Saturday, May 9, 2009

Salonpas Cup Saturday: Shinobu Moromizato Pulls Ahead

On a day when the 36-hole leaders missed opportunities to distance themselves from the field, ex-LPGAer Shinobu Moromizato leapfrogged into the lead at the Salonpas Cup with the best score of the day by 2 shots, a sizzling 67. 2nd-round leader Akiko Fukushima had gotten to -11 after making birdies on 3 of her 1st 6 holes, but then proceeded to bogey 3 holes in a row as she made the turn and offset her 2 back-side birdies with bogeys on the 15th and 16th, so she remained at -8, 2 shots behind Moromizato. Mi-Jeong Jeon's 72 was much less of a roller-coaster, with but a single birdie and bogey on her card, while Paula Creamer followed up a bogey-free 34 on the front with a birdieless 38 on the back; they remain 3 and 5 shots back, respectively.

So here's where everyone who made the cut stands as they head into the final round of the JLPGA's 1st major:

1st/-10 Shinobu Moromizato (69-70-67)
2nd/-8 Akiko Fukushima (68-68-72)
3rd/-7 Mi-Jeong Jeon (68-69-72)
T4/-6 Chie Arimura (70-71-69), Tamie Durdin (69-71-70)
T6/-5 Li-Ying Ye (72-69-70), Yukari Baba (69-72-70), Sakura Yokomine (73-67-71), Paula Creamer (71-68-72)
T10/-4 Hyun-Ju Shin (68-73-71), Maiko Wakabayashi (70-68-74)

T12/-3 Ji-Hee Lee (68-71-74)
14th/-2 Ah-Reum Hwang (69-72-73)
T15/-1 Ayako Uehara (73-70-72), Yuri Fudoh (72-71-72)
T18/E Yuko Mitsuka (72-74-70), Miho Koga (73-70-73), Bo-Bae Song (73-68-75)
T22/+1 Eun A Lim (73-70-74)
T25/+2 Ji-Woo Lee (78-70-70), Hiromi Mogi (74-71-73)
T28/+3 Yuki Ichinose (71-76-72), Akane Iijima (71-73-75)
T35/+4 Rui Kitada (74-74-72), Saiki Fujita (70-77-73), Da-Ye Na (73-72-75), Hiroko Yamaguchi (71-73-76)
T45/+5 Yun-Jye Wei (70-78-73)
T48/+6 Midori Yoneyama (75-73-74)
T51/+7 Erina Hara (72-75-76), Yuko Saitoh (75-72-76)
T55/+8 Woo Soon Ko (73-75-76), Miki Saiki (75-72-77), Rikako Morita (74-73-77)

It was mainly a day of could-have-beens for the field. Arimura matched Moromizato's scorecard precisely on the front side, shooting a bogey-free 32, but stumbled to a 37 on the back. Durdin offset her 4 birdies with opening and closing bogeys. Hwang double bogeyed her final hole. Uehara offset her eagle on the 391-yard 11th with a pair of bogeys down the stretch. Fudoh and Koga made bunches of bogeys on the back before stabilizing their rounds with walk-off birdies. Hara opened with a 40, recovered with 3 birdies on the back, but erased them with 3 bogeys there, too. Saiki made a 9 on the long par-4 15th.

As it stands, though, only 9 players are within 5 shots of the lead. We'll see who's left standing tomorrow!

No comments: