Friday, July 25, 2014

Century 21 Ladies Friday: Sun-Ju Ahn Takes Lead with 65

We've been hearing a lot this week about why Michelle Wie is not on Team USA, but much less about why Sun-Ju Ahn isn't on Team Korea.  She's got 16 JLPGA victories and was 2014's 1st 3-time winner in the world of big-time professional women's golf, but those wins came too late to knock In-Kyung Kim off Team ROK, as did her more recent playoff loss to Miki Sakai and great showing at the Women's British Open.  Why am I bringing up this not-so-ancient history?  Well, the golfer I've dubbed "Knockout" opened the JLPGA's new tournament with a bogey-free 65 to take the 18-hole lead at the Century 21 Ladies by 1 shot over Asako Fujimoto and Yukari Nishiyama and by 2 over Yun-Jye Wei and Ji-Min Lee.

And what about Misuzu Narita, the hottest Japanese golfer in the world right now?  She opened with a 4-birdie 70 to keep her hopes for her 4th win of 2014 alive.  However, with the likes of Esther Lee and Young Kim at -4, Bo-Mee Lee and Shiho Oyama at -3, Yumiko Yoshida, Rui Kitada, Na-Ri Lee, Natsuka Hori, and Ayaka Watanabe at -2, and Mi-Jeong Jeon, Ji-Hee Lee, Rikako Morita, Momoko Ueda, Shinobu Moromizato, and Ritsuko Ryu at -1, there are 50 golfers with a good chance to run down Ahn 1st.

And let's not count out Miki Saiki, Mayu Hattori, and Maiko Wakabayashi at +1, either.  They're perfectly capable of going low on moving day!

But right now the big story is Big Mama.  She's put herself in a great position to become 2014's 1st 4-time female professional winner and extend her lead on the JLPGA money list.  Can she do it?

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