Malixi rebounds strong with 69, faces Irish in match play

ON the brink of elimination, Rianne Malixi cashed in on nearideal conditions in the morning wave, birdying the first three holes on her way to a 69 and a joint 40th finish at the close of the 36-hole stroke play elims in The Women’s Amateur at the Prince’s Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent in southeast England Wednesday. Beth Coulter birdied two of the last four holes to shoot a 70 and become the first Irish leading qualifier in one of the world’s premier amateur events since Paula Grant in 2017. The 19-year-old Coulter, who recently finished her Freshman season at Arizona State U, clinched the low medal honors and the top seed- ing with a 139 total, besting four others, including world No. 1 Ingrid Lindbland by three.

But needing to rebound strong to revive her chances after a windblown 79 Tuesday in the first half of the 36-hole stroke play elims that dropped her to tied 100th, the ICTSIbacked Malixi did just that, draining a 12-foot birdie putt on the first hole, gaining another stroke from four feet on the par-5 No. 2 then hacking a solid tee shot to within five feet for another feat on the third.

Though she blasted a shot that hit the tip of the bunker and bounced back to the fairway for bogey on No. 4, Malixi quickly recovered the stroke with a long birdie putt on the next, another par-3. She did yield another shot on the sixth after missing the green then hit a wild drive on the par-5 No. 8 that led to a lost ball and a doublebogey. But those miscues failed to dampen her spirit as she toughened up at the backside, nearly chipping in for eagle on the par-5 No. 12 for a tap-in birdie. She missed her chance on the next but came through with back-to-back birdies from No. 14 to crash into the Top 64. Malixi, 16, muffed another birdie chance on No. 16 but closed out with a couple of par-saves off superb chip shots to preserve a three-under card before conditions turned from calm to windy in the afternoon.

MONTREAL—Refreshed by a Mediterranean break since winning in Spain, defending world champion Max Verstappen will be seeking to continue his dominant run and stretch his title-race lead in this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver, who won in Montreal last year, has reeled off successive victories in Miami, Monte Carlo and Barcelona to move 53 points clear of nearest rival and team-mate Sergio Perez in the drivers’ championship.

He has also led every lap since lap 48 in Florida, a total of 154, the longest unbroken run since 2012 when four-time champion Sebastian Vettel was equally supreme for the Milton Keynes-based team.

Another win, in Sunday’s 70-lap contest on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, a high-speed semi-street track on the Ile Notre-Dame in the St Lawrence river, would be the team’s 100th in Formula One – and 24th in 27 outings.

Only four other teams have scored a century of Grands Prix wins – Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Williams –and few individuals have relished such a coincidence of invincibility for man and machine.

Two-time champion Alberto Ascari of Italy led a record 305 laps between the 1952 Belgian Grand Prix and the Dutch event in in 1953, a streak that three-time champion Ayrton Senna in 1988, with 264 consecutive laps in front, tried to match.

Briton Nigel Mansell, champion in 1987, and Vettel, are the only other drivers to have passed 200 laps as leader.

“This track is unique,” said the 25-year-old Verstappen. “You get to ride some old-school kerbs and the scenery is quite cool too. The car set-up has to be a balance between straight-line and running well over the kerbs well.” AFP