Saturday, October 9, 2010

Navistar Classic Saturday Morning: Yoo, Creamer, Lang Make Nice Early Moves

Sun Young Yoo fired a bogey-free 65 to vault to -11 through 54 holes in the Navistar Classic. The champion of the Sybase Match Play Championship got off to a bad start this week, going bogey-par-double bogey after an early birdie on the 2nd hole on Thursday, but since that double she's played 49 straight holes of bogey-free golf--and counting! She had as many birdies today as in the previous 2 rounds, which helps explains why players like Laura Diaz, who opened the tournament with a 41-hole bogey-free run, finds herself stuck in a tie for 33rd at the moment. It's not enough to avoid mistakes--you have to be able to go low to make money on the LPGA these days.

Paula Creamer gets that--she's made 18 birdies in her 1st 54 holes--but it was minimizing her mistakes that earned her a 66 today. In contrast to her double and 2 bogeys on Thursday and 3 bogeys on Friday, she made only 1 bogey on moving day and sits at -10 right now. What's surprising about Creamer's volatility is that she's missed only 4 greens in regulation thus far this week.

1 shot behind Creamer is fellow Solheim Cupper Brittany Lang, who saw a 25-hole bogey-free run end with a 2-hole bogey train early in today's round, but who bounced back with a 31 on the back and extended her new bogey-free streak to 12 holes and counting. By contrast, Jane Park, who's been battling back problems for years now, opened with a bogey-free 31 but double bogeyed the par-3 13th for the 2nd time this week and had to settle for a 69 that leaves her T46 for now.

Let's see if any of the players who started the day higher up the leaderboard can keep the pedal to the metal all 18 holes!

[Update 1 (4:36 pm): Well, well, well, Diaz birdied 3 of her last 5 holes to climb to -9 for the week. Good finish!]

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