SINGAPORE, Mar 10: Nishna Patel kept her calm despite a disastrous front nine as she came back with a bogey-free 3-under back nine to move into the top-15 at the halfway stage of the Women’s Amateur Asia Pacific (WAAP) Championship here on Friday.
Playing the WAAP for the third time, Nishna, who also had made the cut last year, carded even par 72 with halves of 39-33.
With her first round 71, she stayed under par at 1-under 141 and was the best Indian at tied-13th place.
Avani Prashanth, the Queen Sirikit Cup champion, continued to have problems with the putter and found a series of double breaks that she found difficult to read.
Still, she finished with a birdie on the ninth, her last hole of the second round. Avani is now even par 144 and tied 19th.
While Nishna and Avani made the grade for the final two rounds, the other four Indians — Mannat Brar (76-77), Anika Varma (74-81), Lavanya Jadon (78-79) and Vidhatri Urs (77-81) — missed the cut, which fell at 6-over 150.
Kim Minsol kept a share of the lead as she added 3-under 69 to her first round 67. At eight-under for two days, she was joined by Thailand’s Eila Galitsky (69-67) and Hong Kong’s Sophie Han (68-68).
Kim had two birdies after the turn on the first and second holes, but finished with seven straight pars in her three-under 69 round.
The 16-year-old Galitsky (67) and 15-year-old Han (68) made good use of morning conditions to get to the top. They were joined by Kim at the top as the Korean shot 69 in the afternoon.
Another Korean, Jiyoo Lim shot the round of the day, a bogey-free eight-under par 64, matching the championship record held jointly by Thailand’s Kan Bunnabodee (Abu Dhabi 2021, second round) and Australia’s Becky Kay (2019 Japan, first round).
Lim improved to tied fourth position at 138, where she was joined by China’s Zixin Ni (70).
The cut was applied at six-over par 150, with 51 players advancing to the weekend rounds.
Among those who made the cut was China’s 12-year-old Yujie Liu (77, tied 32nd).
Han could make history as no player from Hong Kong has ever won the premier Asia-Pacific amateur title.
Chinese Taipei’s Ting-Hsuan Huang, the defending champion, shot an even-par 72 to be tied 10th at two-under total, while Japan’s Rin Yoshida (75-71) was tied 30th. (PTI)
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