Fields Open Friday, Part Two: No, No, Not Reverse! Drive!

In a 54-hole tournament like the Fields Open that ends on a Saturday for Asian tv audiences, Friday becomes moving day. And, man, did we see movement of all kinds in it. Which surprised me, because even with a windier afternoon and grainy greens, I never expected to see so many high scores from so many good players.

C-ya
Many big names and up-and-coming players missed the cut, including real heartbreakers for Julieta Granada, H.J. Choi, Sun Young Yoo, Jane Park, and Hee Young Park, who like Lorie Kane ended up one shot shy; all-around shoddy play by Natalie Gulbis, Sophie Gustafson, In-Kyung Kim, Meaghan Francella, Sakura Yokomine, and Kyeong Bae; and serious disappointments for Grace Park, Inbee Park, and Ai Miyazato, who never gave themselves a chance. But the real shockers were the people who had good Thursdays and horrific Fridays:

Se Ri Pak 68-77
Na On Min 69-77
Akane Iijima 70-76
Soo Young Moon 70-76
Gloria Park 71-78
Meredith Duncan 72-76
Jin Joo Hong 72-77
Kate Golden 72-78
Pat Hurst 72-79
Nicole Perrot 72-79

This resort course must have more teeth than I thought. Or maybe it was just them. But some people have some serious work to do on their games before the huge showdown in Singapore at the HSBC Women's Champions next week! With the men's match play getting so much favorable coverage this year, I'm sad that HSBC decided to put its match play event on hiatus this year so as to focus on this new stroke-play tournament, but excited to see how Lorena Ochoa comes out of the gates in '08 and find out who can maintain their momentum from their time in Hawaii. Speaking of which, let's turn to the people on a roll at Ko Olina.

Movin' On Up
Jeong Jang had some short game lapses, but still posted a respectable 68 to stay in the lead at -12. Paula Creamer continues to be sick as a dog but played like a champion, keeping pace with the leader. Angela Stanford got off to a bad start but ran off 6 birdies between the 8th and 16th holes to remain within 4 of Jang. Kelli Kuehne eagled 18 to pull even with her. And Hiromi Mogi, Maria Hjorth, and Hee-Won Han exhibited three very different ways of again breaking 70, which was good enough for T9 and a chance to win if they can go out and break the course record on Saturday. But the real movers and shakers on Friday were:

Ji-Young Oh 75-69 (E overall, T113-->T63)
Sandra Gal 72-66 (-6, T62-->T13)
Cristie Kerr and Louise Friberg 73-68 (-3, T81-->T33)
Cindy Pasechnik, 74-69 (-1, T98-->T50)
Christina Kim 72-67 (-5, T62-->T20)
Minea Blomqvist 71-65 (-8, T46-->T5)
Candie Kung and Mikaela Parmlid 73-69 (-2, T81-->T41)
Laura Diaz 71-66 (-7, T46-->T9)
Karin Sjodin 72-68 (-4, T62-->T29)
Momoko Ueda 72-69 (-3, T62-->T33)
Annika Sorenstam 70-66 (-8, T31-->T5)
Rachel Hetherington and Nancy Scranton 71-68 (-5, T46-->T20)
Song-Hee Kim 69-64 (-11, T16-->2nd place)
Lindsey Wright 69-66 (-9, T16-->4th)

Here's hoping those stuck in neutral so far--like Eun-Hee Ji (-4, T29), Brittany Lincicome and Brittany Lang (-3, T33) Stacy Prammananasudh and Michelle Wie (-2, T41), Suzann Pettersen, Seon Hwa Lee, and Morgan Pressel (-1, T50), and Angela Park and Jee Young Lee (E, T63)--can get it in gear and make similar moves on Saturday. It's probably too much to hope for Moira Dunn, playing six groups behind the leaders, to put herself into contention. And I'd certainly like to see the class of '06 group going off the back at 9:40 am--SH Lee, Pressel, and Linda Wessberg--feed off each other's good play and make a big move. But what I really want to know is how loudly Sorenstam's footsteps in the next-to-last group will sound to SH Kim, Jang, and Creamer in the final group. If Annika makes an early charge, how will they respond? In the interviews, Jang recalled her mindset going into the British Open she ended up winning over Sorenstam:

Q. Leading as you go into the final round of the British, did you play aggressively or conservatively?

JEONG JANG: I keep thinking about it, you know, like this could be my first win, and I don't want to think about Annika because I think I play with Annika. I don't want to think about Annika; I don't want to think about any galleries.

This is the first round, and then like four shots is nothing and I was keep thinking myself, I want to focus on golf and myself, and it worked.

Q. Have you thought about what you're going to do tomorrow?

JEONG JANG: You know, a little different course than the British course because everybody can make a lot of birdie here. So I need to go for it more here because we need a lot of birdies.

I'd love to see JJ get her 3rd career win today. She's on pace to become the leading money-winner in her generation, but for whatever reason is well behind Grace Park and Hee-Won Han in career victories. But it would also be cool to see SH Kim, who dominated the Futures Tour in '06 but lost her LPGA card in her rookie year, do what Angela Park, In-Kyung Kim, and Jane Park have as yet been unable to do and notch the first victory for the class of '07. And it would be awesome to see a Creamer-Sorenstam duel down the stretch, too. But for the sake of morale at Seoul Sisters nation, I'll be rooting for JJ.

One thing you can count on: the winning score will be lower than -14, which was good enough for Meena Lee two years ago and Stacy P last year. With 8 people double digits under par when Lee won and 7 when Prammanasudh won, I'm looking for more than 10 people to match this feat in 2008. It would be nice if this didn't boil down to a 5-golfer race early on the back 9, but if the lead group plays well we won't have that free-for-all that Hound Dog was calling for....