Monday, November 1, 2010

Hisako Higuchi IDC Otsuka Kagu Ladies Sunday: 62 Earns Rikako Morita Rain-Shortened Title

20-year-old Rikako Morita took advantage of soft conditions yesterday in the final round of the rain-shortened Hisako Higuchi IDC Otsuka Kagu Ladies and blew by the 1st-round leaders with a pair of 31s to take her 1st career JLPGA title. Despite the fact that 22-year-old Chie Arimura birdied her 1st 4 holes in a row and birdied 3 in a row late on the back, her 65 left her 4 shots off Morita's pace, tied with Tamie Durdin, who secured her card for next season with her 6-birdie 67. 20-year-old Kaori Ohe posted the best finish of her brief JLPGA career to catch 22-year-old Mayu Hattori a shot further behind and give herself a chance to avoid Q-School by getting into the top 50 on the money list.

Here's how the leaders and notables ended up:

1st/-11 Rikako Morita (71-62)
T2/-7 Chie Arimura (72-65), Tamie Durdin (70-67)
T4/-6 Kaori Ohe (71-67), Mayu Hattori (68-70)
T6/-5 Mi-Jeong Jeon (71-68), Na-Ri Kim (70-69)
T8/-4 Miki Saiki (71-69), Eun-A Lim (71-69), Kaori Aoyama (70-70), Akane Iijima (69-71), Hiromi Mogi (69-71)

T13/-3 Sakura Yokomine (71-70), Na-Ri Lee (71-70), Yuki Ichinose (71-70), Asako Fujimoto (70-71), Ritsuko Ryu (70-71)
T18/-2 Shiho Oyama (71-71), Nikki Campbell (68-74)
T21/-1 Yukari Baba (72-71), Yun-Jye Wei (72-71)
T25/E Ji-Woo Lee (73-71), Mie Nakata (71-73)
T31/+1 Akiko Fukushima (75-70), Yuko Mitsuka (75-70), Onnarin Sattayabanphot (74-71), Jae-Hee Bae (72-73)
T41/+2 Miho Mori [a] (73-73), Hyun-Ju Shin (72-74), Ayako Uehara (71-75)
T49/+3 Erina Hara (74-73)
T58/+4 Li-Ying Ye (74-74)
T61/+5 Rui Kitada (75-75), Shinobu Moromizato (73-76), Maiko Wakabayashi (73-76)
T73/+9 So-Hee Kim (74-79)

Unfortunately for Morita, the winnings were reduced for the 36-hole event, so she didn't jump up the money list as much as she would've with a 54-hole win. But the biggest loser was Sakura Yokomine, who lost a great chance to make up serious ground on Sun-Ju Ahn.

1. Sun-Ju Ahn ¥125.22M
2. Sakura Yokomine ¥93.17M
3. Mi-Jeong Jeon ¥79.84M
4. Yukari Baba ¥77.55M
5. Chie Arimura ¥70.56M
6. Saiki Fujita ¥61.17M
7. Yuri Fudoh ¥61.15M
8. Akane Iijima ¥58.59M
9. Rui Kitada ¥54.55M
10. Inbee Park ¥53.91M
11. Nikki Campbell ¥53.82M
12. Ji-Hee Lee ¥49.67M
13. Young Kim ¥46.90M
14. Mayu Hattori ¥42.78M
15. Shinobu Moromizato ¥41.35M
16. Miki Saiki ¥40.94M
17. Ayako Uehara ¥40.72M
18. Eun-A Lim ¥39.38M
19. Na-Ri Kim ¥38.34M
20. Mie Nakata ¥37.39M
21. Hyun-Ju Shin ¥34.63M
22. Miho Koga ¥34.53M
23. Ji-Yai Shin ¥33.38M
24. Hiromi Mogi ¥32.28M
25. Rikako Morita ¥31.25M
26. Asako Fujimoto ¥30.62M
27. Ji-Woo Lee ¥30.41M
28. Hiromi Takesue ¥29.53M
29. Akiko Fukushima ¥29.19M
30. Na-Ri Lee ¥28.83M
31. Bo-Bae Song ¥28.68M
32. Ah-Reum Hwang ¥26.87M
33. Maiko Wakabayashi ¥25.31M
33. Kaori Aoyama ¥24.44M
34. Yun-Jye Wei ¥23.25M

Durdin jumped up to #37 on the money list, 2 spots ahead of Momoko Ueda, 10 on Ai Miyazato, and 13 on Yuko Mitsuka. Let's see if Ueda and Miyazato can take advantage of Durdin not qualifying for the Mizuno Classic this week and pass their fellow dual LPGA-JLPGA member!

[Update 1 (1:46 pm): Head on over to youtube for the highlights of Morita's round before they get taken down!]

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