Malaysia’s Liyana Durisic claims first round lead at the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific Championship

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Malaysia’s Liyana Durisic stormed to the top of the leaderboard at the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific championship with five birdies in her last six holes in the opening round on Thursday.

The 21-year-old from Kuala Lumpur, who has competed in all three editions of the championship, is renowned for low scoring. She made 95 birdies while playing for Iowa State University this season, which was the second most by anyone in the team. At Siam Country Club’s Waterside course, she fired seven more to finish on six-under-par 66.

Durisic was being chased by two very familiar faces from the last WAAP – Australia’s Kelsey Bennett and local hero Natthakritta Vongtaveelap – who were tied second behind Mizuki Hashimoto in Abu Dhabi and were again tied for second place after Thursday at five-under-par 67.

Durisic’s only bogey of the day came in the middle of her fantastic birdie stretch, during which she hit three approach shots to tap-in distance.

“My round went great. I was just aiming for pars at first. My goal today was to hit fairways and greens and just get a two-putt. And then I started to hit it closer and most of my birdies were pretty much tap-ins, which felt great because I didn’t really need to try super hard to get a birdie,” said Durisic, whose best finish in the championship is T25th in Abu Dhabi in 2021 and her worst is a 46th place in China in 2019.

“It was good that I could hit it close because most greens are super slopy. I feel like if you were to land it in the correct spot it’s going to roll towards the hole and I feel like that’s what I did well today.”

The 22-year-old Bennett started from the 10th tee and also made just one bogey – on the 17th hole. If not for that one blemish, she had a very steady round of six birdies to climb to second place.

“That was really good. I holed a fair number of putts. I hit 17 greens, so actually could have been better than 5-under but I will definitely take it,” said the New South Wales amateur, who plays at the same golf club, St Michael’s in Sydney, as last week’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship winner Harrison Crowe. They also share the same golf coach in John Serhan.

“Having had a good result last year gave me a lot of confidence coming into this event again this year. My game has been really good lately. I’ve been playing well and feeling good.”
Vongtaveelap, who won the individual and team gold medals at the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi 2022 and the 88th Singha Thailand Amateur Open last month, was cruising with five birdies before a late bogey on the 15th hole. She made up for it with her power on the par-5 18th hole where she closed with her sixth birdie.

“I played well last year, but I want to win even more this year because it’s in Thailand. I want to finish as the champion,” said the highest ranked Thai star.

“I am so happy to make the birdie on the last hole. That was the highlight of the day for me. It’s not a question of doing the same things the next three rounds. I think I am my biggest challenger. If I can take care of myself, I can win.”

Korea’s Jiyoo Lim, the highest-ranked non-Japanese player in the field at World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) number 13, was fourth alone at four-under-par 68, while Saki Baba, the highest ranked at number three, made 17 pars and a solitary bogey in her one-over-par 73. Six players were tied for fifth place, a group that also included the defending champion Mizuki Hashimoto.

The WAAP has been developed by The R&A and the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) to inspire future generations of women golfers and provides the champion with an unparalleled launchpad early in their career through exemptions into multiple women’s major championships and other elite amateur championships.

Results – Round One

1	DURISIC, Liyana	Malaysia	-6	66				66
T2	BENNETT, Kelsey	Australia	-5	67				67
T2	VONGTAVEELAP, Natthakritta	Thailand	-5	67				67
4	LIM, Jiyoo	Republic of Korea	-4	68				68
T5	MALIXI, Rianne Mikhaela	Philippines	-3	69				69
T5	HASHIMOTO, Mizuki	Japan	-3	69				69
T5	HUANG, Ting-Hsuan	Chinese Taipei	-3	69				69
T5	UETA, Miku	Japan	-3	69				69
T5	NASSER, Zulaikah Nurziana	Malaysia	-3	69				69
T5	CHEN, Yu-Chu	Chinese Taipei	-3	69				69
T11	TEZUKA, Ayaka	Japan	-2	70				70
T11	BOSIO, Justice	Australia	-2	70				70
T11	HAN, Sophie	Hong Kong	-2	70				70
T11	HUN, Teng Teng	Macau	-2	70				70
T11	ARAKI, Yuna	Japan	-2	70				70
T11	RAWOF, Warda Amira	Malaysia	-2	70				70
T17	LU, Vivian	New Zealand	-1	71				71
T17	GALITSKY, Eila	Thailand	-1	71				71
T17	ATIENZA, Aloysa	Singapore	-1	71				71
T17	HAMMETT, Sarah	Australia	-1	71				71
T17	NI, Zixin	China	-1	71				71
T17	VINIJCHAITHAM, Suvichaya	Thailand	-1	71				71
T17	LU, Hsin-Yu	Chinese Taipei	-1	71				71
T17	CHEN, Xingtong	Singapore	-1	71				71
T17	CAO, Xinyu	China	-1	71				71
T17	PARK, Yeji	Republic of Korea	-1	71				71
T17	LAU, Arianna	Hong Kong	-1	71				71
T17	SHINCHI, Mamika	Japan	-1	71				71
T17	SRIWONG, Achiraya	Thailand	-1	71				71
T30	HINSON-TOLCHARD, Maddison	Australia	Par	72				72
T30	WONG, Jeneath	Malaysia	Par	72				72
T30	LEE, Jeong Hyun	Republic of Korea	Par	72				72
T30	DING, Wai Chung Virginie	Hong Kong	Par	72				72
T30	PATEL, Nishna	India	Par	72				72
T30	LOH, Hailey	Singapore	Par	72				72
T30	XU, Fiona	New Zealand	Par	72				72
T30	CHOI, Eunseo	New Zealand	Par	72				72
T30	HSU, Huai-Chien	Chinese Taipei	Par	72				72
T30	TAN, Audrey	Malaysia	Par	72				72
T30	LIAO, Hsin-Chun	Chinese Taipei	Par	72				72
T30	NG, Jaymie	Singapore	Par	72				72
T30	SCHMIT, Meva	Indonesia	Par	72				72
T43	WU, Chun-Wei	Chinese Taipei	+1	73				73
T43	CHEN, Jiarui	China	+1	73				73
T43	CHOWHAN, Kriti	India	+1	73				73
T43	BABA, Saki	Japan	+1	73				73
T43	JEERAVIVITAPORN, Taglao	Thailand	+1	73				73
T43	LEE, Hyosong	Republic of Korea	+1	73				73
T43	WIDJAJA, Elaine	Indonesia	+1	73				73
T43	CHUNG, Darae	New Zealand	+1	73				73
T43	NG, Inez	Singapore	+1	73				73
T52	PRASHANTH, Avani	India	+2	74				74
T52	PEIRCE, Caitlin	Australia	+2	74				74
T52	YE, Lei	China	+2	74				74
T52	KHINE, Phu Pwint Yati Khine	Myanmar	+2	74				74
T52	LEE, Dong Eun	Republic of Korea	+2	74				74
T52	SOONTREEYAPAS, Navaporn	Thailand	+2	74				74
T52	KANG, Sumin	New Zealand	+2	74				74
T52	EKKANTRONG, Pusanisa	Thailand	+2	74				74
T52	SHARMA, Inara Diti	Hong Kong	+2	74				74
T61	KIM, Minsol	Republic of Korea	+3	75				75
T61	BRAR, Mannat	India	+3	75				75
T61	RUDGELEY, Kirsten	Australia	+3	75				75
T61	SINGSON, Maria Rafaela	Philippines	+3	75				75
T65	TATEMATSU, Rina	Thailand	+4	76				76
T65	RAJ, Tara	New Zealand	+4	76				76
T65	FORTUNA, Mikhaela Denise	Philippines	+4	76				76
T65	YOKO, Kristina Natalia	Indonesia	+4	76				76
T65	GO, Lois Kaye	Philippines	+4	76				76
T65	RATTANWAN, Pattharat	Thailand	+4	76				76
T71	RUBRONG, Pimpisa	Thailand	+5	77				77
T71	LI, Menghan	China	+5	77				77
T71	WAHYUDI, Sania Talita	Indonesia	+5	77				77
T71	SAGOO, Sifat	India	+5	77				77
T75	CHOWIWATTANA, Chananyu	Thailand	+6	78				78
T75	NG, Jing Xuen	Malaysia	+6	78				78
T75	DOAN, Xuan Khue Minh	Vietnam	+6	78				78
T78	GEULIS ZULLANDARI, Rayi	Indonesia	+7	79				79
T78	KANG, Ceerat	India	+7	79				79
T78	SINOLUNGAN, Patricia Walanda	Indonesia	+7	79				79
T78	JACOT, Tyanna	Guam	+7	79				79
T82	LIM , Shayne	Singapore	+9	81				81
T82	AMJAD, Humna	Pakistan	+9	81				81
84	HOWARD, Rotana	Cook Islands	+10	82				82
85	BALASURIYA, Taniya	Sri Lanka	+11	83				83
86	SHERPA, Pratima	Nepal	+14	86				86