Sunday, August 15, 2010

NEC Karuizawa 72 Sunday: Ji-Hee Lee Returns to the Winner's Circle

Ji-Hee Lee pulled away from Ai Miyazato, withstood a 7-birdie barrage from Akiko Fukushima, and held off Nikki Campbell down the stretch in the NEC Karuizawa 72 to take her 1st JLPGA victory since last April's Life Card Ladies. Her bogey-free 67 not only made her the only player to break 70 all 3 rounds, but also showed that she's finally shaken off the aftereffects of a back injury she suffered during Team Korea's celebration of its victory over Team Japan in the Kyoraku Cup last December, when, during the traditional captain toss, her teammates accidentally dropped her.

For Miyazato, who was -10 with 8 holes left to play and right in the thick of things, her 3 bogeys down the stretch tripled her total over the previous 36 holes. It's highly doubtful she'll accrue enough Rolex Rankings points to retake the #1 position this week. For defending champion Chie Arimura, 2 early bogeys threw her off balance and she never really bounced back.

Here are the top 10 and notables' results:

1st/-13 Ji-Hee Lee (67-69-67)
T2/-9 Akiko Fukushima (68-70-67), Nikki Campbell (65-70-70)
4th/-8 Ai Miyazato (65-70-73)
5th/-7 Yoshimi Koda (71-70-68)
T6/-6 Yuko Mitsuka (68-71-71), Chie Arimura (70-67-73)
T8/-5 Sakura Yokomine (69-73-69), Miho Koga (71-70-70), Miki Saiki (69-68-74)

T11/-4 Mie Nakata (71-72-69), Saiki Fujita (71-68-73), Mi-Jeong Jeon (67-70-75)
T15/-3 Ritsuko Ryu (70-74-69), Jae-Hee Bae (71-72-70)
T18/-2 Bo-Bae Song (71-71-72), Yukari Baba (70-72-72), So-Hee Kim (69-73-72), Asako Fujimoto (72-69-73), Young Kim (73-67-74)
T23/-1 Ayako Uehara (73-72-70), Erina Hara (73-69-73), Esther Lee (71-70-74)
T27/E Li-Ying Ye (75-70-71), Hiromi Mogi (70-73-73), Ji-Woo Lee (71-70-75)
T31/+1 Na-Ri Lee (73-72-72), Akane Iijima (74-70-73), Yuri Fudoh (70-74-73), Kaori Aoyama (74-69-74)
T37/+2 Shinobu Moromizato (75-69-74), Momoko Ueda (73-69-76), Eun-A Lim (71-71-76)
T45/+3 Maiko Wakabayashi (74-71-74), Rui Kitada (73-69-77)

Here's how the JLPGA money list now stands:

1. Sun-Ju Ahn ¥55.73M
2. Yuri Fudoh ¥47.64M
3. Sakura Yokomine ¥47.28M
4. Mi-Jeong Jeon ¥45.55M
5. Ji-Hee Lee ¥40.80M
6. Rui Kitada ¥40.01M
7. Chie Arimura ¥36.71M
8. Akane Iijima ¥36.68M
9. Inbee Park ¥36.50M
10. Miho Koga ¥33.03M
11. Nikki Campbell ¥32.85M
12. Yukari Baba ¥31.10M
13. Mie Nakata ¥30.18M
14. Mayu Hattori ¥28.99M
15. Shinobu Moromizato ¥27.08M
16. Hyun-Ju Shin ¥26.36M
17. Ji-Yai Shin ¥25.76M
18. Saiki Fujita ¥25.20M
19. Hiromi Takesue ¥24.72M
20. Young Kim ¥24.31M
21. Ayako Uehara ¥24.00M
22. Ji-Woo Lee ¥23.62M
23. Hiromi Mogi ¥23.50M
24. Asako Fujimoto ¥21.68M
25. Yun-Jye Wei ¥20.76M
26. Bo-Bae Song ¥20.41M
27. Eun-A Lim ¥19.44M
28. Yoshimi Koda ¥18.58M
29. Rikako Morita ¥17.98M
30. Kaori Aoyama ¥17.54M

Miyazato moved up to #39 on the list with ¥13.64M in winnings and Ueda to #45 with ¥10.63M.

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