Sarawakian amateur golfer Mirabel Ting puts Malaysian pros in the shade

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 28): Mirabel Ting may still be an amateur but that didn’t stop her from outshining local professionals to be the best-placed Malaysian golfer at the 2024 Maybank Championship at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club (KLGCC) here yesterday.

The 18-year-old Sarawakian, the only amateur player in the 76-strong field, carded a two-under 70 in the final round for a four-day total of 12-under 276 (67-75-64-70) to finish joint 12th with five others, including defending champion Celine Boutier of France.

The Miri-born Mirabel was thrilled with her performance, especially the way she was able to cope with the pressure in her Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour debut.

“Words can’t describe how much this means to me … to be able to perform this week on a big stage. I finally believe and have faith in myself that I can do big things on the big stage. I did pretty well this week handling the pressure and the crowd.

“I got a little bit emotional, especially having everyone out here but not my dad who passed away two years ago.

“To be able to do this in front of the home crowd, having their support means a lot to me. My dad is looking down at me and I think he would be proud of me today,” she said.

Meanwhile, Olympian and fellow Sarawakian Ashley Lau also secured a decent finish after carding a one-under 71 to be tied in 22nd place with seven others on 10-under 278. She had carded 73-68-66 in the previous rounds.

“Just a very slow day and didn’t really make a lot of putts while I also missed a couple birdies. But just happy with the way I finished today,” she said.

As for the other two Malaysian golfers, Liyana Durisic finished 74th with an overall score of 17-over 306 while Nur Durriyah Damian finished last with a total of 21-over 309.

The credible top-22 finish by Mirabel and Ashley are the best-ever results for Malaysian players in the LPGA Tour home tournament after Kelly Tan finished joint 32nd in a field of 60 players at the 2010 Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia.

Meanwhile, China’s world number four Yin Ruoning fired seven birdies en route to winning the US$3 million (about RM13 million) tournament, pipping Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul by one stroke.

That left Jeeno suffering a second straight heartbreak, having also finished runner-up in last year’s inaugural edition.

But all credit to the 22-year-old Ruoning, whose three-day score of 16-under 200 (67-67-66) saw her sharing the lead with Jeeno and South Korea’s Ryu Hae-Ran heading into the final round.

Former world number one Ruoning continued from where she left off by carding seven birdies on the first, third, sixth, seventh, 10th, 12th and 18th holes to conclude the final round with a seven-under 65 for a four-day total of 23-under 265.

That allowed her to claim her second Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour title in two weeks, having bagged the LPGA Buick Shanghai crown on Oct 13. Her Maybank Championship victory is also her fifth on the LPGA Tour. — Bernama