Daikin Orchid Friday: Koga Goes Low

Here are Friday's results from the Daikin Orchid Ladies Golf Tournament at the Ryukyu Golf Club in Okinawa, Japan, with notables' names in both English and Japanese (un-proof-read as yet by a native speaker, so don't quote me on them until I get confirmation!), together with their current Rolex Ranking (RR) and position on the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index (GSPI).

LEADERS
#1/63 Miho Koga (古閑 美保, #43 RR/#45 GSPI) -9 (bogey-free 33-30!)

#2/66 Saiki Fujita (藤田 幸希, #100 RR/#131 GSPI) -6 (33-33 with 2 bogeys)

T3/68 Itsumi Okada, Yuko Mitsuka (三塚 優子, #54 RR/#115 GSPI), Momoko Ueda (上田 桃子, #12 RR/#7 GSPI), Yayoi Arasaki, Shiho Ohyama (大山 志保, #24 RR/#33 GSPI), Akane Azuma, Mayu Hattori, Nahoko Hirao, Ya-Huei Lu, Iyoko Wada

T13/69 Miki Saiki (佐伯 三貴, #34 RR/#34 GSPI), Shinobu Moromizato (諸見里しのぶ, #44 RR/#40 GSPI), Yui Kawahara (川原 由維, #77 RR/#63 GSPI), Akiko Fukushima (福嶋 晃子, #41 RR/#56 GSPI)

OTHER NOTABLES
T23/70 Esther Lee (エスド リ), Sakura Yokomine (横峯さくら, #20 RR/#29 GSPI), Bo-Bae Song (宋 ボベ, #73 RR/#82 GSPI), Kaori Higo (肥後かおり, #105/#143 GSPI), Yuri Fudoh (不動 裕理, #17 RR/#9 GSPI)

T35/71 Yun-Jye Wei (ウェイ ユンジェ, #65 RR/#132 GSPI), Mi-Jeong Jeon (全 美 貞 [ｼﾞｮﾝ ﾐ ｼﾞｮﾝ], #22 RR/#36 GSPI), Na Zhang (張 娜 [ﾁｬﾝ ﾅ], #21 RR/#55 GSPI), Hiromi Mogi (茂木 宏美, #70 RR/#74 GSPI)

T43/72 Tamie Durdin (タミー ダーディン, #110 RR/#125 GSPI), Erina Hara (原 江里菜, #55 RR/#120 GSPI), Mie Nakata (中田 美枝, #63 RR/#76 GSPI)

T54/73 Hyun-Ju Shin (辛 炫 周 [ｼﾝ ﾋｮﾝ ｼﾞｭ], #42 RR/#46 GSPI), Midori Yoneyama (米山みどり, #83 RR/#137 GSPI)

T60/74 Ayako Uehara (上原 彩子, #107 RR/#130 GSPI), Kuniko Maeda (前田久仁子, #103 RR/#92 GSPI)

T76/75 Chie Arimura (有村 智恵, #60 RR/#84 GSPI), Ji-Hee Lee (李 知 姫 [ｲ ﾁ ﾋ], #61 RR/#87 GSPI)

In closing, let me offer a few words on Japanese. Remember that in Japanese the family name comes first, and they extend this courtesy to other Asian golfers (contrast Esther Lee, which I've reversed from the leader board to fit the western style, and Tammie Durdin, which I didn't have to). Some kanji are relatively easy for me to remember (山 yama, 三 mi, 子 ko, 中 naka, 上 ue [or, oo-eh], 田 ta or da), but what I really like to see are first names in hiragana, like しのぶ (Shinobu), さくら (Sakura), かおり (Kaori), and みどり (Midori), which I can sound out on my own. It's only the younger players who do this, so I'm wondering if they're trying to appeal to young kids and foreigners, since, I assume, they could use kanji instead. Japanese use katakana to represent foreign names like Bo-Bae (ボベ) and Esther (エスド, which I read as eh-su-do!), although established ones like Mi-Jeong Jeon, Na Zhang, and Hyun-Ju Shin get both.