Peirce and Wong Make Progress at Prince's

Kent, England: Caitlin Peirce and Jeneath Wong are keeping the Asia-Pacific flag flying at The 120th Women’s Amateur Championship.

Living up to their billing as two of the region’s brightest female talents, Australian Peirce and Malaysian Wong produced impressive performances in the first round of match play at Prince’s Golf Club.

While Peirce swept aside Ireland’s Aine Donegan 4&3, Wong defeated Norway’s Silje Torvund Ohma 2&1.

In the Round of 32 on Friday, Peirce takes on Italian Benedetta Moresco, while Wong faces Justine Fournand of France.

“It’s definitely the result I was looking for,” said Peirce of her Thursday victory, adding that she’s becoming more accustomed to the demands of links golf on England’s Southeast coast with each passing day.

“I’m definitely getting used to it a little bit. Some of the plays are a lot easier in match play because you’re not worried about where it’s going to go so much. It’s just one hole.

“The course I play at home (Royal Adelaide) it gets quite windy, so it’ not like I haven’t played windy golf … but I haven’t played proper links,” said Peirce, who represented Australia in last year’s Queen Sirikit Cup and tied 13th in the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP) in Singapore in March.

Asked how far she believes she can go at Prince’s, the 20-year-old, who began the week in 108th place in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), said: “I don’t know. I’d love to win. We’ll see.”

Wong, 51st in the WAGR, is also feeling good about her prospects after emerging triumphant from a tight contest with Ohma.

“We scored the exact same score up until the 12th hole. I managed to win two holes from there and just maintained that,” said the 18-year who’s just finished a successful freshman season at Pepperdine University.

“I’ll (continue) take it one shot at a time. Just stay patient and play normal, I guess,” said Wong, who posted nine wins last year including the Women’s Australian Master of the Amateurs, Victorian Women’s Amateur and Australian Girls Amateur.

Representing Malaysia in the 2022 Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam, she won a team silver and individual bronze.

While Peirce and Wong have lived to fight another day, Thai Eila Galitsky, Rianne Malixi of the Philippines and Japan’s Sera Hasegawa all bowed out after the narrowest of losses.

Reigning WAAP champion Galitsky was one-down to American Catherine Rao while Malixi and Hasegawa lost by similarly slim margins to England’s Sara Byrne and American Julia Gregg respectively.

Singapore’s Anne Fernandez, joint 10th in the 36-hole stroke play segment, was ousted 3&2 by Denmark’s Olivia Gronborg while it was also the end of the road for the Australian trio of Abbie Teasdale, Lion Higo and Justice Bosio.

Teasdale lost 2&1 to Spaniard Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, number three in the WAGR, while Higo was beaten 3&2 by Lithuania’s Gile Bite Starkute, and Bosio fell 4&3 to Ffion Tynan of Wales.

Sweden's Ingrid Lindblad lived up to her status as the new women’s amateur world number one with a convincing victory to reach the last-32. The 23-year-old, who finished in a tie for second place in stroke play qualifying, eased to an 8&7 success over American Bailey Shoemaker to continue her form on the glorious Kent links.

Lindblad won the first two holes and never looked back as the Swede – who took over from Rose Zhang at the summit of the WAGR last week – set up a tie with England’s Patience Rhodes, who won the St Rule Trophy two weeks ago, in the next round.

It proved a bittersweet day for Shoemaker, who defeated Scotland’s Penelope Brown in the preliminary round with the help of a hole-in-one. The 18-year-old, who reached the semi-finals in the 2022 US Women’s Amateur, aced the 11th with a nine-iron.

There was joy for another Scottish player, Jasmine Mackintosh, who ended the hopes of defending champion, Jess Baker. Mackintosh, winner of the Helen Holm Scottish Women's Open in April, survived Baker’s fightback from four holes down with six to play to win on the 18th.

Leading stroke play qualifier Beth Coulter was also victorious, beating Spain’s Paula Francisco 2&1.

Playing in match play for the first time, 13-year-old Lucy Lin of Cyprus also advanced to the last-32 with a 6&5 win over 2022 US Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Krissy Carman. Last August, at the age of 12, Lin became the youngest to qualify for the LPGA Tour’s CP Women’s Open.