Friday, March 25, 2011

Kia Classic Thursday: Blumenherst Leads Gal and Wie

With Hound Dog, bangkokbobby, and Ruthless Mike ably covering the 1st round of the Kia Classic (which I haven't yet seen because I went to a midnight IMAX showing of Sucker Punch) and LPGA.com's online scoreboard down, I'm going to be a little while with my own observations. Stay tuned for an update later tonight!

[Update 1 (11:44 am): Hey, the leaderboard is working again and I have to mention how psyched I am at how many of my favorite golfers--and precision players--handled the length and wetness of Industry Hills on Thursday. With tee times delayed 3 hours, I might even get to catch some of them when I get home this evening!]

[Update 2 (7:20 pm): A few observations on interesting twists and turns from the 1st round.

World #2 Ji-Yai Shin failed to break 70 on the Asian swing and salvaged a disappointing American debut last week with a final-round 69, her 1st sub-70 round of the year on the LPGA. But for her 1st 10 holes yesterday, it looked like she was backsliding, having bogeyed 2 of her 1st holes on the back to begin her round. She fought back with 5 birdies in her last 8 holes, however, to claw her way back to a 3-under-par 70. She's still in birdie mode today, but more on that in my Friday post!

Suzann Pettersen has had a similatly slow start to her season and a similarly slow start to yesterday's round, but she bounced back from a birdieless 40 on the front with a bogey-free 32 on the back. She still has only 1 sub-70 round all season, but seems to be headed in a better direction.

In-Kyung Kim was +1 through 3 but played her last 15 holes bogey-free and made 4 birdies along the way for her 70.

Mika Miyazato birdied 6 of her 1st 16 holes and was -4 with 2 holes to play, but lost her chance to break 70 with a bogey on the 17th.

Ai Miyazato hit 16 greens but had 5 birdies and 4 bogeys!

Na Yeon Choi bogeyed the 10th, her 1st hole, and the 9th, her 18th, but she made 2 birdies in a 3-hole stretch on the front to ensure she'd stay at even par.

Moira Dunn was -1 until she doubled the 8th hole, her 17th.]

3 comments:

Mike said...

How was Sucker Punch? The previews look interesting.

The Constructivist said...

The less you think about it, the more you'll like it.

Mike said...

One of those kind of movies, eh? ;-)