Princess, Cyna open bid in US Women’s Am

MANILA, Philippines - Princess Superal and Cyna Rodriguez hope to come out strong against a tough international field and build some momentum heading to the next phase as the US Women’s Amateur Championship unfolds Monday (Tuesday in Manila) at the Country Club of Charleston in South Carolina.

Superal and Rodriguez easily made it to the US premier amateur championship by hurdling their respective sectional qualifiers recently with the ICTSI-backed bets’ form honed up to competitive level following a series of tournaments last month.

“The field is strong but they’re ready and confident of their chances. But they must come out strong in the elims to gain higher ranking going into the match play,” said ICTSI team coach Bong Lopez.

Superal, the reinging Singapore Amateur champion who placed sixth in last month’s Junior World in San Diego and tied for second in last week’s Sacramento Juniors, tees off at 8 a.m. on No. 1 in the company of Louise Yi of California and Erin Misheff of Ohio.

Rodriguez, the reigning Hong Kong Ladies Open titlist who scored back-to-back victories in Sacramento and Long Beach last month, drew a late start at 1:50 p.m., also on No. 1 with Lydia Choi of California and Mexico’s Marijosse Navarro.

The event drew the top and rising players from 30 nations, including eight USGA champions in Doris Chen of Taiwan, Lauren Diaz-Yi of California, Kyung Kim of Arizona, Minjee Lee of Australia, Ellen Port of Missouri, Meghan Stasi of Florida, Gabriella Then and Emily Tubert, both of California.

The youngest in the fold is Lucy Li, 10, of California and the oldest is Liz Waynick, 53, of Arizona.

The top 64 players after the 36-stroke qualifying phase will advance to the match play round Wednesday.