Ardina reaches US Girls Jrs final

Manila, Philippines - Dottie Ardina came out of a two-hour rain delay in sizzling form, thumping Summar Roachell of Arkansas, 5&4, in the quarterfinals then survived Yu Liu of China, 2&1, in the semis to gain a shot at the US Girls Juniors Championship crown at Olympia Fields in Illinois Friday.

 Ardina, 17, continued to struggle on the greens but handled the pressure with aplomb, pouncing on Liu’s back-to-back bogeys from No. 16 to clinch the victory and reach the finals of the annual event for the first time.

“It feels good (to be in the finals),” said the top ICTSI-backed shotmaker, who also had to battle severely blistered feet all day. She has three blisters on each foot, which made walking tough. She shuffled her way around the course, never giving in.

“But I need to make my (birdie) putts because I kind of missed a lot of chances (against Liu),” added Ardina.

Standing in her title bid is Thai’s Ariya Jutanugarn, a 15-year-old gem who recorded the largest margin of victory in the championship, an 8&6 rout of Amy Lee in their own side of the semis duel.

“She’s a fighter. I’m confident she can match up with Jutanugarn,” said team coach Bong Lopez. “But she must polish her putting stroke since her ball striking has been quite good and her iron game has been pretty solid.”

Liu actually came into the semis confident she could make it all the way to the final but Ardina showed grace under pressure and foiled her bid while keeping the Philippines’ hopes for a first-ever championship in the event alive.

Against Liu, Ardina rolled in a 40-foot birdie putt on No. 1 to grab the early lead but the Chinese bet birdied the par-5 No. 4 to even the match which remained all square for 10 of the next 12 holes.

But Liu stumbled with consecutive bogeys at the par-4 16th and 17th, handing the reigning Queen Sirikit individual champion the victory.

In the morning quarterfinals, Ardina took five of the first nine holes to dominate Roachell before the matches were interrupted by a two-hour, 13-minute rain delay that dropped nearly three-quarters of an inch of rain over the heat-baked South Course.

The 36-hole finale is set Saturday.

Over in North Carolina, Cyna Rodriguez flubbed a seven-foot par putt in the fifth extra hole and bowed to Marina Alex in the quarterfinal round of the 109th North and South Women’s Amateur Championship at Pinehurst No. 2.

It was a sorry loss for Rodriguez, who banged in a six-foot birdie putt on No. 16 to draw level but three-putted No. 18 to enable Alex to force a playoff.

Both players parred the first four playoff holes but Rodriguez overshot the pin at the par-5 No. 5 green, the ball spinning back, leaving her a tough pitch shot to get it up-and-down. She missed from seven feet while Alex two-putted for par to win the match.