Saturday, August 7, 2010

LET Showdown in the Works This Weekend

In-Kyung Kim (66, -9) leads the LET's Rookie of the Year race and she's now taken a 1-shot lead on Anna Nordqvist (67), Marianne Skarpnord (66), and Linda Wessberg (66) heading into the final round of the Ladies Irish Open tomorrow. Fellow LET ROY race leaders Azahara Munoz (67) and Maria Hernandez (71) are 5 and 9 shots behind Kim, respectively, so she has a great chance to extend her lead on them tomorrow.

The top American in the field is Brittany Lang (68, -3), followed by Christina Kim (70, -2), Brittany Lincicome (71, -2), Angela Stanford (72, -1), and Kristy McPherson (74, -1). Suzann Pettersen's both injured and exhausted, but she came back from a bad 1st round with a bogey-free 68 that brought her back to -2, as well. Contenders at last week's Women's British Open Katherine Hull (70, -1) and Amy Yang (71, +1) will need to go super-low tomorrow to have a chance at chasing down Kim. Among the victoms of the cut line who won't have a chance to try to reel Kim in are Tania Elosegui, Jeehae Lee, Belen Mozo, Janice Moodie, Beatriz Recari, Julieta Granada, Ashleigh Simon, Kristie Smith, Minea Blomqvist, and Diana D'Alessio.

Kim and Nordqvist are the only players to have broken 70 both days at the site of next year's Solheim Cup, so I expect a showdown tomorrow between them in the final round. But LET Rookie Pernilla Lindberg (66, -7) has the game to put herself in the mix, as do veterans Sophie Gustafson (68, -6) and Maria Hjorth (71, -6), so there's still a chance of a Sunday free-for-all on the LET!

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