Sunday, September 12, 2010

Konica Minolta Cup Sunday: Saiki Fujita Gets 1st JLPGA Major

Saiki Fujita played a flawless final round in the Konica Minolta Cup, shooting a bogey-free 69 despite a 32 on the front that her chief challenger Nikki Campbell threw at her. Fujita turned a 2-shot lead into 4 on the final hole, when she birdied the par 5 and Campbell bogeyed it. And just like that, she had won her 1st JLPGA major.

Here are the final results for the leaders and notables:

1st/-13 Saiki Fujita (67-68-71-69)
2nd/-9 Nikki Campbell (71-72-68-68)
T3/-7 Young Kim (74-70-68-69), Sun-Ju Ahn (73-71-68-69)
T5/-6 Maiko Wakabayashi (72-70-69-71), Yukari Baba (71-72-67-72)
7th/-5 Sakura Yokomine (71-68-72-72)
T8/-3 Ah-Reum Hwang (72-70-75-68), Bo-Bae Song (71-72-69-72)
T10/-2 Rui Kitada (73-67-73-73), Hiromi Takesue (72-69-71-74)

T12/-1 Mayu Hattori (70-73-74-70), Chie Arimura (69-74-73-71), Shinobu Moromizato (66-74-75-72), Hiromi Mogi (69-70-74-74)
16th/E Li-Ying Ye (73-72-73-70)
T17/+1 Akiko Fukushima (71-77-70-71), Tamie Durdin (76-68-72-73), Na-Ri Kim (74-69-72-74)
20th/+2 Mi-Jeong Jeon (73-71-73-73)
21st/+3 Yuri Fudoh (73-69-77-72)
T22/+4 Hyun-Ju Shin (72-73-73-74), Eun-A Lim (71-73-74-74), Ji-Woo Lee (71-71-75-75)
T25/+5 Miki Saiki (73-74-75-71), Miho Koga (76-73-72-72), Na-Ri Lee (73-70-74-76)
T30/+6 Yun-Jye Wei (72-76-73-73)
T35/+7 Shiho Oyama (79-72-75-69), Yuko Mitsuka (75-76-75-69), Ayako Uehara (78-73-73-71)
T39/+8 Kaori Aoyama (74-70-76-76)
T40/+9 Akane Iijima (74-71-74-78)
T42/+10 Mie Nakata (73-69-80-76)
T47/+11 Chieko Amanuma (74-76-75-74)
T52/+13 Yuki Ichinose (72-74-79-76)
58th/+14 Jae-Hee Bae (76-75-75-76)
T59/+15 Momoko Ueda (76-72-76-79)
68th/+27 Ok-Hee Ku (74-77-78-86)

Thanks to a sizzling weekend, money-list leader Sun-Ju Ahn extended her lead on Sakura Yokomine, while Fujita ascended from 17th to 3rd with her win:

1. Sun-Ju Ahn ¥72.13M
2. Sakura Yokomine ¥59.07M
3. Saiki Fujita ¥53.17M
4. Akane Iijima ¥52.46M
5. Yukari Baba ¥51.78M
6. Yuri Fudoh ¥49.48M
7. Nikki Campbell ¥48.46M
8. Mi-Jeong Jeon ¥47.69M
9. Rui Kitada ¥44.49M
10. Ji-Hee Lee ¥43.58M
11. Chie Arimura ¥43.48M
12. Inbee Park ¥36.50M
13. Young Kim ¥35.13M
14. Miho Koga ¥34.53M
15. Shinobu Moromizato ¥33.45M
16. Mie Nakata ¥32.58M
17. Mayu Hattori ¥32.07M
18. Ayako Uehara ¥31.41M
19. Hiromi Mogi ¥28.63M
20. Hyun-Ju Shin ¥28.29M
21. Hiromi Takesue ¥27.82M
22. Akiko Fukushima ¥27.46M
23. Ji-Woo Lee ¥26.21M
24. Ji-Yai Shin ¥25.76M
25. Na-Ri Kim ¥25.10M
26. Bo-Bae Song ¥25.07M
27. Asako Fujimoto ¥23.41M
28. Eun-A Lim ¥21.68M
29. Yun-Jye Wei ¥21.58M
30. Maiko Wakabayashi ¥20.99M

2010 is now Fujita's best chance to break into the top 20 (and higher) on the season-ending money list for the 1st time in her 6-year JLPGA career. She's already earned more than at any other season in her life. In addition, Nikki Campbell moved up 4 spots into the top 10 and Young Kim 8 to the top 15. Meanwhile, Momoko Ueda stayed in the top 50 by the skin of her teeth, despite suffering her worst finish on the JLPGA since she missed 4 cuts early in her rookie season in 2006. It's not quite time to push the panic button for Momo-chan, but consider that she has 1 top 10 in 10 starts on tour--and that was when she kicked away the chance for a wire-to-wire win with a final-round 76 at the Nishijin Ladies Classic back in April. If this keeps up, we may not see her on the LPGA until they come to Japan!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

One has to think Young Kim is going to win at least once before the end of the year!

Unknown said...

Link below from some highlights of the day,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIJimeGAxh4

The Constructivist said...

Thanks for the link, John! And I definitely agree, Tim!