Stanley Ladies Saturday: Arimura Takes Charge

Chie Arimura shot her 2nd-straight 6-birdie 67 at the Stanley Ladies today, vaulting into a 3-shot lead on Yuko Saitoh, whose 65 is the low round of the tournament thus far. A late bogey dropped Mi-Jeong Jeon 5 off the pace, and even 67s by Sakura Yokomine and Shinobu Moromizato only kept them 6 and 7 back, respectively. Here's how everyone chasing Arimura stands after the 2nd round:

1st/-10 Chie Arimura (67-67)
2nd/-7 Yuko Saitoh (72-65)
3rd/-6 Ji-Woo Lee (68-70)
T4/-5 Nozomi Sato (71-68), Mi-Jeong Jeon (70-69)
T6/-4 Sakura Yokomine (73-67), Na-Ri Lee (72-68)
T10/-3 Shinobu Moromizato (74-67), Ikue Asama (74-67), Nikki Campbell (72-69), Kaori Aoyama (72-69), Li-Ying Ye (69-72), Natsu Nagai (67-74)

T16/-2 Maiko Wakabayashi (73-69), Yukari Baba (72-70), Miho Koga (71-71), Eun-A Lim (71-71), Midori Yoneyama (70-72), Da-Ye Na (70-72), Rui Kitada (69-73)
T26/-1 Rikako Morita (74-69), Asako Fujimoto (71-72), Hiromi Mogi (66-77)
T32/E Akiko Fukushima (74-70), Ah-Reum Hwang (72-72), Mie Nakata (72-72), Kumiko Kaneda (70-74)
T44/+1 Mai Arai (77-68), Saiki Fujita (73-72), Tamie Durdin (72-73)

Huge disappointment for Erina Hara, who had just moved into the top 10 on the money list last week; she closed with a birdie-less 38 to miss the cut by a shot. Back-side back-to-back doubles did Ayako Uehara in, despite her 2 birdies over her last 6 holes. Sad to see the hard times continuing for Hyun-Ju Shin, Miki Saiki, and Esther Lee.

T55/+2 Akane Iijima (74-72), Erina Hara (73-73), Yuki Ichinose (72-74)
T62/+3 Hyun-Ju Shin (76-71)
T69/+4 Ayako Uehara (75-73)
T74/+5 Yun-Jye Wei (75-74), Mayu Hattori (73-76)
T91/+8 Sakurako Mori (76-76)
T96/+9 Miki Saiki (73-80)
T101/+13 Riko Higashio (82-75), Esther Lee (82-75)
107th/+18 Woo-Soon Ko (83-79)
WD Julie Lu (78-WD)

A win tomorrow would vault Arimura well ahead of an idle Ji-Hee Lee and close to a similarly idle Yuko Mitsuka, creating a big separation between the top 5 on the JLPGA and the rest of the field. On the other hand, Saitoh would move into the top 6 at least if she were to overtake Arimura tomorrow. There's a fog delay right now, so if the weather conditions remain tough, there's still a chance for those 5 to 7 shots back to steal away with a W.