RIANNE MALIXI wavered with a second-round 73 and Team Philippines found itself nine strokes adrift South Korea which relied on consistency over sub-par scores in Day 2 Wednesday of the 43rd Queen Sirikit Cup at the Manila Southwoods Golf and Country Club in Carmona, Cavite.
Malixi couldn’t sustain the 68 that she carded in sharing the first-round lead for individual honors and settled for a one-over 73 that was added to Mafy Singson’s 75 for the home team’s two-day total of 290.
Lois Kaye Go groped anew and her 80 again didn’t count for Team Philippines, which virtually dropped out of the race for team honors that South Korea led for the second straight day.
Yoo Hyun-jo and Kim Min-sol churned in similar 71s—Seo Kyo-rim’s 78 didn’t count—for a 281 total and a four-shot lead over India, which drew a six-under 66 from Avani Prashanth that was enough to save the day with Vidhatri Urs scrambling with a 77 and Nishna Patel not counting with a 78
Three teams—defending champion Japan, China and Hong Kong China—were at 288.
“Our girls were unable to adjust to the sudden shift of conditions at the Masters,” Philippine captain Ann Granada said.
Granada, however, remained hopeful for either a shot at the title or a podium finish as she hoped for strong performences from Go and Singson.
“I’m looking forward to that moving day on Thursday. We need to forget what happened today and see how we can get into title contention tomorrow,” she said.
Despite the 73, Malixi remained in the hunt for individual honors although she had to contend with two others—New Zealand’s Fiona Xu (73) and South Korea’s Yoo Hyun-jo (71)—who tied her at 141.
They trailed Prashanth by three strokes.
Thailand finished a shot better at 289 over the Philippines, which is tied at 290 with New Zealand.
Rounding out the team standings were Indonesia and Malaysia with similar 296s, Chinese-Taipei with 297 and Singapore with 305.