Pattaya: 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 yesterday.
The 21-year-old Kuala Lumpur native, who has competed in all three editions of the championship, is renowned for low scoring.
While playing for Iowa State University this season, she made 95 birdies, 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 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 yesterday's round 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.
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.
Natthakritta, 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 making a late bogey on the 15th hole. She made up for it with her power on the par-five 18th hole where she closed with her sixth birdie.
South Korea's Lim Ji-Yoo, the highest-ranked non-Japanese player in the field at No.13 on World Amateur Golf Ranking order, was fourth alone at four-under-par 68, while Saki Baba, the highest-ranked at No.3, 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.