Rianne Malixi joined a three-way tie for the lead in the individual division after posting a four-under-par 68 at the start of the 43rd Queen Sirikit Cup at the Manila Southwoods Golf and Country Club in Carmona, Cavite Tuesday.
The 15-year-old Filipina scrambled for pars in the early goings before holing her approach on the sixth hole.
“That eagle turned things around. I got back into the groove. I kinda figured out what was wrong and recovered just in time,” Malixi said.
“Today is a good start heading into the next three days.”
Malixi began with a bogey and made her first birdie on the fourth hole.
She followed up her eagle with a birdie on 7 and 11 and dropped a shot on 12 and 15 before finishing with birdies on 16 and 18.
All her bogeys came off the bunker.
Mafy Singson shot a 74 as the Filipinas wound up in the fifth spot on 2-under 142, three shots behind pacesetting South Korea.
Lois Kaye Go failed to count with a 77.
Joining Malixi on top of the individual leaderboard were Avani Prashanth of India and Fiona Xu of New Zealand.
South Korea drew a pair of sub-par rounds to take a one-shot lead over New Zealand and Thailand.
Seo Kyorim fired a 69 while Yoo Hyunjo came through with a 70 as the Koreans combined for 139.
New Zealand rode on Xu’s 68 and Vivian Lu’s 72 while Thailand got identical 70s from Thitikarn Thapasit and Achiraya Sriwong.
Defending champion Japan was alone in fourth on 141 behind Yuna Araki’s 70 and Mizuki Hashimoto’s 71.
Philippine captain Ann Granada remains upbeat.
“We are not too far behind but there are a lot of things that we can improve on. We’ll try to fix some and hopefully, that will translate into good scores in the second round.”
