Sunday, July 27, 2008

JLPGA Players Championship Sunday: Mi-Jeong Jeon Wins Big

Mi-Jeong Jeon was tied with Yuko Mitsuka at -7 as they walked off the 5th green in the final round of the Kagome Philanthropy LPGA Players Championship, but the 2nd- and 3rd-round leader never looked back, making birdies on the 6th and 8th holes as Mitsuka bogeyed 2 in a row to open up a 4-shot lead. Jeon closed out her win in style with 3 consecutive birdies to tie for the low back and low round of the day, a 67 that got her to -12 for the tournament. Mitsuka recovered with 2 straight closing birdies to grab a solo 2nd at -7, while Akane Iijima charged from back in the pack to nab a solo 3rd at -5 as Ayako Uehara and Akiko Fukushima faded.

Here's how the leaderboard ended up:

1st/-12 Mi-Jeong Jeon (68-69-72-67)
2nd/-7 Yuko Mitsuka (70-69-71-71)
3rd/-5 Akane Iijima (74-70-72-67)
T4/-4 Shiho Oyama (72-73-71-68), Ji-Woo Lee (65-76-72-71), Ayako Uehara (69-71-71-73)
7th/-3 Hyun-Ju Shin (72-72-70-71)
T8/-2 Mayumi Nakajima (67-75-75-69), Erina Hara (72-72-70-72), Maiko Wakabayashi (69-75-69-73)

T11/-1 Miho Koga (71-73-73-70), Yun-Jye Wei (70-75-71-71), Hiromi Mogi (69-70-74-74)
T15/E Shinobu Moromizato (73-72-73-70), Ji-Hee Lee (73-70-72-73), Hiroko Yamaguchi (72-72-71-73), Yukari Baba (71-72-71-74), Akiko Fukushima (68-71-73-76)
T21/+1 Sakura Yokomine (72-74-73-70), Midori Yoneyama (71-71-73-74)
T28/+3 Mayu Hattori (73-75-73-70)
T41/+7 Eun-A Lim (74-72-74-75)
T59/+14 Miki Saiki (71-77-76-78), Michiko Hattori (71-75-76-80)

With her 2nd win of the season coming in the tournament with the 3rd-highest purse, Jeon shot up the money list:

1. Akiko Fukushima ¥73.88M
2. Mi-Jeong Jeon ¥60.65M
3. Ji-Hee Lee ¥59.03M
4. Ayako Uehara ¥47.73M
5. Miho Koga ¥47.16M
6. Sakura Yokomine ¥46.99M
7. Yuko Mitsuka ¥42.96M
8. Eun-A Lim ¥41.78M
9. Yukari Baba ¥38.80M
10. Bo-Bae Song ¥38.52M
11. Shiho Oyama ¥37.42M
12. Chie Arimura ¥37.17M
13. Yuri Fudoh ¥36.37M
14. Akane Iijima ¥35.40M
15. Hiromi Mogi ¥35.03M
16. Hyun-Ju Shin ¥34.25M
17. Miki Saiki ¥33.52M
18. Hiroko Yamaguchi ¥33.32M
19. Erina Hara ¥30.62M
20. Ji-Woo Lee ¥26.76M
21. Shinobu Moromizato ¥25.16M
22. Esther Lee ¥22.68M
23. Midori Yoneyama ¥19.10M
24. Momoko Ueda ¥17.73M
25. Yun-Jye Wei ¥16.95M

The JLPGA takes a week off for the Women's British Open and resumes with the AXA Ladies, the 1st of 5 events in August and early September that lead up to the second major of the season, the JLPGA Championship, otherwise known as the Konica Minolta Cup. With the top 3 bunched, the next 3 knotted, less than 10 million yen separating #7 from #18, and only 3 players with 2 wins, the season is still wide open.

No comments: