Thursday, November 8, 2007

Creamer Shoots 29 on Back at Tournament of Champions

Not long after saying that Lorena Ochoa and Suzann Pettersen were far ahead of her, Paula Creamer finds herself 7 shots ahead of the former and 2 ahead of the latter at the Tournament of Champions, thanks to closing with 7 straight birdies in her round on Thursday. Still, the tournament is anything but hers. Meg Mallon matched her 67, Mi Hyun Kim, Seon Hwa Lee, Natalie Gulbis, and Pat Hurst matched Pettersen's 69, Se Ri Pak (70), Hee-Won Han (71), and Annika Sorenstam (71) are lurking, and you can never count Ochoa or Inkster out. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Christina Kim (77), Moira Dunn (78), Meaghan Francella (80), or Morgan Pressel (82). Lucky for Francella that a win from Mallon, Hurst, Julieta Granada, or Joo Mi Kim would qualify them on second-half winnings, so she still would retain the last spot in the ADT Championship (assuming, that is, Catriona Matthew takes advantage of her 9-shot lead on her) even were such a miracle to happen.

3 comments:

spyder said...

Yikes... up five over Jin Joo, six over Annika and Pat Hurst, and a whopping eleven over Lorena, Paula could cruise along at two under or so for the next two days and hold on, forcing anyone who wants to take the lead to shoot four or five under rounds consecutively???

The Constructivist said...

Yeah, but the thing about Robert Trent Jones courses is that they're vulnerable to super-low scores if you're playing well. (And can penalize you in a second--even on "easy" holes--if you aren't.) If this AL one is anything like the one I grew up playing in central NY, that is.

Remember how Laura Davies almost ran down Suzann Pettersen from 7 back on Sunday in Thailand? I can assure you Creamer does!

spyder said...

Indeed.. and that is why i mentioned that she can't afford to go any higher than two under at all.. which is tough on any given day, and looks difficult given the leaderboard...