Malixi on the brink after '9'-marred 79

MANILA, Philippines – Rianne Malixi faced a challenging day at The Women's Amateur in Dublin, Ireland Monday, faltering with a seven-over 79 marred by a quintuple bogey and several other errors that placed her on the edge of early elimination in the 36-hole stroke play preliminaries.

Teeing off in the late afternoon, Malixi encountered difficulties early on, dropping a stroke on the second hole at Portmarnock Golf Club. Her struggles continued on the 369-yard, par-4 fifth hole, where mishits and missed putts culminated in a 9.

Despite birdies on two of the three par-3s, she recorded three more bogeys, including on the last two holes.

Malixi's 42-37 scorecard left her tied for 70th, just below the cutoff line for the Top 64 players who will advance to the match play stage of this prestigious amateur event.

World No. 1 Lottie Woad lived up to her ranking, firing a 69 to lead the field alongside Farah O'Keefe, both two strokes ahead of Savannah De Bock and Meja Ortengren, who each shot 71s.

Malixi, who recently achieved a career-best ranking of No. 14 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, is expected to mount a strong comeback in Tuesday's round, despite the fierce competition.

Her disappointing start contrasted sharply with the confidence she brought to the tournament, following a strong joint-fifth place finish at the Korea Women's Open and a 24th place at the Suntory Ladies Open in Japan last month.

Despite recovering somewhat with five consecutive pars on the back nine and a birdie on the 15th, Malixi stumbled again at the finish, losing strokes on the final two holes and jeopardizing her chances of advancing to the knockout phase.