Dizon struggles in US Girls' Junior golf elims

MANILA, Philippines – Sam Dizon succumbed to opening day shakes and hobbled with a two-over 75, barely hanging on to the cutoff line at the start of the 36-hole stroke play eliminations in the US Girls’ Junior Championship in Bowling Green, Kentucky Monday (Tuesday, Manila time).

The tough conditions in the afternoon wave likewise hampered Dizon’s start as she bogeyed two of the first three holes at the back of par-73 The Club at Old Stone. She parred the next 10 marred by a couple of missed chances then birdied the fifth to get back into the mix of things, only to reel back with a roller-coaster windup.

She bogeyed No. 6, birdied the par-5 sixth but yielded another shot on the par-5 ninth for a 37-38 card.

The ICTSI-backed Dizon tumbled to joint 58th with 22 others with only the top 64 from the starting field of 156 advancing to the next phase where play shifts from medal to match play.

The 17-year-old Singapore-based Filipina is seeking to reclaim the crown won by Team ICTSI spearhead Princess Superal in Arizona in 2014 but will have a lot of recovering to do to at least get into the head-to-head round of the US Golf Association’s premier junior championship.

Canada’s Lauren Zaretsky came away with an eagle-spiked 67 to launch her bid for low medal honors although four others stood just a stroke behind with 68s, including Americans Farah O’Keefe and Yana Wilson, Taiwanese Hsin Tai Lin and Aussie Justice Bosio.

Meanwhile, Rianne Malixi, one of the spearheads of Team ICTSI, kicks off her drive in the Women’s Western Amateur Championship against Lauryn Nguyen from Washington and Californian Jackie Lucena at 8:45 a.m. on No. 1 of the Sunset Ridge Country Club in Northfield, Illinois Tuesday.

Nicole Abelar, the other Filipina in the fold, starts at 7:45 a.m. with Aussie Charley Jacobs and Ashley Kozlowski from Colorado, also at the front of the par-72 layout.