Earth Mondamin Cup Thursday: Sun-Ju Ahn Takes Lead with Opening 66

It's a rare week when the JLPGA and KLPGA hosts a 72-hole tournaments while the LPGA's is only 54 holes long, but that's what we're dealing with this one.  Over in Chiba prefecture, Sun-Ju Ahn has opened the Earth Mondamin Cup with a 7-birdie 66 to take a 1-shot lead on Miki Sakai, a 2-shot lead on the likes of Mi-Jeong Jeon, Shiho Oyama, Mayu Hattori, and Teresa Lu, and a 3-shot lead on such players as Ji-Hee Lee, Junko Omote, Ritsuko Ryu, Maiko Wakabayashi, and Young Kim.

There's a long way to go, and with Misuzu Narita and Momoko Ueda among others at -2, Yuri Fudoh, last week's winner Ji-Yai Shin, Mamiko Higa, and Ayaka Watanabe among those at -1, and Rikako Morita, Miki Saiki, Phoebe Yao, and defending champion Natsuka Hori at E, Ahn will need to keep the pedal to the metal.  But unless Bo-Mee Lee and Sakura Yokomine at +1, Yumiko Yoshida and Na Zhang at +3, and Onnarin Sattayabanphot at +5 can play much better tomorrow, they won't be a threat to Ahn because they won't be playing on the weekend.

More tomorrow!

[Update 1 (6:19 am):  Whoops, the new KLPGA event I had on my 2014 worldwide women's professional schedule got moved to mid-September and shortened to 54 holes.  Either that, or there was a mistake on wikipedia!]