Malixi slips with wind-blown 78, falls by 6

MANILA, Philippines – Rianne Malixi struggled in rainy, windy conditions and hobbled with a five-over 78 at the Yarra Yarra Golf Club, tumbling from joint second to a share of 13th halfway through the Australian Amateur jointly paced by Aina Fujimoto and Amelia Harris in Victoria Wednesday.

Play was halted for two-and-a-half hours due to unplayable greens, and Malixi birdied the 13th at resumption but missed a couple of birdie chances before bogeying the par-5 No. 1. She snapped a run of pars with a monster birdie on the par-3 No. 6 but bogeyed the next two to wind up with 38-40.

“It was raining hard (in the morning). The greens were flooded by the third or fourth hole, so we had a rain delay,” said Malixi, who, however, stressed the conditions had little effect on her performance. “But that doesn’t cover the fact that I made a lot of funny and iffy mistakes.”

Malixi, who had shown promise with a 70 at Keysborough on Tuesday, failed to recover from a disastrous bogey-double-bogey-bogey sequence from No. 10 where she teed off and her stumble at the finish at the front nine undid any momentum she had gained from her birdie feat from 40 feet out on the sixth.

After the weather delay, the ICTSI-backed shotmaker got going but missed several birdie chances before yielding another stroke on the first hole. She birdied No. 6 but faced challenges in the next two holes, eventually finishing with a 38-40.

With a two-over 148 aggregate at the two par-73 courses, the 16-year-old Filipina, fresh off winning the Australian Master of the Amateurs crown last week, now found herself trailing the leaders by six.

“It was a rough start. My second shot on the first hole ended up long of the green, which is a difficult place to end up for par. I didn’t make up-and-down,” rued Malixi, who pulled her 5-iron tee shot on the second hole into the long grass, played out and failed to save a bogey.

“On the third hole, I duck-hooked my 3-wood under the trees, played out and didn’t save par as well,” she said.

“I three-putted No. 7 and made a silly drive on the next tee which cost me a couple of strokes,” Malixi said. “I topped my left-handed shot to play out, hit my third, leaving myself with