Atienza and Ng sign off with week’s best scores at Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific Championship

Pattaya, Thailand, February 4: Aloysa Atienza ended her campaign at the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP) championship with her week’s best score of four-under-par 68 to sign off in tied-22nd place on Sunday.

The result was also Atienza’s best finish at the WAAP since she made her debut at 2022 edition where she finished tied-43rd. Atienza recorded a tied-49th result when the event was held at the Singapore Island Country Club last year.

The 25-year-old marked her card with five birdies with the only blemish coming on the sixth hole where she dropped a shot. Atienza’s four-day total of five-under-par 283 meant she finished 13 shots behind eventual champion, Wu Chun-wei of Chinese Taipei at the Siam Country Club.

“I’m very happy with my performance today. It’s not because of where I am on the leaderboard, but coming into this week, I’ve been struggling a lot mentally. And my goal was to stay in the game, no matter how bad it was and I got rewarded because of that today,” said Atienza.

Inez Ng also closed with her week’s best score of 71 after previous rounds of 73, 72 and 72 to finish in tied-35th place.

Meanwhile, Wu’s winning total of 274 saw her clinched a two-shot victory over 15-year-old South Korean teenager Hyosong Lee.

With her victory, Wu also became only the second champion to lead on all four days, following Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul in Singapore in 2018. Earlier in the week she also set new championship records for best 36-hole score (132), best middle 36-hole score (131) and best 54-hole score (198).

“Incredible! This is the first time I’ve won a big tournament,” said a jubilant Wu.

In addition to winning the Rae-Vadee T. Suwan Champion’s Medal, Wu will be rewarded with starts in three major championships in 2024 – the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews, the Amundi Evian Championship in France and the Chevron Championship in the United States of America.

Furthermore, she’ll receive invitations to a number of other elite championships including the Hana Financial Group Championship, ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open, The 121st Women’s Amateur Championship and the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

Ends.