With Juli Inkster's 68 (+1, T29 so far) and Yuri Fudoh's 69 (-3, T4) leading the way, scores from the second round of the Women's British Open have been surprisingly low--surprisingly, at least, if you listen to Ron Sirak. When Miki Saiki, one of the less heralded JLPGA players in the field, shoots a 70 to get back to E for the tournament (T19), and Canadian Alena Sharp matches that -3 performance to keep within a shot of her in the tournament (T29), you know there are more sub-70 rounds to come, even in the generally tougher afternoon conditions.
Annika Sorenstam and Sherri Steinhauer already came close--their matching 71s today got them to -3, tied with Fudoh--as did KLPGA #2 Eun-Hee Ji, whose eagle on 10 helped her to get to -2 for the tournament (T8). With veterans like Wendy Ward (-3 through 14, -5 for the tournament, 2 shots behind Ochoa, alone in 2nd), Catriona Matthew (-2 through 6, -2 for the tournament, tied with Ji and Miyazato), Beth Daniel (-2 through 8, -1 for the tournament, T12), and Karen Stupples (-2 through 7, E for the tournament, T19) making late morning charges of their own--along with KLPGA #1 Ji Yai Shin (-2 through 14, +1 for the tournament, T28), Cristie Kerr and Sakura Yokomine (who both shot 34s on the front to get back to +2, T44)--and many others at -1, we should see some more players break the 70 barrier soon.
That's not to say it was fun and games for everyone out there. #1 in the Class of 2006 Morgan Pressel's opening 34 this morning gave her some hope of playing on the weekend, but her 42 on the back ended that dream. #1 in the Class of 2007 Angela Park battled back to +4 for the tournament through her first 8 holes, but bogeys on 9, 11, 15, and 16 (those latter two for the second day in a row), offset by only 2 birdies down the stretch, dropped her to +6, in danger of missing the first cut of her LPGA career. If she does, she'll have to blame that 8 on the road hole on Thursday! Laura Davies, looking for a win in a major that would qualify her for the LPGA Hall of Fame, may have a 7 on the same hole today to blame--she had it to -3 on her round after 10, 12, and then 14 holes, but only ended up with a 73, tied with Park at +6. And many other big names continued their struggles on the Old Course, among them Meaghan Francella (+12 for the tournament), Mi Hyun Kim and Laura Diaz (+11), and Shi Hyun Ahn (+9).
This time I'm staying up to make sure I catch the action on Japanese tv. More later!
[Update 1 (11:33 pm): Well, Ward couldn't do it. She birdied the road hole to get to -4 on her round and -6 on the tournament, but bogeyed 18. Ouch. Not as painful as Hye Jung Choi's +16 for the tournament or Kyeong Bae's +8--very disappointing results for these fast-rising Super Sophs.]
[Update 2 (8/4/07, 9:54 am): So the answer to my title question is...Catriona Matthew! She was the only person who played well for all 18 holes among the later groups. Her 68 has vaulted her into a tie for second, only 1 shot behind Lorena Ochoa, thanks to some bad putting by the world #1 on the last two greens. Others came close to breaking 70, such as Karine Icher (whose +1 finish over her last 4 holes kept her from doing better than 71--still good enough for -3 and T4), Sophie Gustafson (who was -2 11 holes into her second round, but went +1 over her last 7 to drop to -1 for the tournament, T10), Karen Stupples (who went 33-39 to finish T19 at +1), Cristie Kerr (who went 34-37 to finish T29 at +2), Jimin Kang (who was -3 through 10 but doubled the 15th on her way to a 72, which dropped her to T40 at +3), and Ji Yai Shin (who was -2 through 14 but finished bogey-double-bogey-birdie for a 74, which dropped her all the way back to T52 at +4), but like those in the morning group I focused on earlier, they just couldn't do it.
Still, they have to feel better than the people who shot themselves out of contention, like my fave Ai Miyazato, who never got it going on the front and went from bad to worse on the back. 70-80 can't feel good, especially when the conditions were as benign Friday as Thursday. Nor can 69-79, which is what In-Bee Park (whom the editors of Golf for Women may someday realize is not from Japan) shot. Even those who shot more reasonable numbers like 71-76 (Meena Lee and Brittany Lincicome), 72-75 (Na On Min), 72-76 (In-Kyung Kim), 73-75 (Paula Creamer), and 73-76 (Natalie Gulbis and Momoko Ueda) can't feel all that great given that they did this in such comparatively good Scottish weather.
Still, it's better to be playing on the weekend than not playing, which unfortunately is what's going to happen to Pat Hurst (+14), Julieta Granada (+13), Seon Hwa Lee (+8), Jeong Jang and Michelle Wie (+7)--and maybe even Angela Stanford (+7 with two holes left to play when play was suspended), along with the big group joining Angela Park and Laura Davies at +6, including Brittany Lang, Shiho Oyama, and my friend Moira Dunn, who are T69 according to LPGA.com yet below the projected cut line for some reason.
But it's even better to be in contention, like short-sleeve-wearing Englishwoman Rebecca Hudson (-3, T4), Ai-chan's playing partner from the first round of the Evian Masters Virginie Lagoutte-Clement (-1, T10), Swedes Louise Friberg (-1 T10) and Catrin Nilsmark (E, T14), and England's own Lisa Hall (E, T14)--all of whom are helping the usual suspects like Sorenstam and Gustafson make this a Eurocentric top 15. Jee Young Lee (-1, T10) is the only Super Soph in contention, while Se Ri Pak looked grim and unhappy the few times I saw her on Japanese tv, despite being only 6 shots off the lead and playing solidly. Maybe it was that double on the 1st hole Friday that had her playing defense all day that did it.
Speaking of Japanese tv, its coverage, of course, was limited to the groups Ai-chan, Momoko, and Sakura were playing in--some very good golfers, but to fit their rounds into the brief 4-hour coverage we saw very little of Kerr, Pak, Gulbis, Creamer, and Stupples, none of Matthew and Pettersen (b/c Oyama had blown up early, exiling herself and her group from the coverage, despite her strong finish to give herself a chance to make the cut while Sakura and Ai-chan were self-destructing on the back), and barely enough of Ochoa. Despite that parochialism, I enjoyed the coverage, which literally gave the three Japanese stars a lot of face time (Momoko has a cute pout, while Ai-chan somehow looks grim, intense, and cuter than ever when she's upset with herself, as she was all day, while Sakura just looked lost as her dad/caddy, a newly-elected member of the DPJ's Upper House majority in Japan, blew her off). I think the great rounds of Fudoh and Saiki in the morning combined with the great playing conditions (for St. Andrews) put extra pressure on them to perform. Whatever it was, their bad ball-striking, shaky wedge play, and bad putting combined to do them in, despite flashes of brilliance here and there. With the pressure off a bit, perhaps Ai-chan and Sakura can make a run at Fudoh and Saiki and steal their way into the top 10. Maybe going off early will give them a bit of an advantage.
Here are the second-round interviews. Enjoy!]
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