Hot-starting Ardina stalks leaders with superb 66 in Epson Tour

MANILA, Philippines – Dottie Ardina, needing a strong start to fuel an LPGA Tour card bid, did just that Thursday (Friday, Manila time) and more, putting in a brilliant six-under 66 to hound joint leaders Maddi Caldwell-Young of the US and Korean Jiwon Jeon after 18 holes of the Epson Tour Championship in Florida.

Playing with a sense of urgency, the veteran Filipina campaigner rattled off six birdies in the first 12 holes then recovered from a couple of unsteady iron play with clutch birdies to preserve a 31-35 card and a position in a crowded spot at third, just a stroke off the leading pair in the $250,000 season-ending tournament at LPGA International’s Jones Course in Daytona Beach.

The ICTSI-backed ace, who missed just one cut in 15 Epson Tour events this year in a remarkable stint she highlighted with a breakthrough win in the Copper Rock Championship in Utah last April, is going all-out for a solid finish in Epson Tour’s final event in an attempt to snatch a full membership status for next year’s LPGA.

She is currently at No. 21 in the Ascensus Race for the (LPGA) card with only the Top 10 gaining tickets to the 2023 season of the world’s premier ladies circuit.

But with a superb start, the Cangolf pro had put herself right into the heart of the battle.

She was near-flawless off the mound, hitting all but one fairway on a 249-yard driving clip, and went out of regulation just three times, two of which, however, she bogeyed.

But even if she missed getting up-and-down on Nos. 14 and 17, both par-3s, Ardina never got discouraged, coming away with birdies after each miscue to post one of her best starts in a key championship.

The three other Filipinas, however, found themselves below the projected cutoff score (2-under) with ICTSI teammates Pauline del Rosario and Abby Arevalo at joint 70th despite a pair of one-under 71s and two-time Epson Tour winner Clariss Guce fumbling with a 74 to drop to a share of 95th in a field of 109.

Del Rosario fought back from a one-over card with two birdies in the last seven holes for a 36-35 while Arevalo birdied the first two holes but went on a rollercoaster ride the rest of the way, making three bogeys against two birdies for a 35-36 round.

Guce, on the other hand, blew a one-birdie, one-bogey card at the back with three bogeys against a birdie in the last nine holes to find herself on the brink.

Caldwell-Young, meanwhile, flourished with a solid seven-under 65 to match Jeon’s fiery start she spiked with eight birdies against a bogey as the duo grabbed a one-stroke lead over Ardina, Taiwanese Ho-Yu An and Ssu-Chia Cheng, Americans Bailey Tardy and Gigi Stoll, Germany’s Polly Mack, Korean Hyo Joon Jang and Swede Linnea Strom.