Sunday, September 20, 2009

CA Q-School Saturday: Blumenherst Charges!

On a day when many struggled, Amanda Blumenherst went low on the Dinah Shore course at Mission Hills in the California sectional qualifier for LPGA Q-School. She now holds a 5-shot lead on Azahara Munoz and Mallory Blackwelder. Here's how my picks are doing heading into the final round today.

1. Yuko Mitsuka DPD: 69-68-76 -3 (T10)
2. Azahara Munoz PDD: 70-66-71 -9 (T2)
3. Amanda Blumenherst DPD: 70-67-65 -14 (1st)
4. Maria Jo Uribe PDD: 74-69-71 -2 (T15)
5. Paola Moreno DPD: 76-71-75 +6 (T54)
6. Maria Hernandez PDD: 72-74-72 +2 (T30)
7. Beatriz Recari DPD: 74-72-71 +1 (T24)
8. Hannah Jun PDD: 71-70-71 -4 (T8)
9. Jennie Lee PDD: 72-73-76 +5 (T47)
10. Tamie Durdin PDD: 66-74-73 -3 (T10)
11. Jane Chin PDD: 68-70-71 -7 (5th)
12. Emma Cabrera-Bello PDD: 72-73-68 -3 (T10)

Alt 1 Kristie Smith PDD: 74-68-78 +4 (T40)
Alt 2 Sofie Andersson PDD: 74-71-74 +3 (T35)
Alt 3 Cindy LaCrosse PDD: 68-72-77 +1 (T24)

As you can see from my picks, I thought this would be Hispanic Golfer Week, but the Asian charge of the last decade shows no signs of abating. Comeback kid Esther Choe (DPD: 69-70-69, -8, 4th) and Hawaii's Ayaka Kaneko (PDD: 70-73-68, -5, T8) are exceeding my expectations by a lot, while Chiba's own Kazu Yazaki is completely off the charts (she's still T6 despite shooting a 74 yesterday). Things are also looking good for the Europeans and Americans I picked: in addition to Blackwelder (PDD: 72-68-67, -9, T2), Libby Smith (DPD: 74-68-71, -3, T10) is flying the stars and stripes, while Iben Tinning (PDD: 74-68-73, -1, T18) and Marianne Skarpnord (PDD: 71-70-78, +3, T35) still have a chance to uphold the EU and LET's honor. Only Briana Vega, Rebecca Kim, and Lisa Ferrero join Jennie Lee and Paola Moreno in needing a charge today. My guess is that the cut line will fall somewhere near +3 and that a round in the high 60s will do it for anyone outside the top 30 right now. Let's see how the "name" players in the field handle Sunday pressure.

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