Thursday, November 20, 2008

ADT Championship Thursday: The Race for the Top 16 Just Heated Up

The 1st round of the ADT Championship has set up a tense Friday, as Cristie Kerr blew up with a 78, Lorena Ochoa salvaged a disappointing 75, and Annika Sorenstam fought her way back to a tough-to-take 74. With 16 players at E or better, they have their work cut out for them tomorrow. Given the number of roller-coaster rounds, however, just about anything can happen tomorrow. Even Katherine Hull (68), Ji-Yai Shin (69), and In-Kyung Kim (69) are still in the danger zone.

Consider the following cases in point:


  • Ji Young Oh was -4 through 14 but limped home with bogeys on 16 and 17.
  • Christina Kim was -4 and bogey-free through 12 but gave it all back with bogeys on 4 of her next 5 holes before a birdie on 18 got her off a 3-hole bogey train and salvaged a 71.
  • Paula Creamer was -3 and bogey-free through 8 but ended up with a 71, thanks to a tough turn where she bogeyed the 9th and 11th.
  • Maria Hjorth was -2 through 15, but finished double-birdie-bogey for a 72.
  • Ya Ni Tseng eagled the 3rd, erased it with a pair of consecutive bogeys on the front, got to -2 through 12 after back-to-back birdies, and then went bogey-par-double-birdie before parring out her last 2 holes for a 72.
  • Candie Kung had a bogey-free 34 on the front and a birdie-less 38 on the back.
  • Seon Hwa Lee shot a 72 after a 34 on the front, thanks to a stretch on the back where she went bogey-bogey-par-birdie-double-birdie.
  • Jee Young Lee's 72 included a 4-hole bogey train to close out the front, a 3-hole birdie train in the middle of the back, and a bogey-birdie finish.


I'll stop there, and just suggest you take a peek at Helen Alfredsson's and Angela Stanford's scorecards--or Sun Young Yoo's, if you have the stomach for it.

All I can say is that it's fitting this tournament comes near Q-School, as the best women golfers in 2008 will face the closest kind of pressure to its tomorrow that they're likely to encounter the rest of their careers. I guarantee Annika isn't going out like that.

[Update 1 (5:18 pm): Wonder who the LPGA Insider will cover if I'm wrong.]

[Update 2 (7:37 pm): Here's Hound Dog's 1st-round overview, as well as Bill Jempty's great preview post.]

[Update 3 (8:02 pm): Here are the post-round notes and interviews.]

[Update 4 (11/21/08, 4:59 am): Average Golfer not only slickly summarizes the 1st-round results, but also points us toward Ji-Yai Shin's interview.]

[Update 5 (6:36 am): Verdant Garden's on-course reporting is not to be missed!]

[Update 6 (4:34 pm): Here's Bill Jempty's overview.]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So disappointed in Sun Young, and especially Feng's round. I thought if Feng could (and I guess she still could) qualify this format would be good for her, bc she's had a few solitary really low Sundays. It'll be interesting Friday!

The Constructivist said...

Yoo had such a great start, it's really too bad how she played her last 12 holes. I was shocked by Feng's and Meena Lee's 78s, to tell you the truth, but I guess if someone who knows the course as well as Kerr does could do it, so could anyone. I was hoping Song-Hee Kim would turn it around this week, as well, but she's going to need a charge, as will Laura Diaz, who was playing great until the last couple of weeks.