Salonpas Cup Friday: Shanshan Feng Shares Lead with Yeo-Jin Kang

After some delays due to thunderstorms and darkness--and the 2nd round of the Salonpas Cup was finally completed Saturday morning in Ibaraki--Yeo-Jin Kang had caught Shanshan Feng at the top of the leaderboard with a bogey-free 67 that brought her to -4 for the week.

Others making big moves included 15-year-old amateur champion of the KKT Cup Vantelin Ladies, Minami Katsu (who went 82-65 to get into a tie for 35th at +3 with the likes of Ji-Hee Lee, Hyun-Ju Shin, Mamiko Higa, Teresa Lu, and Minjee Lee), 22-year-old Miki Sakai (whose bogey-free 68 moved her to E and into a tie with the likes of Ai Miyazato, Mika Miyazato, and Esther Lee in 10th), 6-time JLPGA champion Rui Kitada (whose 6-birdie 68 brought her to -1, tying her for 6th with 2-time winner in 2014 Yuki Ichinose, Erika Kikuchi, and Lala Anai), journeywoman Yukari Nishiyama (whose 69 was sparked by 1 of only 2 2nd-round eagles from the field, which allowed her to catch Bo-Mee Lee, Ha Na Jang [the other eagler of the day], Saiki Fujita, Ayaka Watanabe, and Misuzu Narita at +2 [T23]), 21-year-old champion of the Fujisankei Ladies Classic Phoebe Yao (whose 6-birdie 69 put her 1 shot behind Feng and Kang), and veteran Ji-Woo Lee (whose bogey-free 32 on the back helped her get to -2 at the halfway point and into a tie with Yeon-Ju Jung for 4th).

Among those who matched Feng's 70 was none other than Momoko Ueda, who joined a host of big names--Yuri Fudoh, Sakura Yokomine, Mi-Jeong Jeon, Miki Saiki, Yumiko Yoshida, Natsuka Hori, Bo-Bae Song, and Mayu Hattori, among them--who barely made the cut.  Not so fortunate were Ji-Yai Shin, Onnarin Sattayabanphot, Ritsuko Ryu, Haruka Morita, Kumiko Kaneda, Soo-Yun Kang, Na-Ri Kim, Shiho Oyama, Yumi Matsubara, Rikako Morita, and Shinobu Moromizato.

Play has already started in the 3rd round, with Minami Katsu continuing her charge up the leaderboard in the early going.  I'll check back in tomorrow morning with the full results!

[Update 1 (10:58 pm):  There are 22 players within 5 shots of the lead, and I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that Anna Nordqvist and Sun-Ju Ahn are both at +1!]