Thursday, April 24, 2014

Teenagers Off to Great Starts on LPGA and JLPGA

It's looking like neither Thursday's 1st round of the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic nor Friday's 1st round of the Fujisankei Ladies Classic will be done before I crash for the night, so I'll save my overviews for tomorrow.  But it's worth noting right now that Lydia Ko opened with a 68 on one side of the Pacific and 16-year-old amateur Kana Nagai did the same on the other side, less than a week after 15-year-old Minami Katsu made history on the JLPGA.

There's still a lot of golf to be played over in Japan, so there's a good chance Nagai won't be leading once everyone's turned in their cards, but Ko is only 2 shots behind Bay Area leader Karine Icher, who fired a bogey-free 66 on a tough Lake Merced course that's given a lot of big names fits.  Ya Ni Tseng, Jessica Korda, So Yeon Ryu, Paula Creamer, Azahara Munoz, Amy Yang, and Caroline Hedwall couldn't break 75.  Karrie Webb, Na Yeon Choi, Shanshan Feng, and Ai Miyazato did by the skin of their teeth.  Inbee Park, Cristie Kerr, Ariya Jutanugarn, and Charley Hull couldn't get back to E by the end of the day.  And only 11 golfers (as of this writing) broke 70, including Maria (Hjorth) McBride, Stacy Lewis, Morgan Pressel, Hyo Joo Kim, and Jenny Shin.  A triple bogey on the par-4 11th was the only thing that kept Suzann Pettersen from joining them.

So there are lots of players to follow and stories to tell, but not right now.  Take care, everyone!

No comments: