A Little Friendly Advice: Who to Follow on Friday

If I were in North Carolina rather than Fukuoka, here's who I would be following during the second round of the U.S. Women's Open.

First, I'd go out to the 13th hole and watch Jee Young Lee and Juli Inkster finish their first rounds--Lee to see if she can take the "Thursday" lead from Angela Park and Inkster to see if she can claw her way back into contention. (Plus when I could I would sneak a peek at Annika Sorenstam's group following them.) Then I'd rest till 10 am and head to the first tee to see how Mi Hyun Kim and Paula Creamer are playing (and give the injured Meaghan Francella some moral support). I'd stick with them if they're off to a good start and switch over to the back to see the Laura Davies/Amanda Blumenherst/Jeong Jang group that started on 10 at 10 if not. In fact, no matter how well Paula and Mi Hyun are playing, I'd find my way to the 18th green in time to see all the great players who started between 9:37 and 10:43 finish their back side. Then I'd work my way backward on the back until I hit Moira Dunn's group and reverse directions for as many holes as it would take to clarify whether she has a good chance of making the cut, at which point I'd wait for Mi Hyun, Paula, and Meaghan (right behind Moira's group) and stay with them until they finished their round.

After a quick lunch, I'd kill some time following Ji Yai Shin's group until 4 pm, by which point I'd have hustled over to 10 for the Lorena Ochoa/Ai Miyazato/Stacy Prammanasudh group, which I'd follow the rest of the day. Even though all those groups going off 1 between 3:51 and 4:24 form a nice train you could move backward and forward in all afternoon if you wanted, I'm too big a fan of Ai-chan and Ochoa not to study their games at first hand over the course of a round.

This fantasy brought to you by Mostly Harmless's Take Your Blog to the Course for the U.S. Women's Open Carnival. If anyone actually live-blogging Friday's round braves the terrible weather forecast (mid-90s highs with a good chance of Tstorms in the late afternoon)--and, yes, I'm talking to you, Billy and Jen and Brandon--to realize this fantasy for me, I'll send you some treats from Fukuoka for your troubles!