Golf5 Ladies Friday: Na-Ri Kim Birdies Last 3 in a Row for 1-Shot Lead

Na-Ri Kim, a member of the LPGA's rookie class of 2006 but since last year a full-time JLPGAer, birdied her last 3 holes in a row to get to -6 and take a 1-shot lead on Miki Saiki and Hiromi Takesue into the 2nd round of the Golf5 Ladies. Defending champion Akane Iijima could only manage an even-par 72, but with Young Kim and Rikako Morita only 2 back, Shanshan Feng, Bo-Bae Song, and Ritsuko Ryu 3 behind, and Sakura Yokomine and Mi-Jeong Jeon within 4 of the lead, Kim has her work cut out for her if she wants to earn her 2nd career JLPGA victory this weekend.

Here's how the leaders and notables stand:

1st/-6 Na-Ri Kim (66)
T2/-5 Miki Saiki, Hiromi Takesue (67)
T4/-4 Young Kim, Rikako Morita, Li-Ying Ye, Miki Sakai, Naoko Oshitani (68)
T9/-3 Shanshan Feng, Bo-Bae Song, Ritsuko Ryu, Mayu Hattori, Nachiyo Ohtani, Sakurako Mori, Miki Uehara, Rie Murata, Chiharu Tsunekawa (69)

T18/-2 Sakura Yokomine, Mi-Jeong Jeon, Saiki Fujita, Yuki Ichinose (70)
T23/-1 Miho Koga, Kumiko Kaneda, Junko Omote, Nikki Campbell, So-Hee Kim, Mika Takushima, Erika Kikuchi (71)
T36/E Akane Iijima, Rui Kitada, Eun-A Lim, Esther Lee, Maiko Wakabayashi (72)
T46/+1 Shinobu Moromizato, Na-Ri Lee, Onnarin Sattayabanphot, Maria Iida, Tao-Li Yang (73)
T63/+2 Yukari Baba, Ayako Uehara, Hiromi Mogi (74)
T73/+3 Yuko Mitsuka, Asako Fujimoto, Kaori Ohe, Megumi Kido, Yuki Sakurai (75)
T83/+4 Yun-Jye Wei (76)
T91/+5 Akiko Fukushima, Aiko Ueno (77)
T99/+6 Erina Hara (78)
101st/+7 Erina Yamato (79)
WD Mie Nakata, Jae-Hee Bae

Takesue, Feng, and Yeo-Jin Kang had the only bogey-free rounds of the day today. The 471-yard par-5 10th gave up the only eagles, to Morita and Fujita. I've got a good feeling about Hattori this week. She closed out her last event with a 67 and would have matched it today but for her bogey-bogey finish. Her scoring average is the lowest of her career and she's due for her 3rd career victory. Will it come this week?