Sunday, July 13, 2008

Meiji Chocolate Cup Sunday: Fudoh Wins Despite Arimura's 63

Chie Arimura came out of nowhere and fired a final-round 63 to take the lead into the clubhouse at -8 in the Meiji Chocolate Cup with the final pairings still on the course. Arimura followed up an eagle on the par-5 6th holes with 6 straight birdies, but it was her only bogey of the day on the par-3 17th hole that came back to haunt her. Her round was particularly impressive, given that only 5 other players in the field broke 70 on Sunday, but in the end it still was too little, too late.

For Yuri Fudoh pulled even with Arimura by the 9th hole and ahead by the 12th, thanks to birdies on those par 5s. A final birdie on the 367-yard par-4 15th extended her lead to 2 shots, and even a bogey on the 17th, coupled with birdies by Hyun-Ju Shin and Saiki Fujita that cut her lead on all 3 players to 1, didn't faze Fudoh, as she parred the 18th to remain at -9. With her win, she became the 1st repeat winner on the JLPGA in 2008 and pushed her career winnings total to ¥1,005,727,948. You read that right: Fudoh broke the billion yen barrier!

Here are the final results for the top 10 and notables in the field:

1st/-9 Fudoh (69-68-79)
T2/-8 Arimura (70-75-63), Shin (69-69-70), Fujita (68-70-70)
5th/-7 Erina Hara (70-70-69)
6th/-6 Ji-Woo Lee (68-72-70)
7th/-5 Mi-Jeong Jeon (74-69-68)
T8/-4 Kuniko Maeda (73-70-69), Tomoko Kusakabe (70-69-73)
T10/-2 Yuka Shiroto (69-75-70), Akiko Fukushima (71-71-72)

T13/E Sakura Yokomine (74-71-71)
T20/+1 Shiho Oyama (73-72-72), Yukari Baba (72-73-72), Miki Saiki (71-73-73), Mayu Hattori (69-75-73), Yuko Mitsuka (71-71-75)
T29/+2 Yuki Ichinose (71-72-75)
T39/+4 Midori Yoneyama (76-73-71), Ayako Uehara (72-73-75)
T43/+5 Akane Iijima (73-72-76)
T46/+6 Yun-Jye Wei (75-73-74)
58th/+12 Miho Koga (73-76-79)

And here's how the money list looks now:

1. Akiko Fukushima ¥56.21M
2. Ji-Hee Lee ¥51.71M
3. Sakura Yokomine ¥45.92M
4. Miho Koga ¥45.04M
5. Eun-A Lim ¥40.29M
6. Bo-Bae Song ¥38.52M
7. Yukari Baba ¥35.62M
8. Chie Arimura ¥34.70M
9. Yuri Fudoh ¥33.90M
10. Mi-Jeong Jeon ¥33.20M
11. Ayako Uehara ¥33.13M
12. Miki Saiki ¥33.12M
13. Hiromi Mogi ¥32.04M
14. Yuko Mitsuka ¥31.52M
15. Shiho Oyama ¥30.36M
16. Hiroko Yamaguchi ¥30.29M
17. Hyun-Ju Shin ¥29.70M
18. Akane Iijima ¥25.42M
19. Erina Hara ¥24.22M
20. Esther Lee ¥21.81M

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