Go, Go, Sarah Oh!

How cool would it be if Sarah Oh were able to hold off Katherine Hull, Gwladys Nocera, Laura Davies, and others in the final round of the Women's NSW Open today? As Liz White reports, Oh has a 4-shot lead on her nearest competitor (Hull) after following up her course-record 65 (matched by Nikki Garrett that day) with a 67. (For the full field's scores, check out The Daily Telegraph's game story.)

Why would a win on the ALPG be such redemption for Oh? Well, she inadvertently found herself in the middle of a controversy at LPGA Q-School, when the LPGA made 2 mistakes: holding a playoff for the last Category 11 spots in the tour's 2009 priority status list at all, and holding it among the players at T21 instead of at T25. Oh, a 2008 LPGA rookie, played just badly enough on the last day of Q-School to put herself in a position where the playoff needed to be at T25 for her to have a chance at Category 20 status. So she has no LPGA status in 2009. I'm waiting to see whether she has Futures Tour status; the Australian media leads me to believe she does, but I'm waiting for confirmation from the FT itself. In any case, I'm rooting for Oh to finish out the ALPG season in style and move up their Order of Merit. If she can start a winning streak this week and keep it going, she could even qualify for the HSBC Women's Champions event in early March--and if she wins that, she can apply for LPGA membership and play most any event she wants this season.

First things first, though. I'm hoping she nails down this win today.