Invitational at Sage Valley and finishing eighth in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
The 64 players who survived the cut and qualified for match play will play a single match on Wednesday. Match play continues on Thursday and Friday with the 36-hole championship match scheduled for Saturday.
