Monday, November 23, 2009

LPGA Tour Championship Monday: Gambatte, Ai-sama!

Even with a bogey on the 9th hole today that cost her 3 shots to Na Yeon Choi, Ai Miyazato has hauled down Hee Young Park and now trails Choi by only 2 shots in the LPGA Tour Championship. Imoto, onechan, the Full Metal Archivist, and I saw Daisuke Takahashi get robbed by the judges in Kitchener, Ontario, at Skate Canada (no big deal, as the winner Jeremy Abbott will be able to return to defend his title at the ISU's Grand Prix finals as a result--and Dai-chan will get a chance for redemption there in a couple of weeks). The great thing about golf is: no judges. With Anna Nordqvist looking for her 2nd win of the season and making birdies on her last 3 holes to become the 1st player in the field to get to double digits under par, though, Ai-sama has her work cut out for her. Gambatte!

[Update 1 (4:27 pm): It's not looking good for Ai-sama, as she failed to birdie the par-5 16th for the 3rd-straight time. At -8, she's 1 behind McPherson, 2 behind Choi and Ochoa, and 3 behind Nordqvist (who's now -5 on the day herself).]

[Update 2 (4:42 pm): Oh, man! Ai-sama added insult to injury when she bogeyed the par-3 17th. But it's been good to see her playing well enough to win again. I'd love to see her birdie the 18th and take some momentum to the JLPGA's winners-only major, the Ricoh Cup, next week!]

[Update 3 (5:00 pm): Well, par-bogey-bogey will not get it done on any tour. At least Ai-sama extended her sub-70 streak to 2 rounds, right? Right?]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think worse then Daisuke was how underscored Mirai & to a lesser extent Caroline Zhang were in their LPs.

Also this final round is exciting!

The Constructivist said...

Jamie, didn't know you were into skating, too! I didn't see much of the women's events, but Zhang had some amazing flexibility poses. Unfortunately, she fell too often.

Wish I were in Houston right now!