Augusta, Georgia, United States: Eila Galitsky and Mirabel Ting will be aiming to etch their names into the record books when they tee-off in the final round of the fifth Augusta National Women’s Amateur (ANWA).
Thai Galitsky and Malaysian Ting enter Saturday’s final round at Augusta National among eight players in a tie for fifth place.
With one-under-par aggregates of 143 following the first two rounds at Champions Retreat Golf Club, Galitsky and Ting are four strokes off the pace being set by Lottie Woad, two adrift of Gianna Clemente and Maisie Filler in joint second and one behind fourth-placed Amanda Sambach.
Even though they’re well within striking distance of top spot, Galitsky and Ting have remained under the radar with the focus of attention falling firmly on England’s Woad and Swede Ingrid Lindblad, number one in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).
Not that Ting, 17th in the WAGR, or 28th-ranked Galitsky, the 2023 Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific winner, will be too perturbed.
But there will be no hiding place at Augusta National today as Ting and Galitsky bid to become only the second ANWA winner from Asia, after Japan’s Tsubasa Kajitani in 2021.
Ting, in particular, will be in centre stage as she has been paired with Lindblad in the third from last group.
Three flights ahead of her will be Galitsky, who will be playing alongside American Bailey Shoemaker.
Lindblad echoed the sentiments of all those in the chasing pack when she said: “It’s going out and hunting. There’s no holding back. You can be aggressive. The people in the lead, they’re more: ‘How do I play to not make a bogey?’ But for us that are a little behind, we can just go out and think: ‘How can I make a birdie here?’ That's what we’re going to have to do.”
Among the top-35 and ties who made the cut following the second round are the Japanese quartet of Sayaka Teraoka (tied 13th, 144), Hinano Muguruma (tied 17th, 145), Rin Yoshida and Mamika Shinchi (tied 23rd, 147).
All of the 72 players who were in the starting line-up were afforded the privilege of a practice round at Augusta National yesterday.
