Rianne Seeking More Stateside Success

Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States: Rianne Malixi will continue her seemingly inexorable march to the summit of the women’s amateur game at Southern Hills Country Club this week.

Fresh from her stunning triumph in the US Girls’ Junior at El Caballero Country Club in California a fortnight ago, the 17-year-old from the Philippines is being touted as among the favourites at the 124th US Women’s Amateur Championship.

Malixi, who has committed to attend Duke University in the fall of 2025, leads a 17-strong contingent from the Asian-Pacific region in the 156-player starting line-up.

Following 18-hole rounds of stroke play on August 5-6, the field will be cut to the top 64 players for match play. Five 18-hole rounds of match play will determine the finalists who will square off in a 36-hole championship match on August 11.

In the final of the US Girls’ Junior, Manila native Malixi took down Asterisk Talley – the 2024 US Women’s Amateur Four-Ball champion and one of three 2024 US Women’s Open low amateurs – 8&7, a historic margin of victory for the championship. She made 14 birdies against no bogeys over the 29 holes.

A year ago, Malixi finished runner-up in the Girls’ Junior, falling one-down to Kiara Romero, a standout rising sophomore at the University of Oregon.

Since then, Malixi won the 2024 Women’s Australian Master of the Amateurs and finished runner-up to Talley at the 2024 Junior Invitational at Sage Valley.

Although already exempt into the 2024 US Women’s Amateur via her World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) of 13, Malixi earned a second exemption into the Women’s Amateur through her Girls’ Junior victory, along with exemptions into the 2025 US Women’s Open Presented by Ally at Erin Hills, the 2025 JM Eagle LA Championship at El Caballero and an invitation to the 2025 Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

In February, Malixi was joint fifth in the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP).

Three other top-10 finishers from the event at Thailand’s Siam Country Club are joining Malixi at Southern Hills – Chinese Taipei’s Wu Chun-wei, surprise winner of the sixth edition of the WAAP, Australian Justice Bosio and Indian Avani Prashanth.

Six other 2024 WAAP participants have also earned their places in the US Women’s Amateur – China’s Xiao Kaili, Singaporean Inez Ng, Hong Kong China’s Wu Siu-ee and the Chinese Taipei trio of Hsu Huai-chen, Liao Hsin-chun and Lin Jie-en.

Completing the Asia-Pacific challengers are the Japanese quartet of Kokoro Nakamura, Sera Hasegawa, Momo Kamiya and Tsukiha Nakashima, Korean Park Bo-hyun and China’s Victoria Liu Yanjun and Liu Daozang.