Saturday, July 28, 2007

Wind--and Scores--Up on Moving Backward Day at the Evian Masters

The LPGA third-round interview page for the Evian Masters puts it rather blandly--"Saturday's scoring average was 75.082, which went up nearly two shots from the first- and second-round averages which were at 73.388 and 73.357, respectively"--but sometimes you need to deadpan it when the best women's golfers in the world have one of their worst days of the year. Only 7 players got under par and only 4 more avoided going over par, while 9 failed to break 80, including people who started the day thinking about being in contention on Sunday like second-round co-leader Jin Joo Hong (80), first-round co-leader Brittany Lincicome (82), former top-Super Soph-in-tournament Kyeong Bae (82), #2 on the LPGA money list Suzann Pettersen (81), and, yes, Michelle Wie (84).

But enough about the negatives. Hall of Famer Juli Inkster (69) had the best round of the day and at -6 heads into the final round with a 2-shot lead on Jeong Jang (72), a 3-shot lead on Ji Yai Shin (70), Sophie Gustafson (72), and Diana D'Alessio (76), a 4-shot lead on Il Mi Chung (70), Natalie Gulbis (73), and Annika Sorenstam (74), and a 5-shot lead on Karrie Webb (73), Mi Hyun Kim (74), Laura Davies (74), and Momoko Ueda (74). Given that Angela Stanford's 69 got her to E and made up 5-6 shots on Christina Kim, Sun Ju Ahn, Maria Hjorth, Laura Diaz, and Linda Wessberg, I wouldn't count anyone in this group out--and I'd even give people at +1 like Lorena Ochoa, Seon Hwa Lee, Shi Hyun Ahn, and Eun-Hee Ji an outside chance if any of them can mount an incredible charge on Sunday. Which is more of a chance than Hound Dog gives them.

Unfortunately for them, even if Cristie Kerr keeps up her birdie pace over her final 6 holes or Morgan Pressel over her final 12 holes, there aren't enough holes left for them to get into the race. But everyone is looking to finish strong in the last round before St. Andrews and the Women's British Open. We'll see who's able to pull it off.

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