Friday, September 12, 2014

Evian Championship Friday: Hyo Joo Kim Opens Door; Who Will Make up Ground on Her?

Hyo Joo Kim came back to earth quickly after yesterday's record-setting 61, but she bounced back from her opening birdieless 39 on the back, which ended with 2 bogeys in a row, with 2 birdies to start the front and 1 to end it, salvaging a 1-over-par 72 and fighting back to -9 at the halfway point of the Evian Championship.  Mi Jung Hur, meanwhile, broke 70 for the 2nd time in a row and pulled within 2 shots of the lead, while Amy Yang, Anna Nordqvist, and Minjee Lee are also closing in on Kim.  We're about to find out what Karrie Webb (-6) and Suzann Pettersen (-4) do with the opportunity Kim's given them.  More to come soon!

[Update 1 (10:05 am):  Ah, best-laid plans and all that!  No not-quite-live-blogging today, or at least not much of it!  Here's the quick run-down of big moves so far today:
  • Nordqvist birdied 6 of her last 12 holes to post a 67 and move to -4, but both Yang and Lee bogeyed 18 to finish at -4 and -3, respectively.
  • Brittany Lincicome is making a move; with 4 birdies in her 1st 11 holes, she's -8 and 1 back.
  • Stacy Lewis, Julieta Granada, and Moriya Jutanugarn are -3 early in their rounds and moving up the leaderboard.  No, wait, Lewis is now -4 today--that's 4 birdies in her last 5 holes to get to -5 overall.
  • Paula Creamer had a pair of doubles and Shanshan Feng a slew of bogeys in the middle of her own round, but both fought back to -2 for the week by the end of their rounds.
  • So Yeon Ryu got DQed!!  Wonder what happened?  No time to check!
Looks like the cut line will fall somewhere around +4 or +5, so the course isn't playing very easy for the field.]

[Update 2 (10:11 am):  Webb had 2 bogeys and 2 birdies on the back (her front) to remain at -6.  Pettersen is also off to a slow start, with a birdieless 36 (+1) on the front--the same side she closed with 5 birdies in a row yesterday.  But she's learned that patience is a virtue, so expect her to bust out her birdie stick any time now!]

[Update 3 (10:14 am):  Lincicome is now tied for the lead!!  And look who's -2 thus far today! None other than Mina Harigae (-4) and Sakura Yokomine (-2).  With Mika Miyazato at -3 for the week and Ai Miyazato fighting to make the cut, I'll definitely have some faves to check in on when I find time to fast forward through today's tv coverage.  Right now I have to go to work!]

[Update 4 (2:41 pm):  OK, short day at work allows me to follow up on my morning updates.  I was deeply disappointed to see that Ai Miyazato basically fell apart on the back and missed the cut by a mile.  By contrast, Lincicome fired a bogey-free 65 to pass Kim by a shot, while Pettersen got it into gear and fired a bogey-free 33 on the back to catch Webb at -6.  A 67 by Lewis and 68s by Lydia Ko and Moriya Jutanugarn got them to -5.  In-Kyung Kim birdied 4 of her last 7 holes to join a big group at -4 that now also includes Mariajo Uribe.  It was the opposite end of the golf spectrum for Granada, who made 3 bogeys and a walkoff double on the back, as well as for Harigae, who also stumbled coming home with 2 bogeys in her last 3 holes, which allowed Lexi Thompson to catch them at -2.]

[Update 5 (2:45 pm):  The cut line ended up saving golfers at +5, including Jessica Korda, Mirim Lee, Jenny Shin, and In Gee Chun.  I was glad to see Morgan Pressel (+4), Jane Park (+4), and Jennifer Song (+2) lived to fight another day, not to mention Na Yeon Choi (E), Sakura Yokomine (E), Hee Young Park (E), Ayako Uehara (E), Inbee Park (-1), Mika Miyazato (-1), and Ha Na Jang (-1). Hoping to see some nice numbers from them on the weekend!]

2 comments:

Colin N.Z said...

Am I wrong in thinking it's kind of weird to see a Major with the leader at -10 but he cut at +5? I would have expected the cut to be around even par. What was up with So Yeon and damaging her putter then a DQ? That win by Cheyenne Woods of the Ladies Masters in Australia, in a rather weak field, opened up doors for her but unfortunately by trying to take advantage of it and missing so many Symetra Tour events she now looks like having no chance of getting her card for next year?

The Constructivist said...

I think Cheyenne's resigned herself to Q-School, frankly. Bizarre DQ for SYR. We've seen plenty of majors where a player or a few players figure out the course while the rest of the field struggles--think of Cristie's and Ya Ni's LPGA Championship wins at Locust Hills, where nobody was near them, for instance.