Friday, March 21, 2008

Yokohama PRGR Ladies Cup Friday: Hold the Presses! Ji-Yai Shin Near Top of Leaderboard

Here's what the JLPGA's "Realtime Scoring" link for the Yokohama PRGR Ladies Cup looks like right now:

1/-5 Akiko Fukushima through 15
2/-3 Itsumi Okada through 3
3/-2 Mihoko Takahashi, Erina Hara and Na Zhang through 16, Ji-Yai Shin through 15

Which clears up one of the mysteries from my preview/pairings post. The person named 申 智 愛 (シン チ エ) playing with Iijima and Yokomine is none other than the KLPGA's top golfer!

Very interesting how some of the JLPGA's biggest names are responding to Shin's presence thus far:

14/E Hyun-Ju Shin and Bo-Bae Song through 16, Chie Arimura through 14
22/+1 Miho Koga through 16, Sakura Yokomine, Shiho Ohyama, Mi-Jeong Jeon, Akane Iijima through 15
93/+6 Yuri Fudoh through 16

More coming once the JLPGA site updates!

[Update 1 (1:50 am): Ah, they're updating the site in real time thus far. I think I cursed Shin. After a birdie-bogey-birdie start, she fell back to E with a bogey on the par-4 6th, but made up for it by going -2 over her next 9 holes (including failures to birdie 3 par 5s but birdies on the 11th and 13th). So of course she'd bogey the 16th to fall back to a tie for 6th with Ji-Hee Lee, Eun-A Lim, and So-Hee Kim, among others....]

[Update 2 (1:59 am): Watch the tournament discussion forum on Seoul Sisters if you're curious about the reaction to news of Shin's tuning up for the KLPGA season opener in Japan this week! Here are updates on more players: Bo-Bae Song and Hyun-Ju Shin's rounds are now history: even-par 72s (T13 still, so far). Yokomine has pulled even with them with the 18th left to play. Okada has fallen back to -2, giving Fukushima a 3-stroke lead on the field with 2 holes left for her to play, 1 for Zhang, and 5 for Okada, the only people at -2 still on the course (Hara and Takahashi have finished their rounds and posted 70s). Koga's 73 (T23, so far) is official. No other big names near the top of the leaderboard have changed their score or position.]

[Update 3 (2:11 am): Here's an expanded view of the leaderboard as more rounds become history:

1/-4 Akiko Fukushima through 17

2/70 Erina Hara, Mihoko Takahashi, Na Zhang, Itsumi Okada -2 through 5

6/71 Rui Yokomine, Ai Ogawa, Mayu Hattori, Hiromi Mogi, Ji-Hee Lee, Ji-Yai Shin -1 through 17, Eun-A Lim through 5, So-Hee Kim through 14

14/72 Mihoko Iseri, Yuuki Ichinose, Hyun-Ju Shin, Bo-Bae Song, Junko Omote, Sakura Yokomine E through 17, Chie Arimura through 16, Yoko Yamagishi through 7, Ji-Woo Lee through 14]

[Update 4 (2:13 am): Shin birdied 18! So did Yokomine!]

[Update 5 (2:17 am): Yikes, Mi-Jeong Jeon is now +2 (T37) and Shiho Ohyama is now +3 (T55) through 17. Fudoh finished at 78 (T88). Pressure!]

[Update 5 (2:23 am): OK, most of the leaders are done:

1/68 Akiko Fukushima -4

2/70 Erina Hara, Mihoko Takahashi, Na Zhang, Ji-Yai Shin, So-Hee Kim -2 through 15

7/71 Rui Yokomine, Ai Ogawa, Mayu Hattori, Hiromi Mogi, Ji-Hee Lee, Sakura Yokomine, Itsumi Okada -1 through 6

14/72 Mihoko Iseri, Yuuki Ichinose, Hyun-Ju Shin, Bo-Bae Song, Junko Omote, Chie Arimura E through 17, Eun-A Lim through 6, Rui Kitada through 15, Ji-Woo Lee through 14]

[Update 6 (2:28 am): A bit on the leaders' rounds. Fukushima doubled the first, parred the second, and proceeded to birdie 5 of her next 7 holes to finish the front with a 33. She kicked off the back with a bogey, but then birdied the next 2 and the 15th before being brought back to earth with a bogey on the 17th. Hara was -3 through 11 and stayed there until she bogeyed the 16th. Yokomine twice had back-to-back bogeys offset by consecutive birdies, once on each side--no, wait, it was 2 of her last 3 holes she birdied on the back!]

[Update 7 (2:34 am): Wow, Ohyama ended up with a 76 (T64)! Meanwhile, Jeon and Shinobu Moromizato could only manage 74s (T35), and Eun-A Lim just doubled the par-5 7th to join them at +2.]

[Update 8 (2:37 am): Speaking of notables over par, there's a big bunch at 73 (T22), including Miho Koga, Akane Iijima, Ayako Uehara, Kaori Higa, and Yukari Baba.]

[Update 9 (2:42 am): Meanwhile, Namiko Omata shot a 74 (still T35) and Mie Nakata and Yun-Jye Wei shot 75s (T53).]

[Update 10 (2:46 am): Here's the latest look at the leaderboard:

1/68 Akiko Fukushima -4

2/70 Erina Hara, Mihoko Takahashi, Na Zhang, Ji-Yai Shin -2

6/71 Rui Yokomine, Ai Ogawa, Mayu Hattori, Hiromi Mogi, Ji-Hee Lee, Sakura Yokomine, Chie Arimura, So-Hee Kim -1 through 17, Itsumi Okada through 7, Ji-Woo Lee through 16

16/72 Mihoko Iseri, Yuuki Ichinose, Hyun-Ju Shin, Bo-Bae Song, Junko Omote, Rui Kitada through 17]

[Update 10 (2:48 am): Eun-A Lim is free-falling--now at +3 with only the 9th left to play....]

[Update 11 (2:52 am): Okada, by the way, started on the back and birdied 4 of her first 8 holes, but is on track to give each of those birdies back over the next 10 if she can't right the ship on the 8th and 9th....]

[Update 12 (2:52 am): Hattori, by the way, birdied the 17th and 18th to get to -1....]

[Update 13 (3:01 am): Koga and Uehara, by the way, made mini-charges on the back to get to +1--consecutive birdies on the 15th and 16th for both. Suggests to me that you can expect to see a lot of fireworks on the finishing holes this weekend.]

[Update 14 (3:06 am): Arimura, by the way, had a bogey-free 32 on the back for low round on that side and in fact birdied 5 of her last 10 to make up for 4 bogeys on her first 8; Fukushima's 33 (with a double bogey!) is the low round on the front. And So-Hee Kim made her 4th birdie of the back on the 18th to join the group in second at -2.]

[Update 15 (3:15 am): So there are 35 players within 5 shots of the lead at the close of the action on Friday. Here's the final leaderboard:

1/68 Akiko Fukushima -4

2/70 Erina Hara, Mihoko Takahashi, Na Zhang, Ji-Yai Shin, So-Hee Kim -2

7/71 Rui Yokomine, Ai Ogawa, Mayu Hattori, Hiromi Mogi, Ji-Hee Lee, Sakura Yokomine, Chie Arimura -1

14/72 Mihoko Iseri, Yuuki Ichinose, Hyun-Ju Shin, Bo-Bae Song, Junko Omote, Rui Kitada, Ji-Woo Lee, Itsumi Okada E]