Ardina spearheads PH Women’s Am bid

Dottie Ardina and Chihiro Ikeda head the six-player ICTSI-Philippines roster vying in this year’s US Women’s Amateur Championship set Aug. 8 in Rhode Island.

The team, which also includes former Philippine Ladies Open champions Jayvie Agojo and Cyna Rodriguez, Andie Unson and Sarah Ababa, found the par-71 Rhode Island Country Club layout tough when it had its first practice round Saturday but remained upbeat two days before the event.

“The course has been set up like in a US Open event with thick roughs and sleek putting surface,” said ICTSI team coach Bong Lopez. “But the team is ready and in high spirits.”

The ICTSI-backed squad spent the whole of Sunday at the range, hitting at varied distances.

“Driving will be the key, they must put their ball on the fairway to have any chance of reaching the green in regulation,” added Lopez.

No Filipino has ever come close to a title shot since former national team mainstay Dorothy Delasin won in 1999 at the Biltmore Forest Country Club in North Carolina, with Rodriguez dropping out of the Last 16 stage in 2009.

A total of 156 players vie in the 36-hole stroke play competition with the top 64 advancing to the match play phase.

Ardina, the reigning Queen Sirikit Cup individual champion, has been seeded into the event with a runner-up finish in the recent US Girls Am. She also placed second in the Optimist International last month.

The rest earned their seats through qualifiers with Ikeda, the reigning Philippines Ladies Open champion, making it in York, Pennsylvania, Rodriguez and Agojo in Denver, Unson in California and Ababa in Hawaii.