For the 2nd time this season, Chie Arimura held off Yuko Saitoh to win on the JLPGA. Unlike at the Crystal Geyser Ladies, however, she did it in only 45 holes at the Stanley Ladies, thanks to heavy fogs that prevented the front side from being played. A bogey-free 34--tied for lowest score of the day--allowed Arimura to extend her lead on Saitoh to 4 shots. Many of the 2nd-round leaders stumbled badly in the fog and of the JLPGA's top 3 players, only Shinobu Moromizato managed to hold on for a top 10.
Here are the final results for the top 10 and notables.
1st/-12 Chie Arimura (67-67-34)
2nd/-8 Yuko Saitoh (72-65-35)
3rd/-6 Na-Ri Lee (72-68-34)
T4/-5 Nikki Campbell (72-69-34), Nozomi Sato (71-68-36)
T6/-4 Midori Yoneyama (70-72-34), So-Hee Kim (70-70-36)
T8/-3 Asako Fujimoto (71-72-34), Maiko Suzuki (71-72-34), Eun-A Lim (71-71-35), Mika Takushima (71-71-35), Da-Ye Na (70-72-35), Junko Omote (70-72-35), Rui Kitada (69-73-35), Shinobu Moromizato (74-67-36)
T16/-2 Rikako Morita (74-69-35), Hiromi Mogi (66-77-35), Maiko Wakabayashi (73-69-36), Ji-Woo Lee (68-70-40)
T25/-1 Mai Arai (77-68-34), Saiki Fujita (73-72-34), Akiko Fukushima (74-70-35), Miho Koga (71-71-37), Sakura Yokomine (73-67-39), Mi-Jeong Jeon (70-69-40)
T34/E Ah-Reum Hwang (72-72-36)
T38/+1 Kumiko Kaneda (70-74-37), Yukari Baba (72-70-39), Li-Ying Ye (69-72-40)
T47/+2 Tamie Durdin (72-73-37)
T53/+3 Mie Nakata (72-72-39)
This was the 1st time all season that Sakura Yokomine failed to place in the top 20 and the 2nd week in a row she missed the top 10 (also a 1st in '09). Her top-20 streak on the JLPGA ends at 30. But she still tops the money list, in part because so many players crowded into the top 8 today:
1. Sakura Yokomine ￥77.75M
2. Shinobu Moromizato ￥75.09M
3. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥63.98M
4. Yuko Mitsuka ￥58.92M
5. Chie Arimura ￥56.31M
6. Yuko Saitoh ￥38.40M
7. Ji-Hee Lee ￥37.18M
8. Miho Koga ￥30.54M
9. Erina Hara ￥28.18M
10. Ah-Reum Hwang ￥27.98M
11. Eun-A Lim ￥27.84M
12. Ayako Uehara ￥27.69M
13. Tamie Durdin ￥25.28M
14. Akiko Fukushima ￥23.22M
15. Rui Kitada ￥22.54M
16. Yuri Fudoh ￥21.38M
17. Midori Yoneyama ￥20.64M
18. Li-Ying Ye ￥20.06M
19. Yukari Baba ￥19.43M
20. Ji-Woo Lee ￥19.43M
21. Nikki Campbell ￥17.62M
22. Na-Ri Lee ￥17.13M
23. Saiki Fujita ￥16.84M
24. Maiko Wakabayashi ￥16.63M
25. Hiromi Mogi ￥15.42M
26. Rikako Morita ￥15.37M
27. Miki Saiki ￥14.52M
28. Bo-Bae Song ￥14.23M
29. Akane Iijima ￥13.29M
28. Mie Nakata ￥13.07M
Big moves up by Nikki Campbell and Na-Ri Lee; Ayako Uehara paid for missing the cut by falling out of the top 10. The JLPGA doesn't return to action until August 7 at the AXA Ladies, where Shinobu Moromizato will attempt to defend her title, become the 1st 4-time winner on tour in '09, and take the money-list lead for the 1st time this season. It'll be interesting to see if LPGA regulars Ji-Yai Shin, Ai Miyazato, Momoko Ueda, and Shiho Oyama will take advantage of their dual JLPGA membership (and whether Mika Miyazato will get sponsor exemptions) to stay sharp during the LPGA's down-time after the European swing--and if so, when they will return to action in the States. We won't know until the AXA Ladies field list is posted. So let's focus on whether Chie Arimura can carry her momentum from this win over to Evian.
1 comment:
45 holes?!?! If fog prevented one set of nine from being used, couldn't they have run everybody over the other nine twice? It would have preserved the tournament's integrity to have played the full 54 holes even by doing that. And oh, thanks for reminding me of that dreary Thursday I spent in Newport at the '06 USWO, BTW. :/
Kevin
Post a Comment