Ting is a two-time winner already this fall for the Seminoles.
Mirabel Ting won’t ever forget her first round on the LPGA. The Florida State junior opened with a 5-under 67 at the Maybank Championship on home soil in Malaysia. Ting, the only amateur in the field, trails leader Mao Saigo by four shots after the Japanese rookie opened with a brilliant 9-under 63 that include one bogey.
“Shooting 5 under on this challenging golf course is something that I would never thought I would be able to do it in front of a big crowd,” said Ting, a two-time winner already this fall for the Seminoles. Ting currently ranks eighth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
A rookie has yet to win on the LPGA this season, but Saigo sits atop the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year standings on the strength of seven top-10 finishes.
“I made a lot of middle length putt,” said the 23-year-old Saigo, “so that’s why I play really well.”
Saigo has a pair of runner-up finishes in 2024 at the CPKC Women’s Open and the Buick LPGA Shanghai. She’s a six-time winner on the JLPGA.
South Korea’s Haeran Ryu sits alone in second place in Malaysia. This is Ryu’s 31st round in the 60s this season. (Saigo leads the tour with 33.) She was one of five players to post a bogey-free round at Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club on Thursday, joining Wei-Ling Hsu, Celine Boutier, Hye-Jin Choi and Gaby Lopez.
“I don’t remember my play today because today my body feels not good,” said Ryu, “so I just want a good finish.”
Ting is one of four Malaysian players in the field.
Florida State standout Mirabel Ting makes her LPGA debut this week on home soil at the Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A two-time winner already this fall, Ting currently ranks eighth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
“This is my first LPGA event and probably the biggest one in my entire golfing career,” said Ting. “It’s something that it’s at home as well and I’m able to play in front of my friend and family, which is going to mean a lot. Especially my grandfather is coming back up from Miri to come and watch me play this week. So that’s really sweet.”
Mirabel Ting of Malaysia plays her shot from the first tee during the final round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur at Augusta National Golf Club on April 06, 2024 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Ting, one of four Malaysian players in the field, is the highest-ranked Malaysian amateur and the only amateur in the field of 78. The no-cut event will be held at Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club’s West Course. This marks the third stop on the LPGA’s fall Asian swing.
“I think this is probably the third time that I played this golf course,” said Ting. “I played the other golf course, the East golf course a lot of times, but I have barely played the West.”
An exceptionally strong ball-striker, Ting spends most of her time at Florida State working on her short game.
“I don’t have any weaknesses on my long game because I strike the ball quite OK,” said Ting when asked about her preparations for this week. “I’m fine from tee to fairway and fairway to green. So it’s just a little bit of missing the greens and making up and downs and keep the putter rolling.”
At last year’s Maybank, Celine Boutier defeated Jeeno Thitikul in a nine-hole playoff, tying the longest playoff in LPGA history. Both players are in the field along with the tour’s most recent winners, Hannah Green (BMW Ladies Championship) and Ruoning Yin (Buick LPGA).
After an opening round of 77 last year at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, Lottie Woad stood over a 5-foot putt for birdie on the 18th, hands trembling. It was a straight putt, but sometimes straight putts can be the worst to face.
Was it really straight?
Woad needed to convert to shoot 69 at Champions Retreat Golf Club and qualify for Saturday’s final round at Augusta National. She trusted the line and made the putt and the cut on the number, becoming one of three English players to advance to the final round. Another was Woad’s Florida State teammate Charlotte Heath. Both return for a second AWNA start April 3-6 in Augusta, Georgia.
They’ll be joined by Mirabel Ting a sophomore transfer from Malaysia who began her college career at Augusta University, where she helped the program qualify for its first NCAA Championship last spring not long after losing her father.
“She is one of the few players I’ve ever had that literally hits the center of the clubface every time,” said FSU coach Amy Bond. “The wear pattern on her 8-iron is perfect.”
Last month, Ting returned to Augusta for the Valspar Augusta Invitational at Forest Hills, which she won. Bond said Ting was understandably nervous heading back to Augusta after she left the program, but a couple of warm hugs in the parking lot from familiar faces help lighten the mood.
“Any kid of substance is going to be nervous going back to where they transferred from,” said Bond.
As Ting makes her ANWA debut, Woad, currently No. 4 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, will once again have English national coach Steve Robinson on the bag. Robinson also works as a performance coach for U.S. Open champion Matthew Fitzpatrick and took notes from Fitzpatrick’s caddie last year about how to handle the elevation.
Lottie Woad (courtesy FSU athletics)
Heath, who will have a local caddie on the bag, said playing a practice round with Robinson was massive because he’s particularly good at helping players map out a course – which hole locations are greens lights and which ones are red.
Heath, 22, has been a member of England’s women’s national squad since age 17 and was part of the girls team two years prior to that.
“It’s been a real team,” said Heath of the cohesiveness of Team England. “Everyone wants everyone to do well. We’re texting each other year-round, really making time for each other.”
The big family atmosphere that Health describes rings familiar to other national systems. Team Sweden, for example, makes it a point to involve successful pros in its training programs so that the wisdom can be passed down.
Earlier this week, the USGA announced the inaugural U.S. National Junior Team, which is composed initially of 10 girls and eight boys. The plan is to grow the team to 30 boys and 30 girls over the next three years. Two members of the girls team – Asterisk Talley and Gianna Clemente – are in the ANWA field.
Former USC men’s head coach Chris Zambri, the first head coach for the U.S. National Development Program will be onsite in Augusta. Zambri began his role with the program last November.
“It’s about time,” said Bond. “Now our American players can start getting the funding and support they need.”
The first time Bond had a chance to watch Woad in person after Covid-19 travel restrictions lifted was at the 2022 R&A Girls Amateur at famed Carnoustie, where Woad beat Spain’s Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, 7 and 6, in the championship match. Bond thought she’d hit the jackpot.
The long-hitting Woad has six top-8 finishes this season for FSU, including a win at the Annika Intercollegiate last fall, where she co-medaled with three other players. It was a strange little stretch for Woad, who pulled a hamstring, cut her finger making a bagel and hit herself on the bridge of her nose with her 4-wood during the tournament. Coaches feared the whack might have caused a concussion.
The elder Heath has warmly looked after Woad during her time in Tallahassee. Heath had a chance to play for an LPGA card last December but opted to skip the final stage of Q-Series and head back to school for a final semester. She’ll graduate in May with a degree in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences.
“I’m hoping not to use it,” she said.
While Woad turns heads with her long game, Bond calls Health’s short game one of the best she’s ever seen. It’s no wonder that they’ve partnered in foursomes a couple times for Team England and shot 8 under both times.
Heath, who won the Smyth Salver for low-amateur honors at last year’s AIG Women’s British Open, recently made a change in swing instructors, opting for a U.S.-based coach as she heads onto the Epson Tour this summer. Her ball position had gotten too far forward and she was coming over the top and lunging at the ball, Bond said. She’s already made vast improvements.
“It takes a lot of guts right before you’re going to turn pro to say I need to make a change and I need to make it now,” said Bond. “That’s a leap.”
Bond described Woad as a high-IQ player who works tirelessly on her game. Once a month Bond gets on a call with Woad and her swing coach, Luke Bone, to nitpick her game because she has such a good handle on the overall picture
Augusta National pays for one loved one to make the trip over to watch the action and that’s a big deal for international players like Woad and Heath. Woad’s 85-year-old grandmother will make her first trip to the U.S. in the coming days along with her father and an aunt. Heath’s parents will be there, too.
The ANWA is at the top of the heap when it comes to amateur golf, said Woad. And she’s not just talking about the trophy.
“When I was out there playing Augusta National,” said Woad, “and you have the crowds of young girls and boys watching. It’s a little bit more than us playing a golf tournament, honestly.”
“She was in a really dark place. I had no idea what was going to happen.”
Malaysia’s Mirabel Ting celebrated her 17th birthday shortly after she arrived at Augusta University last fall. Her father, Thomas, believed she was mature enough to handle all that comes with moving across the world to chase a dream.
Mirabel couldn’t possibly imagine, however, just how much she’d grow as a college freshman, in ways no teenager should have to face.
Augusta coach Caroline Haase-Hegg can still hear her players saying, “Coach, Coach,” in the van as they drove to Statesboro, Georgia, last October for Georgia Southern’s home event. Haase-Hegg looked back to see a devastated Ting, who’d just received word from home that her father had died from a massive heart attack.
“It was horrible,” said Haase-Hegg. “We were right about to Statesboro, and I didn’t know what to do. Do we turn around; do we keep going?”
She called Georgia Southern coach, Mimi Burke, who, like Haase-Hegg, has Purdue roots. They drove to Burke’s home, sat together as a team and cried.
At first, Mirabel insisted that she wanted to play in the tournament. It’s what her dad would’ve wanted, she thought. But by the next morning, she’d come around to the idea that she needed to get home. They drove back to Augusta to collect her things and put her on a plane at the Atlanta airport.
“At that point, I didn’t know if I’d see Mirabel again, to be honest” said Haase-Hegg.
Ting came back a few weeks later and tried to assimilate back into college life, but it proved too much. She returned to Malaysia for a second time to grieve.
“My only concern was Mirabel’s health,” said Haase-Hegg. “She was in a really dark place. I had no idea what was going to happen.”
The NCAA Championships start today and I’ve got a story about heartache and resilience you’ll want to read. This is Mirabel Ting, an Augusta freshman who lost her father last fall and dug deep to return to campus and carry the Jags to their first national championship. pic.twitter.com/MZpBKypDMx
— Beth Ann Nichols (@GolfweekNichols) May 19, 2023
Thomas first brought Mirabel to the golf course when she was 3 years old as a tag-along with her older brother. She grabbed her brother’s driver, which stood taller than her, closed her eyes and took a swing. The ball flew 50 yards.
“My dad was like, ‘This girl can play,’ ” said Mirabel.
Back home in Malaysia, Mirabel knew her father would want her to finish her degree before turning profesisonal. It was a tough decision, leaving her mother alone to pursue college life in Augusta, Georgia, but Mirabel returned to campus with a renewed sense of focus and peace.
“Whenever I played bad, (my dad) would just ask me what happened and what goes wrong,” said Mirabel. “He would always say that I didn’t practice enough.
“I literally told myself when I got right back to Augusta – I need to work even harder, double the training that I did before. I woke up for workouts and then straight to practice – go to school and go back to practice again.”
That no-quit mentality, she said, mirrors her dad, and it paid off handsomely.
In her first college start that spring, Mirabel won in a playoff at the Moon Golf Invitational after carding rounds of 69-69-65.
“It was completely insane for me, shooting 13 under,” said Mirabel, who dedicated the victory to her father.
Augusta punched their ticket to the national championship after the Athens regional of the 2023 NCAA Division I women’s golf championships at the UGA Golf Course in Athens, Ga., on Wednesday, May 10, 2023. (Tony Walsh/UGAAA)
Haase-Hegg said Mirabel might be the best iron player she’s ever seen, high praise from a coach who has worked with several LPGA players over the years. A straight hitter who drives it well and holes putts under pressure, Haase-Hegg said Mirabel loves the game and keeps it simple.
“Even when things were going badly in her life, she’d still go out on the golf course and ho-hum it for a 68,” said Haase-Hegg.
Mirabel hasn’t finished outside the top 15 in seven starts this semester. At the NCAA Athens Regional, she shot 6 under on the back nine and closed with two birdies to lift Augusta into the fifth and final spot, giving the Jaguars their first trip to the NCAA Championship.
Haase-Hegg said Mirabel puts the team before herself. If some of her teammates are struggling with a drill, she’s the first to start shagging balls and cheer them on.
The Jaguars have five top-3 finishes this spring, including a victory at the Southland Conference Championship. Last month, Ting was named the Southland Conference Women’s Golf Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year. She’s currently 15th in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings.
Before Augusta headed to Scottsdale, Arizona, this week they gathered at Bodega Ultima with about 100 supporters from the community to celebrate an important milestone for the program.
The NCAA Championship gets underway on Friday at Grayhawk Golf Club with the first of four stroke-play rounds. Thirty teams will be cut to 15 after 54 holes. On Monday, an individual champion will be crowned and eight teams will advance to match play.
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Haase-Hegg still has her own college coach and former boss, retired Purdue coach Devon Brouse, listed as one of the favorites on her phone. He’s usually out gardening when she calls. She’s leaned on him often this year, recalling the hardships that have molded and strengthened.
“That’s what I see in Mirabel – she’s come out stronger,” said Haase-Hegg. “She’s more resilient. She’s got a perspective to life that not many 17-year-olds have.”
