Ardina reaches US Girls Jrs final

Dottie Ardina came out of a two-hour rain delay in sizzling form, thumping
Summar Roachell of Arkansas, 5&4, in the quarterfinals then survived Yu Liu of
China, 2&1, in the semis to gain a shot at the US Girls Juniors Championship
crown at Olympia Fields in Illinois Friday.
Ardina, 17, continued to struggle on the greens but handled the pressure with
aplomb, pouncing on Liu’s back-to-back bogeys from No. 16 to clinch the victory
and reach the finals of the annual event for the first time.
“It feels good (to be in the finals),” said the top ICTSI-backed shotmaker, who
also had to battle severely blistered feet all day. She has three blisters on
each foot, which made walking tough. She shuffled her way around the course,
never giving in.
“But I need to make my (birdie) putts because I kind of missed a lot of chances
(against Liu),” added Ardina.

Standing in her title bid is Thai’s Ariya Jutanugarn, a 15-year-old gem who
recorded the largest margin of victory in the championship, an 8&6 rout of Amy
Lee in their own side of the semis duel.
“She’s a fighter. I’m confident she can match up with Jutanugarn,” said ICTSI
team coach Bong Lopez. “But she must polish her putting stroke since her ball
striking has been quite good and her iron game has been pretty solid.”
Liu actually came into the semis confident she could make it all the way to the
final but Ardina showed grace under pressure and foiled her bid while keeping
the Philippines’ hopes for a first-ever championship in the event alive.
Against Liu, Ardina rolled in a 40-foot birdie putt on No. 1 to grab the early
lead but the Chinese bet birdied the par-5 No. 4 to even the match which
remained all square for 10 of the next 12 holes.
But Liu stumbled with consecutive bogeys at the par-4 16th and 17th, handing the
reigning Queen Sirikit individual champion the victory.
In the morning quarterfinals, Ardina took five of the first nine holes to
dominate Roachell before the matches were interrupted by a two-hour, 13-minute
rain delay that dropped nearly three-quarters of an inch of rain over the
heat-baked South Course.
The 36-hole finale is set Saturday.
Over in North Carolina, Cyna Rodriguez flubbed a seven-foot par putt in the
fifth extra hole and bowed to Marina Alex in the quarterfinal round of the 109th
North and South Women’s Amateur Championship at Pinehurst No. 2.
It was a sorry loss for Rodriguez, who banged in a six-foot birdie putt on No.
16 to draw level but three-putted No. 18 to enable Alex to force a playoff.
Both players parred the first four playoff holes but Rodriguez overshot the pin
at the par-5 No. 5 green, the ball spinning back, leaving her a tough pitch shot
to get it up-and-down. She missed from seven feet while Alex two-putted for par
to win the match.(pr)