Ardina 5 shots off in El Dorado

MANILA, Philippines -- Dottie Ardina holed out with a birdie on No. 9, saving a 72 card that was nothing but a rollercoaster that left her five strokes behind three leaders at the start of the Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout in El Dorado, Arkansas.

Ardina missed four fairways and five greens but failed to break par with a 32-putt stint on the tricky surface of Mystic Creek Golf Club although 34 tamed the par-72 layout, led by Aussie Robyn Choi, Malaysian Natasha Ook and Kristin Coleman of the US, who matched 67s to lead the $225,000 championship spread over 54 holes.

The two other Filipinas, however, wavered with over-par scores and fell below the projected cut-off line (one-over) as Clariss Guce wavered with a 74 and Abby Arevalo faltered with a 77.

Ardina, who tied for eighth in the Four Winds Invitational last month, birdied the 11th to kick off her campaign but made three bogeys in a four-hole stretch from No. 16. Though she recovered big with back-to-back birdies from No. 5, she yielded another shot on the eighth before regaining it on the next.

Choi flourished with a six-birdie, one-bogey card she fashioned out behind a 28-putt performance while Oon blew a sterling eagle-spiked backside 31 with three birdies against the same number of bogeys at the front.

Coleman, on the other hand, matched Choi’s output highlighted by an impressive 13-of-14 stint off the mound on her way to a 27-putt showing.

They led by one over six others, including Korean Bi Shin, Karen Chung, Alana Uriell and Katherine Smith of the US, England’s Amelia Williamson and Chinese Miranda Wang.