Bandon, Oregon, United States: Between a July typhoon that affected her native Philippines and bureaucratic paperwork to obtain a student visa to play for Duke University this fall, Rianne Malixi nearly didn’t make it to Bandon Dunes Golf Resort for her US Women’s Amateur title defence this week.
As early as last week, she was awaiting the final approval, which didn’t become official until six hours prior to the scheduled flight to the United States. Malixi arrived in southwestern Oregon on Saturday, in time to get nine holes of preparation in on the Bandon Dunes course, and an 18-hole round on Sunday. Video of the two most previous USGA championships conducted at Bandon Dunes – the 2020 US Amateur and 2022 US Junior Amateur – also helped the 18-year-old become more familiar with the David McLay Kidd design.
Add a recent back injury that forced Malixi to withdraw from two spring LPGA Tour invites, including a major (Chevron Championship), the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP), and the talented Filipina has been battling plenty of adversity since hoisting the Robert Cox Trophy last August at Southern Hills Country Club, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
But if there’s one characteristic that defines Malixi it’s grit. That was on full display in Monday’s opening round of stroke play at the 125th US Women’s Amateur on the Oregon coast.
Malixi fired a bogey-free, four-under-par 68 to share the first-round lead with University of Texas rising senior Cindy Hsu Huai-chien, of Chinese Taipei, and American Julia Misemer, a University of Arizona rising senior.
They are one stroke clear of 2024 US Women’s Amateur runner-up and US National Junior Team members Asterisk Talley and Scarlett Schremmer, US Elite Amateur Programme member and Auburn University rising junior Anna Davis, recent North Carolina State graduate Lauren Oliveras, of Mexico, and former Wake Forest All-American and two-time US Curtis Cup competitor Emilia (Migliaccio) Doran.
Malixi’s back issues first flared up in January and only got worse at the WAAP in Vietnam in March. Her Australia-based physical therapist and a chiropractor both told the number nine player in the women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) that she needed to take a break from golf. For three weeks, Malixi did not touch a club. “Hitting 400 balls a day made it worse,” she said. “So I had to rest.”
Malixi, bidding to become the first back-to-back champion since Danielle Kang (2010-11), initially struggled upon her return to competitive golf. But she took full advantage of her 8:07 am starting time with fellow US Girls’ Junior champions Kiara Romero (2023), the current world number one amateur, and Aphrodite Deng (2025), both of whom carded one-under 71s.
Malixi, who joined Korean Seong Eun-jeong as the only players to win the US Girls’ Junior and US Women’s Amateur in the same year, posted four birdies and added three key par saves after finding fairway bunkers off the tee.
“Today was eye-opening for me,” said Malixi, who missed the cut in last month’s Evian Championship and the US Women’s Open Presented by Ally at Erin Hills in June. “Having experience [with links golf] helped me a lot for this week.”
Hsu, 36th in the WAGR, arrived at Bandon Dunes fresh from winning the Ladies National Golf Association Championship at The Home Course, in DuPont, Washington, and advancing to the quarter-finals of the Women’s Western Amateur. She also helped Texas advance to the match play portion of the NCAA Championships, in May. She got hot over her final nine holes at Bandon Dunes, posting a three-under 33 on the outward nine. Now she’ll look to build off a Round-of-32 run a year ago at Southern Hills.
Thai Eila Galitsky, the 2023 WAAP winner, China’s Xu Ying, and Australian Jazy Roberts are also among the 22-strong Asia-Pacific contingent well placed to finish among the top 64 in stroke play and qualify for the match play segment. The trio are tied for ninth after posting two-under 70s.
That’s one stroke better off than Australian Momo Sugiyama and Thai Pimchompoo Chaisilprungruang, who are in a share of 23rd place. Following even-par 72s, Korean Park Seo-jin and Thai Pimmada Nena Wongthanavimok are joint 38th while Japan’s Mana Yoshizaki is also above the cut-line after a 73 left her tied for 54th.
But there were slow starts for Japan’s Mamika Shinchi and China’s Liu Yujie (tied 88th after shooting 75s), and Hong Kong’s Arianna Lau and Korean Oh Soo-min who are languishing in equal 111th place after opening 76s.
All 156 competitors will play a second round of stroke play at Bandon Dunes on Tuesday after which the field will be trimmed to the low 64 scorers and ties. If a play-off is necessary to determine the final spots in the draw, it would take place late Tuesday afternoon.
Match play begins on Wednesday with the Round of 64 and continues until Sunday’s 36-hole championship match. Golf Channel has live coverage of the opening round of match play on Wednesday and will continue live coverage through Sunday’s final.