Friday, November 6, 2009

Mizuno Classic Friday: Lang Leads, Shin, Miyazato, and Tseng Lurk

LPGA Player of the Year rivals Ji-Yai Shin (5-birdie 69 with bogeys on 9 and 18), Ai Miyazato (bogey-free 69), and Lorena Ochoa (2-birdie 71) didn't hurt themselves in the 1st round of the Mizuno Classic, but they didn't light it up like the leaders. Brittany Lang lead the way with a 66 that was sparked by an eagle on the par-5 7th, but hot on her heels were former KLPGAer Hee Young Park (who started slow on the back with bogeys on 10 and 18, but fired an incandescent 31 on the front) and JLPGAer Nobuko Kizawa (who shot a 6-birdie 67). Mi-Jeong Jeon and Bo-Bae Song lead the way among the JLPGA notables at -4. And don't count out the LPGA's other Young Guns, Ya Ni Tseng (who was 1 of 4 players to eagle the par-5 13th today), In-Kyung Kim, and Song-Hee Kim.

Here are the leaders and notables:

1st/-6 Brittany Lang (66)
T2/-5 Hee Young Park, Nobuko Kizawa (67)
T4/-4 Momoko Ueda, Mi-Jeong Jeon, Vicky Hurst, Bo-Bae Song (68)
T8/-3 Ji-Yai Shin, Ai Miyazato, Ya Ni Tseng, In-Kyung Kim, Song-Hee Kim (69)
T8/-3 Sophie Gustafson, Hee-Won Han, Jee Young Lee, Eunjung Yi (69)
T8/-3 Miho Koga, Miki Saiki, Rui Kitada, Hyun-Ju Shin (69)

T21/-2 Karrie Webb, Inbee Park, Katherine Hull, Stacy Lewis, Teresa Lu (70)
T21/-2 Eun-A Lim, Yukari Baba, Hiromi Mogi (70)
T32/-1 Lorena Ochoa, Candie Kung, Maria Hjorth, Kyeong Bae (71)
T32/-1 Sakura Yokomine, Mayu Hattori, Li Ying Ye (71)
T39/E Pat Hurst, Seon Hwa Lee, Na Yeon Choi, Eun-Hee Ji, Ji-Young Oh (72)
T39/E Lindsey Wright, Sandra Gal, Ayako Uehara, Saiki Fujita, Tamie Durdin (72)
T52/+1 Christina Kim, Shi Hyun Ahn, Anna Nordqvist, M.J. Hur, Mika Miyazato (73)
T52/+1 Erina Hara, Yuko Saitoh, Ji-Woo Lee (73)
T60/+2 Meena Lee, Amy Yang, Sun Young Yoo, Angela Park (74)
T60/+2 Yuri Fudoh, Shinobu Moromizato, Yuko Mitsuka (74)
T69/+4 Jimin Kang, Meaghan Francella (76)
T69/+4 Chie Arimura, Rikako Morita, Maiko Wakabayashi (76)
T75/+5 Nicole Castrale, Nikki Campbell, Midori Yoneyama (77)
DNS Ji-Hee Lee, Hiromi Takesue

Let's see if Moromizato (who was 1 of 4 players to eagle the 7th) and Arimura can charge back from their slow starts--not to mention who among those stuck near E will make a big move on moving day.

[Update 1 (3:37 pm): Meanwhile, in the joint LET/KLPGA event, Hee Kyung Seo has the 1st-round lead and is looking to move up the LET money list with a successful title defense this week. The prize money doesn't count toward the KLPGA's season totals, though, so she can't extend her lead on So Yeon Ryu this week.]

[Update 2 (3:39 pm): Check out Stacy Lewis rockin' the hi socks in round 1!]

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