MANILA, Philippines – In perhaps her most highly developed game and form, Rianne Malixi is looking ahead of her keenly awaited Southeast Asian Games debut — seeking a berth in women’s pro golf’s most prestigious championship — the US Women’s Open.
“It’s a great warm-up for me for the upcoming US Women’s Open qualifying,” said the 15-year-old Filipina star after nailing her second AJGA (American Junior Golf Association) crown in the Thunderbird Junior All-Star in Phoenix, Arizona last week.
Malixi is seeking to become one of the youngest players to qualify in one of the five LPGA Tour major championships, next to Lucy Li, who at 11 years old, became the youngest to play in the blue-ribbon event in 2014.
The ICTSI-backed star will try her luck in one of the qualifying sites at the Soule Park Golf Course in Ojai, California on April 26.
She is currently competing in the PING Heather Farr Classic at the Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, also in Arizona.
From the US Women’s Open qualifier, Malixi will next compete in Georgia for the Rome Junior Classic at the Coosa Country Club in Rome, also an AJGA event, on April 29-May 1 before heading home to join her fellow national teammates Lois Kaye Go and Mafy Singson to step up their buildup for the SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam on May 12-23.
Malixi and company will be hard-pressed to keep the team championship won by Bianca Pagdanganan, Go and Abby Arevalo in last biennial games at Luisita in Tarlac in 2019 with Pagdanganan besting Thai sensation Atthaya Thitikul to bag the individual crown.
Pagdanganan and Thitikul are now campaigning on the LPGA Tour with the latter nailing her first crown in the JTBC Classic in California last month.
Malixi is actually on a roll, winning her last four tournaments, including two in the local pro circuit, making her the player to watch in the SEAG.
Her come-from-behind victory in the AJGA, her second after scoring a breakthrough in the Se Ri Pak Desert Classic in Nevada last year, also ranks high in her list of feats, saying: “It will enhance my learning experience.”
She is also set to compete in the US Girls’ Junior, won by Princess Superal in 2014, in July in Kentucky and the US Women’s Amateur in August in Washington.
If she gets a ticket to the US Women’s Open, Malixi hopes to get a chance to play with the defending champion — Yuka Saso — who broke into the golfing spotlight with a scintillating record-tying victory via sudden death over Nasa Hataoka in San Francisco last year.
This year's US Women's Open will be played June 2-5 at the Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club in Southern Pines, North Carolina.