Filipino bets Grace Quintanilla and Rianne Malixi zero in on the berths to the next round following contrasting opening round Monday in the US Girls’ Junior Championship at the Eisenhower Golf Club’s Blue course in Colorado.
Quintanilla, the 16-year-old from Cebu, lost grip of joint fifth with a last-hole mishap on No. 9 but her 71 kept her within striking distance of US pals Anna Davis and Kiara Romero, who forged ahead with 68s.
Quintanilla shone with three birdies in the first five holes at the front of the military layout to buck a backside 37 start but missed staying in Top 5 with a bogey on her closing par-5 hole at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
She is bunched at 11th and possesses the biggest chance of making the match-play round on Wednesday in a hope to become the first Filipino since Princess Superal to win the tourney. Superal ruled it in Arizona in 2014.
Malixi, who tied for fourth in the IMG Junior Worlds, failed to get going with a two-bogey, one-birdie card at the back in the afternoon wave then the ICTSI-backed shotmaker yielded another stroke on the par-3 No. 3 to finish with a 74 on a pair of 37s for a share of 31st.
At two over, Malixi needs to double down on Tuesday so she can advance along with 63 others.
In danger of getting the boot, another Filipina Stevie Umali, skied to an 85 and will start the final round of the 36-hole stroke play eliminations at joint 150th in the field of 156.
Quintanilla, an incoming Grade 11 student who won the Patrick Reed Junior Championship of the American Junior Golf Association in Texas last month, overcame a bogey start on No. 10 with a birdie on the 12th but yielded another stroke on the long 568-yard par-5 No. 16.
Good thing she found her groove at the turn, birdieing Nos. 1, 3 and 5 then bouncing back from another miscue on the sixth with her fifth birdie on the par-3 No. 7 to join the two-under par scorers, led by defending champion Yana Wilson and AJGA campaigners Alice Zhao and Gianna Clemente.
But a last-hole slip dropped her to a share of 11th instead with Zara Im of the US, Chinese Yufei Dai and Canadians Aphrodite Deng and Michelle Xing.
Quintanilla finished joint 33rd in last week’s IMG Junior Worlds.
