JLPGA Q-School Final Qualifying Tournament Tuesday: Here We Go!

The results are in from the 1st round of JLPGA Q-School's 72-hole Final Qualifying Tournament! Here's how the notables in the field fared:

T1/-3 Esther Lee (69)
T2/-2 Candie Kung, Seon Hwa Lee, Chieko Amanuma (70)
T6/-1 Sun Ju Ahn, Jae Bae (71)

T14/E Na Ri Kim, Onnarin Sattayabanphot, Yuki Sakurai (72)
T24/+1 Inbee Park, Teresa Lu, Kaori Higo, Eun Hye Lee, Bong Su Tseng (73)
T43/+2 Young Kim (74)
T55/+3 Michiko Hattori, Ritsuko Ryu (75)
T67/+4 Sakurako Mori (76)
T76/+5 Kumiko Kaneda (77)

Can't believe I missed Esther Lee in the field list! I definitely would have put her in the top 20, based on her 2008 JLPGA season alone. Still, it's definitely a surprise to see her ahead of the LPGAers in the field. But that's what a walkoff eagle to offset a double bogey on the 14th will do for you! Kung, who shows up as "Candie Cancun" on google translator, bogeyed 2 of her last 3 holes to fall out of the lead. The KLPGA's Ahn uncharacteristically bogeyed 4 holes in a row on the front, but made 6 birdies on her day and 4 on the back to charge back into contention. Na Ri Kim was -3 after 4 holes, thanks to an eagle on the 509-yard par-5 3rd hole and a birdie on the 153-yard par-3 4th, but limped home with 3 bogeys and no birdies over her final 10 holes. Bong Su Tseng, by contrast, was +4 after 3, thanks to a triple on the 3rd, but came back with 6 birdies in her last 14 holes to salvage her round.

Living legend Woo-Soon Ko shot an 80 and will need to put together 3 good rounds to have a chance to continue her JLPGA career. I'm not sure if there's a 36-hole or 54-hole cut (or both), but some of the JLPGA's young guns who find themselves out of the top 50 right now had better draw on their tournament experience and figure out how to go low or at least shoot a solid round tomorrow.

Wonder if Aiko Kaneda (T6, -1) is Kumiko's little sister. If so, onechan had better get it going tomorrow--no time to be shown up by imoto! Speaking of older sisters, looks like Sakura Yokomine's onechan, Rui, is at T24 after an opening 73. Unless, that is, she's as related to Sakura as Mika Miyazato is to Ai-sama.