Up: Hee-Won Han, who golfed for the cycle Friday (par, bogey, double, triple), improved 12 strokes this morning on her opening 78--and could have gone even lower were it not for the only blemish on an otherwise perfect scorecard, a double bogey on the par-4 3rd hole, her 12th of the day. After 36 holes, she stands exactly where she stood on the 4th tee Friday, but moved from T103 to being among the 20 or so players not (yet) over par at the grueling Bosque Real course.
Down: Rookie Eunjung Yi almost fell the farthest among the morning leaders, thanks to 6 bogeys in her first 13 holes. An 18th-hole birdie stopped the bleeding, but not before she fell from T6 (70) to (thus far) T49 (77). Still, she'll live to play another day, while one other early leader may miss the chance to learn something new about the course.
Out?: Taiwan's Yu Ping Lin was -3 on the tournament standing on the 6th tee this morning, but proceeded to rattle off 2 bogeys and a double to fall back to +1 through 27. Then she went bogey-double-double on the 13th-15th holes and just like that she was +6 for the tournament, on the wrong side of the cutline.
Up: Taiwanese rookie Ya Ni Tseng fared much better than the former two players, but, like Han, will be watching the afternoon action wondering about what could have been. After birdies on 5 of her first 12 holes this morning, she stood at -9, with a commanding lead on the field. But bogeys on the 14th, 15th, and 17th offset a birdie on the 16th. After failing to birdie the 18th, she ended the day at -7, still the leader in the clubhouse and thus far the only player in the field to put together 2 sub-70 rounds, but her 4-shot lead on Pat Hurst, who fired off her second sub-par round of the tournament, and 5-shot lead on Amy Yang (69-73), who like Hurst fell back from a high-water-mark of -4 late in her round, could have been much, much larger.
Down: Young Americans Meredith Duncan and Taylor Leon shot matching 76s this morning to fall back to +5 for the tournament, right on the cut line right now.
Out?: 4 bogeys and a double between the 3rd and 9th holes have put Moira Dunn on the wrong side of the cut line with 7 holes yet to play. What accounts for her 42? The pressure of chasing Jill McGill to the $2M mark in career winnings? Probably just what afflicts most NY golfers: early-season rust in events played when there's still likely to be snow on the ground back home (cf. Francella, Meaghan).
More to come--stay tuned!
[Update 1 (6:00 pm): Up: Marcy Hart, who took a 9 on the 9th yesterday, had the second-best round of the day thus far, a 68 that brought her from T103 to T28. The players on the course with the best chance of matching or beating her today are Hana Kim, who's -3 with the 8th and 9th (which she doubled Friday) left to play, and Na Yeon Choi, who's playing the par-5 12th even as I type. Choi is looking to pass Kim Hall, Liz Janangelo, and Jeong Jang at -1 for the tournament, into a tie for 5th thus far with Amy Yang, as well as Eva Dahllof, who is about to make the turn.]
[Update 2 (6:09 pm): Down: Candie Kung is playing just fine, with 8 pars on the front and a birdie on the 10th...oh yeah, except for that quadruple-bogey on the par-4 5th. She's now +1 on the tournament, which is still good enough for T19, and could go any which way over her final 8 holes.]
[Update 3 (6:13 pm): Out?: Jacqueline Yang is flirting with Lin/Dunn territory. Just like Friday, she has posted a 7 on the front, but unlike yesterday, she has followed up with bushels of bogeys rather than birdies and is right on the cut line as she plays the par-5 12th.]
[Update 4 (6:49 pm): Up: Su A Kim is the latest afternoon player with a chance for a 68 or better. She's exactly where Hana Kim stood just over 45 minutes ago--needing a birdie or better on the 8th and/or the 9th. Her namesake couldn't do it--she bogeyed the 9th for a 70.]
[Update 5 (7:16 pm): Down: Stupid LPGA.com leaderboard. Turns out Hana Kim's 9th-hole bogey was for a 72, not a 70. Oh, and in Up news, Na Yeon Choi made 3 more birdies from the 12th on to tie Han for best round of the day (66) and move into 4th place at -4. Meanwhile, Ji Young Oh has gone on a birdie barrage of her own--3 of 'em between the 9th and 13th--and is currently tied with Tseng for the lead at -7.]
[Update 6 (7:39 pm): Out: Yes! Moira battled back to make the cut on the line. Jacqueline Yang has actually battled back to +3 for the tournament with the 18th left to play. But Kelli Kuehne (71), Ashleigh Simon (76), Erica Blasberg (77), Jimin Kang (75), Laura Davies (76), Anna Rawson (79), Julieta Granada (79), Janice Moodie (77), and Angela Stanford (77) all fell below it.]
[Update 7 (7:53 pm): Last update before bedtime for the girls. Or rather, Update: Oh is now -9 with the 17th and 18th left to play, and Eva Dahllof is poised to join her and Tseng as the only players under 70 in both rounds, making 69s by Jee Young Lee and Mollie Fankhauser (+1, T22), as well as Hee Young Park (+2, T27), rather academic. So what to call 70s by Liz Janangelo (-1, T10), Seon Hwa Lee and A.J. Eathorne (E, T13), Lorena Ochoa and Chris Brady (+2, T27), Su A Kim (+3, T44), and Minea Blomqvist, Nicole Perrot, and Cindy Pasechnik (+4, T55)? Rather anticlimactic. But that birdie by Brittany Lang on 18 to make the cut on the dot? Priceless!]
[Update 8 (3/16/08, 1:11 am): I always fall asleep with the girls these days! Up: Anyway, I'll call Ji Young Oh out as the favorite heading into the final round later today. It's not just that she's been here before, but also that her 67 was bogey-free and she's only made 1 bogey and nothing worse in 36 holes on Bosque Real. She was playing pretty well coming into Mexico and has been the best golfer in the field for the first two rounds. In fact, it should be a horse race between Oh and Tseng. I don't see them coming back to the field, for some reason, so someone already under par is going to have to mount an assault on the course record. Can it be Jane Park, who snuck into the top 10 with three consecutive closing birdies? She'll have to tame the 9th hole, her nemesis this week, to do it, and figure out how to make birdies on more than a few holes on the front to put any pressure on her fellow Young Guns. More likely to contend is rookie Na Yeon Choi, who moved up from T45 to T4 with her course-record-tying 66.
Down: I don't see Dahllof, who bogeyed 18 when she had a chance to move into T2 at -7 with Tseng, or Jill McGill, who stayed T4 only thanks to her second-straight birdie on the 17th, keeping pace with the leaders. Nor do I see Pat Hurst or Gloria Park dropping a course record on the field the third time around on a hilly course at high elevations. Jeong Jang would have had more of a chance if she could have avoided doubles on the 3rd and 18th and a bogey on 17 that cancelled out her 5 birdies yesterday. At least they're better off than Candie Kung, who matched rookie Eunjung Yi's fall from T6 to T44, now one shot behind Ochoa.]
[Update 9 (1:18 am): Two more reasons Oh is a favorite, from the notes and interviews page: first, she was sticking her wedges and short irons again; second, she's been a bit sick this week, so I'm thinking shades of Paula Creamer.]
[Update 10 (1:24 am): Neat little pairings for Sunday. Kung and Yi will get a tie-breaker; Hana Kim and Su A Kim will get a playoff; Eun-Hee Ji will play with Stacy P; Hee Young Park gets to hang with Ochoa; Mayorkas gets to learn from Laura Diaz; Seon Hwa Lee and Hee-Won Han should get a chance to feed off each other's good play; and Pat Hurst gets to babysit Amy Yang and Jane Park. The final two groups ain't too shabby, either:
Start Time: 11:35 AM
Na Yeon Choi
Jill McGill
Gloria Park
Start Time: 11:45 AM
Ji Young Oh
Yani Tseng
Eva Dahllof
Like I said, I predict a real shootout between Oh and Tseng, but there'll be a lot of interesting little games within games going on later today!]
[Update 11 (8:58 am): Hound Dog is not so sure Oh and Tseng won't come back to the field. We'll see who's right soon!]
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