23rd June, Macau: Two-time Macau China Open runner-up, Putty Armein of Indonesia outshone a strong field to win the Women's Open Round 1 Masters finals of the 2017 Macau China International Open on Friday evening.

2016 ABF Tour Thailand leg winner, Sharon Koh got off the block with a superb 233 to lead last year's first runner-up, Jung Ha Eun of Korea by 8 pins followed by Macau's Hui Tong in third. A second Malaysian, Nur Syazwani Sahar added 223 to her first game of 213 to take over the lead.

But her lead was short-lived as Armein rolled a splendid 249 to move to the top of the pack as Koh recovered from a low second game with 230 to stay one pin adrift. The Indonesian posted a stunning 278 to stretch her lead to 51 pins as Hong Kong's Milki Ng moved up to second.

Another superb game of 258 in the fifth allow Armein to pull away from her nearest rival. Koh continued to trail in second, 119 pins away. Despite just managing 184 and 174 in her next two games, Armein bounced back with 247 to end the round with 1800.

Koh settled for second position with 1747 while Nur Syazwani, who was holding on to fifth spot, leapfrog into third position on 1743 after ending strongly with 243 and 246. Ng took fourth spot with 1716 while Kristin Quah of Singapore completed the top five with 1714.

Defending champion, Novie Phang finished seventh with 1655. Joan Cheng and Chan Shuk Han, both from Hong Kong tied in 12th position with 1616. Cheng narrowly won the one-game tie-breaker, 196-194 to make the cut for Round 2 finals.

The top 12 will be joined by the top three local and top three overseas seeded qualifiers for another 8 games tomorrow. The top six finishers will proceed to the stepladder shootout finals.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Macau, China.

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