MANILA, Philippines – Dottie Ardina mixed three birdies against the same number of bogeys as she closed out with a 73 and wound up tied at 30th in the IOA Championship won by Swede Linnea Strom in Beaumont, California Sunday (Monday, Manila time).
Ardina failed to get going coming off a second round 70, tripping with back-to-back bogeys from No. 5. Though she recovered the strokes with birdies in two of the next three holes, she settled for a one-birdie, one-bogey game at the back of the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa club and finished with a pair of 36s.
She ended up sharing 30th place at 214, nine strokes behind Strom, who broke out of a crowded leaderboard with an early burst of birdies to fire a second straight 67 and clinch the crown on a 205 total, three strokes clear of Aussie Sarah Jane Smith, Milagros Chaves of Paraguay, and last year’s champion Sophie Hausmann of Germany.
Locked in a five-way tie heading to the final 18 holes, Strom birdied the first four holes to wrest solo control and went to fire two more birdies against a bogey to secure the victory as Smith carded a 69 to share runner-up honors at 208 with Chaves, who shot a 71, and Hausmann, who matched par 72.
The ICTSI-backed ace missed four fairways and the same number of greens and finished with 32 putts for the second straight day as she failed to improve on her tied for 25th place effort in the Carlisle Arizona Classic two weeks ago.
But she hopes to do better in this week’s Casino Del Sol Golf Classic beginning Thursday at the Sewailo Golf Club in Tucson, Arizona, her last tournament before shifting her campaign to the LPGA Tour for the LOTTE Championship on April 13-16 in Hawaii.
Over on the LPGA Tour, Thai ace Atthaya Thitikul staked her claim as the next player to watch as she snared the JTBC Classic crown via a playoff victory over recent Honda LPGA Thailand champion Nanna Madsen of Denmark for her first LPGA championship.
Thitikul, who has won two titles on the Ladies European Tour and finished third in the LPGA Q-Series last year, sizzled with a final round 64 to emerge from out of nowhere and tie Madsen, who closed out with a 70, at 272.
She missed clinching it on the first playoff hole, No. 18, on a muffed eight-foot birdie putt, but the Thai won it despite a three-putt bogey, also on the 18th, as Madsen missed a bogey putt and failed to extend the duel.
Madsen drove to the left on the second playoff hole, hit her second shot from an awkward stance near the cart path into the greenside water.
At 19 years, 25 days, Thitikul is the youngest winner on the LPGA Tour since Canadian Brooke Henderson won the 2016 Portland Classic at 18 years, nine months and 23 days.
She also foiled Madsen’s drive for another LPGA victory in sudden death after the latter nipped Chinese Xiyu Lin in extra hole to become the first Danish champion on the LPGA Tour. More so, her breakthrough victory will surely put her into the conversation heading to the season's first major, the Chevron Championship, which unfolds Thursday at Rancho Mirage, also in California.