Nishna Patel finishes 46th as Taipei’s Huang wins Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific

Ting-Hsuan Huang of Chinese Taipei poses with the trophy. 

 Pattaya, Thailand : The 17-year-old Ting-Hsuan Huang of Chinese Taipei played an impressive final round to shock the local Thai challenge at the last seven holes to win the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific championship .

Huang (69) finished 11-under at the Siam Country Club, while Thailand’s Natthakritta Vongtaveelap (75) was 9-under and three players, Lee Hyosong (66), Japan’s Yuna Araki (69) and Rianne Mikhaela Malixi (72) finished in a tie for third.

The 16-year-old  schoolgirl Nishna Patel from Mumbai, the only Indian to make the cut,  triple bogeyed the last hole and finished with 76 and was 8-over for four days and in tied 46^th place.

Indian girls, Avani Prashanth, Kriti Chowhan, Sifat Sagoo, Mannat Brar and Ceerat Kang  had earlier missed the cut.

Huang  started the final round as one of the four co-leasers at 8-under. The group included home stars, the top ranked Thai Natthakritta, and the little-known Thai Suvichaya Vinijchaitham.

Huang began her final charge began with a hole-out from the bunker on the Par-3 12^th, where Natthakritta bogeyed and Suvichaya double bogeyed.

Huang built on it and steadily moved up to take sole lead. When Natthakritta missed a four-putt birdie on 18^th, Huang holed her birdie putt, just inside that distance, for a two-shot win.

Huang’s final seven holes included four birdies against one eagle. Huang revealed her idol is former World No. 1 Yani Tseng from Chinese Taipei, with whom she has played often in her hometown, Taoyuan.

On Sunday Huang stayed steady even as Natthakritta was unable to follow up her massive drives with iron and wedge play.

Huang was 3-under for the last seven holes and the Thai went 3-over.

Earlier, co-leader Suvichaya (75) with two doubles and a bogey in the last seven holes, collapsed and ended tied for ninth, alongside Mizuki Hashimoto, the defending champion and 36-hole leader.