Amateur Malixi banners Langer field

Malixic

Seasoned amateur Rianne Malixi has been labeled as the player to beat when the P750,000 ICTSI Riviera Championship of the Ladies Philippine Golf Tour tees off on Tuesday at the Langer layout where as she sets out to conquer basically the same pro field she left eating her dust last month.

Chasing her third win in as many start on the local tour this season, Malixi will also be returning to the site of one of her biggest triumphs, when she, as a 12-year-old, nipped Abby Arevalo in a playoff to win the Philippine National Stroke Play crown in 2020.

“I have fond memories of this course, so I’m confident playing this course,” said Malixi, who will be using this tournament to prepare for a series of events in Thailand, counting the junior world championship from Oct. 27 to Oct. 30.

“A week at Langer will definitely tell me where I stand prepping for Thailand,” she said.

Malixi destroyed a pursuing pro field by 13 shots at Valley in Antipolo City last month and that lean field led by the multititled Chihiro Ikeda will have its work cut out in the 54-hole championship.“I have no expectations,” Ikeda, the new Order of Merit leader, told the Inquirer before starting practice on Saturday at Manila Southwoods. “We’ll see. It will be over a very tough course and anything can happen.”

Sunshine Baraquiel and Harmie Constantino are the other notable pros on the field even as Mafy Singson, another touted amateur, is also set to make another start and shoot for a second win on the local ladies tour.

Malixi is also set to play in the Singha Thailand Amateur Open on Oct. 18 to Oct. 21 in Bangkok and the Women’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship on Nov. 3 to Nov. 6 in Chonburi, Thailand. INQ