Saturday, August 13, 2011

NEC Karuizawa 72 Saturday: Clash of the JLPGA Titans--Fukushima, Ahn, Yokomine, Lee

Some of the most impressive golfers on the JLPGA will be facing off in Nagano tomorrow during the final round of the NEC Karuizawa 72. 1st-round leader Akiko Fukushima, the 2nd-leading money-winner in tour history, fired her 2nd-straight 66 (marred only by a bogey on the 160-yard par-3 17th) to maintain a 2-shot lead on last year's money-list title-holder Sun-Ju Ahn (who birdied 5 of her last 6 holes for her own 66). Meanwhile, the previous year's queen of the JLPGA hill and runner-up to Ahn in '10, Sakura Yokomine, fired the low round of the week thus far, an 8-birdie 65 that brought her within 4 of the lead. Factor in Ji-Hee Lee, who's 3rd on this year's money list at -6 after birdieing 4 holes in a row down the stretch today and you have a veritable clash of the titans on the JLPGA on tap tomorrow. The only huge names not in the mix are Ji-Yai Shin, who's stalled at -1, Chie Arimura, who's only 1 shot better, and Momoko Ueda, who missed the cut by 5 shots.

Here's how all the leaders and notables stand after 36 holes:

1st/-12 Akiko Fukushima (66-66)
2nd/-10 Sun-Ju Ahn (68-66)
3rd/-8 Sakura Yokomine (71-65)
T4/-6 Ji-Hee Lee (72-66), Asako Fujimoto (69-69)
6th/-5 Na-Ri Kim (70-69)
T7/-4 Shanshan Feng (72-68), Yukari Baba (71-69), Rikako Morita (71-69)

T11/-3 Shiho Oyama (73-68), Bo-Bae Song (72-69), Lala Anai (72-69), Saiki Fujita (71-70), Shinobu Moromizato (70-71), Esther Lee (70-71)
T19/-2 Eun-A Lim (75-67), Chie Arimura (73-69), Kaori Aoyama (72-70), Miki Uehara (72-70)
T27/-1 Maiko Wakabayashi (74-69), Bo-Mee Lee (73-70), Young Kim (73-70), Akane Iijima (73-70), Kumiko Kaneda (73-70), Li-Ying Ye (73-70), Junko Omote (73-70), Onnarin Sattayabanphot (72-71), Megumi Kido (72-71), Ji-Yai Shin (71-72), Hyun-Ju Shin (71-72),
T38/E Ji-Woo Lee (74-70), Teresa Lu (73-71), Ritsuko Ryu (71-73), Mayu Hattori (70-74), Nikki Campbell (70-74), Mi-Jeong Jeon (69-75), Tamie Durdin (69-75)
T50/+1 So-Hee Kim (75-70), Ji-Na Lim (75-70), Eun-Bi Jang (74-71), Rui Kitada (73-72), Na-Ri Lee (73-72), Julie Lu (73-72), Miho Koga (72-73), Jae-Hee Bae (73-72)

MC: Ayako Uehara (73-73), Yun-Jye Wei (73-73), Ah-Reum Hwang (73-73), Pei-Ying Tsai (71-75), Hiromi Mogi (75-72), Yuki Sakurai (74-73), Miki Sakai (76-72), Soo-Yun Kang (74-74), Mie Nakata (74-74), Erika Kikuchi (75-74), Yumiko Yoshida (77-73), Momoko Ueda (76-74), Mika Takushima (76-75), Yuki Ichinose (78-74), Mai Arai (78-74), Erina Yamato (77-77), Kaori Ohe (76-78), Erina Hara (79-78), Aiko Ueno (79-78)
DQ: Yuko Mitsuka (71-DQ)

Should be an exciting finish tomorrow!

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