Sunday, August 29, 2010

Nitori Ladies Overview: Nobuko Kizawa Shows the Value of Persistence

Nobuko Kizawa got her 1st JLPGA victory in her 20th season on tour just weeks before her 41st birthday in a playoff over LPGA transplant Na-Ri Kim at the Nitori Ladies. And she did it the hard way, dropping 3 shots in her last 11 holes after getting to -14 and opening the door to a charging Sakura Yokomine, who made up 6 shots in that span and just missed the playoff by a single stroke. Yukari Baba, who tied Yokomine for 4th, joined Kim in making up 4-shot deficits in the home stretch, while money-list leader Sun-Ju Ahn could only make up 3 shots and ended up 2 back.

No word (in English, at least) yet about how Kizawa beat Kim for her 1st win in 463 starts, so here are the top 10 and notables:

1st/-11 Nobuko Kizawa (69-65-71) [won in playoff]
2nd/-11 Na-Ri Kim (68-67-70)
T4/-10 Sakura Yokomine (70-70-66), Yukari Baba (67-69-70)
5th/-9 Sun-Ju Ahn (68-70-69)
6th/-8 Ikue Asama (69-70-69)
T7/-6 Hiromi Mogi (74-68-68), Akane Iijima (69-71-70)
T9/-5 Ji-Hee Lee (71-71-69), Yuki Ichinose (71-71-69), Chie Arimura (71-69-71), Toshimi Kimura (71-69-71), Tamie Durdin (70-70-71), Rui Kitada (69-71-71), Mie Nakata (70-69-72), Shinobu Moromizato (65-71-75)

T17/-4 Young Kim (73-69-70)
T20/-3 Yuri Fudoh (72-71-70), Na-Ri Lee (69-72-72)
T25/-2 Ji-Woo Lee (73-70-71), Li-Ying Ye (69-74-71), Ayako Uehara (70-72-72)
T29/-1 Mi-Jeong Jeon (75-71-69), Akiko Fukushima (73-73-69), Nikki Campbell (73-72-70)
T33/E Maiko Wakabayashi (69-77-70)
T40/+1 Ritsuko Ryu (75-71-71), Miki Saiki (74-72-71), Esther Lee (74-71-72), Saiki Fujita (72-72-73), Rikako Morita (72-71-74)
T45/+2 Yuko Mitsuka (72-73-73)

DQ: Yun-Jye Wei (69-73-DQ), Erina Hara (68-74-DQ)
MC: Mayu Hattori (76-71), So-Hee Kim (73-74), Bo-Bae Song (74-74), Jae-Hee Bae (73-75), Hyun-Ju Shin (75-75), Kaori Aoyama (75-75), Ah-Reum Hwang (76-76), Miho Koga (76-77)

Here's how the JLPGA money list now stands:

1. Sun-Ju Ahn ¥63.03M
2. Sakura Yokomine ¥54.17M
3. Yuri Fudoh ¥48.36M
4. Mi-Jeong Jeon ¥46.54M
5. Ji-Hee Lee ¥42.68M
6. Yukari Baba ¥41.58M
7. Chie Arimura ¥41.42M
8. Rui Kitada ¥41.41M
9. Akane Iijima ¥40.97M
10. Inbee Park ¥36.50M
11. Miho Koga ¥33.58M
12. Nikki Campbell ¥33.44M
13. Mie Nakata ¥31.94M
14. Mayu Hattori ¥29.40M
15. Shinobu Moromizato ¥29.29M
16. Hyun-Ju Shin ¥26.91M
17. Saiki Fujita ¥26.65M
18. Hiromi Mogi ¥26.10M
19. Akiko Fukushima ¥26.03M
20. Young Kim ¥26.03M
21. Ji-Yai Shin ¥25.76M
22. Hiromi Takesue ¥25.22M
23. Ayako Uehara ¥25.11M
24. Ji-Woo Lee ¥24.68M
25. Na-Ri Kim ¥23.31M
26. Asako Fujimoto ¥22.09M
27. Bo-Bae Song ¥21.22M
28. Yun-Jye Wei ¥20.76M
29. Eun-A Lim ¥20.25M
30. Rikako Morita ¥18.79M

With Ai Miyazato at #40, Momoko Ueda at #44, Teresa Lu at #61, and Seon Hwa Lee at #73, I expect to see a lot of them on the JLPGA next month.

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