Salonpas Cup Friday: Akiko Fukushima Takes the Lead

At the end of the 1st round of the JLPGA's 1st major, the Salonpas Cup, there were 19 golfers within 5 shots of a lead shared by 4 players. Well, after her 2nd-straight 68, Akiko Fukushima sits alone at the top of the leaderboard, 1 shot ahead of Mi-Jeong Jeon (69), 3 shots ahead of Paula Creamer (68), Shinobu Moromizato (70), and Ji-Hee Lee (71), and 4 shots ahead of Sakura Yokomine (67). From what I can tell, play has been suspended at 3:01 pm Japan time due to heavy rains, with most of the afternoon pairings still out on the course. Among those sure to miss the cut, however, are the LET's leading money winner of 2008, Gwladys Nocera, and JLPGA young guns Esther Lee, Riko Higashio, Sakurako Mori, and Kumiko Kaneda. More when the 2nd round is complete!

[Update 1 (5/9/09, 4:52 am): So the 2nd round is complete:

1st/-8 Akiko Fukushima (68-68)
2nd/-7 Mi-Jeong Jeon (68-69)
3rd/-6 Maiko Wakabayashi (70-68)
T4/-5 Paula Creamer (71-68), Shinobu Moromizato (69-70), Ji-Hee Lee (68-71)
T7/-4 Sakura Yokomine (73-67), Tamie Durdin (69-71)
T9/-3 Bo-Bae Song (73-68), Li-Ying Ye (72-69), Chie Arimura (70-71), Yuriko Ohtsuka (70-71), Ah-Reum Hwang (69-72), Yukari Baba (69-72), Yasuko Satoh (69-72), Hyun-Ju Shin (68-73)

Nice rounds by Wakabayashi and Durdin to lift themselves into contention!

T17/-1 Miho Koga (73-70), Ayako Uehara (73-70), Eun A Lim (73-70), Yuri Fudoh (72-71)
T22/E Akane Iijima (71-73), Hiroko Yamaguchi (71-73)
T27/+1 Hiromi Mogi (74-71), Da-Ye Na (73-72)
T31/+2 Yuko Mitsuka (72-74)
T34/+3 Miki Saiki (75-72), Yuko Saitoh (75-72), Rikako Morita (74-73), Erina Hara (72-75), Yuki Ichinose (71-76), Saiki Fujita (70-77)
T46/+4 Ji-Woo Lee (78-70), Midori Yoneyama (75-73), Rui Kitada (74-74), Woo Soon Ko (73-75), Yun-Jye Wei (70-78)

An eagle on the 365-yard 10th hole helped lift Ji-Woo Lee past the cut line. Saiki eagled the short par-5 5th hole, as well. Nice to see Ko make the cut. But despite 62 golfers squeezing into the weekend, there were other victims to the cut line than the ones I mentioned earlier:

T63/+5 Mie Nakata (74-75)
T70/+6 Nikki Campbell (74-76)
T82/+8 Gwladys Nocera (75-77), Sakurako Mori (75-77)
T87/+9 Esther Lee (79-74), Na Zhang (76-77)
T101/+11 Kumiko Kaneda (80-75), Riko Higashio (79-76)
WD Kaori Higo (76-WD)

The learning curve drags on for Mori and Kaneda....]