{"id":451249,"date":"2026-02-05T21:41:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/451249\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T21:41:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:41:13","slug":"along-comeback-trail-rianne-malixi-rediscovers-her-swing-dominance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/451249\/","title":{"rendered":"Along comeback trail, Rianne Malixi rediscovers her swing, dominance"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a week of firsts for Rianne Malixi.<\/p>\n

She won her first college tournament last Tuesday, and then a few days later, she built her first snowman.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fun, but it\u2019s not something I want to have every day,\u201d Malixi said \u2013 of the latter, of course, not the former.<\/p>\n

Malixi, a Duke freshman from Manila, Philippines, can certainly get used to winning again. It had been over a year since Malixi was a dominant force in amateur golf, winning both the U.S. Girls\u2019 Junior and U.S. Women\u2019s Amateur two summers ago while rising to third in the world amateur rankings. A lower back injury derailed her momentum, forcing her to withdraw five holes into last year\u2019s Women\u2019s Amateur Asia-Pacific and then on the eve of the Augusta National Women\u2019s Amateur.<\/p>\n

Shelved until late May, Malixi returned to play four times last summer, missing cuts in two majors and one JLPGA tournament before sharing the stroke-play medal with Asterisk Talley at the U.S. Women\u2019s Amateur, only to get bounced in the first round of match play at Bandon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really struggling with my irons, or really anything full swing,\u201d Malixi said. \u201cAt the range, it would be good, but I couldn\u2019t execute it when I\u2019d be playing. I would visualize shots, but I just couldn\u2019t execute. I\u2019m a draw player, and sometimes I\u2019d have these pushes, and sometimes I\u2019d get too shallow, which I try to really avoid because that strains my back. My back wasn\u2019t hurting, but I was just really hesitant because I was very uncomfortable swinging the golf club. It was holding me back; I didn\u2019t want to feel pain, I was scared of getting hurt, like if I pushed myself too hard, then I might feel a pop again. That really pulled me away from executing shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malixi\u2019s first semester with the Blue Devils wasn\u2019t any better, at least by her lofty standards. The nation\u2019s top-ranked recruit didn\u2019t place higher than T-17 in three events, though as Duke head coach Dan Brooks notes, Malixi posted a 77 or worse in each of those starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at her scoring, she had some good rounds, but that one round would just get her, which is something she just doesn\u2019t do,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cThat great player, great mind, it was still in there. There was no mental block or anything, it was just physical. She was just getting under plane and a little stuck, but a lot of good players do that. That\u2019s been her tendency, and she just had to go to work and clean that up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compounding matters for Malixi was the typical freshman adjustment. Malixi, homeschooled since fifth grade, had been accustomed to her parents handling most daily tasks. But with independence came a few more firsts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m doing my own laundry, my own ironing, which I never did, which is kind of funny,\u201d Malixi said. \u201cAnd it was a struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Usually, Brooks doesn\u2019t allow teammates to room together, but he made an exception for Malixi and fellow freshman Avery McCrery, who only posted one top-10 finish in her three fall starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really do well with strangers, so it\u2019s nice to have Avery there for support,\u201d Malixi said. \u201cWe tend to be vulnerable with each other, and it\u2019s been so reassuring to have her around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malixi stuck with her physical therapy and technical drills through the fall, even doing some work in her dorm to get her sequencing back. But it wasn\u2019t until she flew home to Manila in early December that everything clicked again. Malixi missed finals week to compete in the SEA Games, where she placed sixth, then spent three weeks playing 36 holes per day. The 86-degree temps and humidity were a stark contrast to what she was welcomed with when she returned to Durham.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"DSC_6633.JPG\"<\/p>\n

Smarter, even if not necessarily as strong as she was two summers ago, Malixi was her vintage self over three rounds of the Sea Best Intercollegiate at San Jose Country Club in Jacksonville, Florida. Though she was thrown off by the quirks of college golf \u2013 her first 36-hole day, no signing cards in scoring, etc. \u2013 Malixi quickly settled in, shooting 15 under over her final 36 holes and beating Florida\u2019s Paula Francisco by two strokes at 16 under. Her 200 winning total was a school record, and her closing 9-under 63 tied a Duke low.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most importantly, Malixi\u2019s long game had shown the fruits of her labor. With San Jose playing just over 5,900 yards, though in cold conditions, Malixi was especially lethal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very surprised how short it was,\u201d Malixi said. \u201cBut Coach told me, \u2018Well, you still have to play to your standards.\u2019 I tried to go as low as I could because the course was very gettable; it was a total wedge game, and I capitalized. My irons and wedges were really great. I struggled with my putting, specifically my alignment, so I left a lot out there, but overall, it was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Brooks: \u201cShe\u2019s swinging the club better now than she did in the fall. That\u2019s all the difference was.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Duke and other teams needing to scramble to airport, there was no time for a proper trophy ceremony. Brooks grabbed Malixi\u2019s trophy and met her and a few teammates in the parking lot, where he did a mock introduction before Malixi said a few words. It wasn\u2019t until a few days later that Malixi posed for her trophy shot \u2013 with her snowman.<\/p>\n

Everyone knows Malixi will have plenty more winning moments.<\/p>\n

She will break from the team later this month for the Women\u2019s Amateur Asia-Pacific, missing the Moon Golf Invitational. But she\u2019ll have a nice stretch against elite fields, including the Darius Rucker, Old Barnwell Derby and Charles Schwab at Colonial. Then, of course, will be her much anticipated return to Augusta, Georgia, where she will be one of 48 current top-50 players competing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling very excited,\u201d Malixi said. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to making the cut hopefully, seeing some familiar faces. I haven\u2019t really put a name to myself in the golfing world for like a year now. So, yeah, it\u2019s good to have a comeback.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a week of firsts for Rianne Malixi. She won her first college tournament last Tuesday, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-451249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}