Ardina sputters, loses in final

MANILA, Philippines - Dottie Ardina lost her momentum as she lost her putting touch, making a three-putt bogey on the 35th to yield a 2&1 decision to Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand in the final of the US Girls Junior Championship at the Olympia Fields Country Club’s South course in Illinois Saturday.

Ardina, who scrambled her way to the finals, took a 1-up lead midway of their marathon 36-hole duel but wavered at resumption of the championship and fell by two holes on the 31st hole as she flubbed her birdie putt from 10 feet and the Thai bet made hers from two feet.

But the top ICTSI-backed bet took the 33rd hole but her long putt on No. 35 blew three feet past the hole and failed to return the putt, enabling Jutanugarn to clinch the hole and the match with a four-foot par putt.