Malixi shares opening day lead at US Women's Amateur Championship

Malixi, c/o USGA

Rianne Malixi overcame a lot to be able to make it to the 2025 edition of the US Women's Amateur Championship, which takes place at the Bandon Dunes course in southwestern Oregon, and her grit pulled through in the first day with a bogey-free 4-under 68.

The lone Filipina in the field shared the Monday lead with a couple of student-athlete seniors: Overland Park, KS native Julia Misemer of the University of Arizona, and Hong Kong's Cindy Hsu of the University of Texas.

Recent rival Asterisk Talley is one stroke back, alongside a few others: fellow US National Junior Team member Scarlett Schremmer, US Elite Amateur Program member Anna Davis of Auburn, recent NC State graduate Lauren Oliveras of Mexico, and former All-American at Wake Forest and two-time USA Curtis Cup member Emilia Doran.

Malixi had to deal with a back issue since the start of the year, and it flared up a couple of months later at the Women's Amateur Asia-Pacific Championship. As a result, she was forced to take a break from the sport for three weeks.

In the process, Rianne was forced to withdraw from a couple of tournaments her victory last year at Southern Hills earned invites to, one of the LPGA majors in the Chevron Championship, and the Augusta National Women's Amateur.

The ninth-ranked top female amateur in the world shared about the experience being sidelined, "Hitting 400 balls a day made it worse," she said. "So I had to rest." Malixi also missed the cut in the subsequent two majors, the US Women's Open at Erin Hills and the Evian Championship.

Complicating matters is the quest to secure a student visa necessary for her incoming freshman season at Duke University, a situation made worse with the recent weather conditions in the Philippines. The needed approval came with just six hours prior to her scheduled flight across the Pacific, and she only managed to arrive this past weekend, managing to get a full round-and-a-half of practice before tourney proper started.

Malixi did manage to find videos of the two most recent USGA tournaments hosted by the David McLay Kidd-designed course to aid her short preparations: the 2020 US Amateur and the 2022 US Junior Amateur.

Seeking to be the first to hoist the Robert Cox trophy in consecutive years since Danielle Kang back in 2010-11, she took advantage of an early tee time to card her 68, converting four birdies and saved par thrice after finding the fairway bunkers off the tee.

After her round, Rianne adds, "Today was eye-opening for me. Having experience [with links golf] helped me a lot for this week," citing her participation in the British Women's Amateur Championship back in 2023 at Prince's Golf Club in England and in 2024 at Portmarnock in Ireland.

One more round of action is set to take place on Tuesday before the field is trimmed to 64 to commence the matchday portion the next day.