Saturday, August 22, 2009

CAT Ladies Friday and Saturday: Meanwhile, Over in Hakone...

...the JLPGA's finest are duking it out, sans most of their LPGA visitors, at the CAT Ladies. With Shiho Oyama the only JLPGA irregular in the field and Chie Arimura sitting this one out after winning last week, new #1 on the money list Shinobu Moromizato and former #1 Sakura Yokomine are locked at -5 with a handful of holes left to play, only 2 shots behind a couple of money list leaders from different times last season, Miho Koga and Akiko Fukushima.

Plus, on Cheju Island in Korea, plenty of LPGA stars are competing against the best of the KLPGA, but only Vicky Hurst is in danger of missing the cut.

More to come when the 2nd rounds of both events are complete.

[Update 1 (1:28 am): In the 1st round, walkoff birdies by Miho Koga and Akane Iijima and a 17th-hole bogey by Shinobu Moromizato knotted them at -4 on the par-73 layout. A bogey on the same 17th hole dropped Sakura Yokomine 1 shot back, tied with such stalwarts as Ji-Hee Lee, Eun-A Lim, Yuko Mitsuka, and Akiko Fukushima, among others. Today, Fukushima jumped out to an early lead with 5 straight birdies to start her round, but fell back to -5 for the tournament with a triple on the par-4 6th. A bogey on the par-3 17th just offset 2 earlier birdies on the back, so she's now at -6. Moromizato caught her with a birdie on the 14th and Eun-A Lim did the same with birdies on 13 and 15. Koga, meanwhile, birdied 3 of her 1st 5 holes on the back to peak at -8, but a bogey on 15 dropped her back to -7. Yokomine has a bogey-free round going as she plays the 18th, but she's only managed 2 birdies thus far and sits at -5, tied with Yukari Baba and Esther Lee, who each made a recent bogey to fall back from T2.]

[Update 2 (1:34 am): Where the cut line will fall is also an interesting question. There are a bunch of players T50 at +2.... Despite opening with a 76, Shiho Oyama won't have to worry about making the cut after firing a sweet 69 today. She made 4 birdies in her 1st 11 holes and never made a bogey all day. Here's hoping she's put her neck troubles behind her and that she's been able to rest/rehab the tendonitis in both elbows that has held her back most of this season.]

[Update 3 (1:44 am): Hiroko Yamaguchi also shot a 69 that vaulted her to -3 for the tournament, but disappointing finishes have squelched the hopes of many of her peers. After making 3 birdies in her 1st 10 holes to get to -4 overall, Kumiko Kaneda bogeyed 14 and 15 to drop back to -2. Iijima is on a 3-hole and Maiko Wakabayashi is on a 2-hole bogey train; they have fallen all the way to -1 overall, while Mitsuka suffered a double on the 6th and late bogeys on each side to join them. Tamie Durdin finished bogey-double to drop all the way to +1 overall. The finishing holes look like they're tough, judging by so many bad finishes.]

[Update 4 (2:07 am): Here are the final results for the top 10 and notables after round 2:

1st/-7 Miho Koga (69-70)
T2/-6 Eun-A Lim (70-70), Akiko Fukushima (70-70), Shinobu Moromizato (69-71)
T5/-5 Esther Lee (71-70), Sakura Yokomine (70-71)
T7/-4 Ji-Hee Lee (70-72), Yukari Baba (70-72)
T9/-3 Hiroko Yamaguchi (74-69), Mayumi Shimomura (73-70), Kaori Aoyama (71-72)

T12/-2 Julie Lu (72-72), Kumiko Kaneda (72-72)
T14/-1 Shiho Oyama (76-69), Mayu Hattori (74-71), Rui Kitada (73-72), Miki Saiki (72-73), Yuko Mitsuka (70-75), Maiko Wakabayashi (70-75), Yuki Ichinose (70-75), Akane Iijima (69-76)
T27/E Midori Yoneyama (75-71), Ah-Reum Hwang (75-71), Yun-Jye Wei (73-73), Rikako Morita (72-74)
T35/+1 Erina Hara (75-72), Ayako Uehara (75-72), Mi-Jeong Jeon (74-73), Ji-Woo Lee (74-73), Tamie Durdin (72-75), Woo-Soon Ko (72-75)
T50/+2 Li-Ying Ye (77-71), Hyun-Ju Shin (75-73), Yuko Saitoh (75-73), Na-Ri Lee (72-76)

T64/+4 Hiromi Mogi (76-74)
T70/+5 Nikki Campbell (77-74), Sakurako Mori (77-74)
90th/+10 Mai Arai (78-78)

Ye birdied her last 2 holes to make the cut. The winner tomorrow will most likely be the one who can finish almost as well!]

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