Those predicted rains I talked about in my overview of the 2nd round of LPGA Q-School? Yeah, they came down harder than I expected and play was suspended yesterday, not to begin again until 11 am today. And with the Weather Channel predicting another half-inch to fall between midnight and the late morning, when the storms are expected to move out of the area, I'm guessing it'll actually be the afternoon when the LPGA International courses drain enough for play to resume. When it does, it'll be cold and windy, so don't expect the players to take advantage of the soft conditions. What's unclear, because the LPGA isn't providing true live-scoring this week, is how many holes the early groups were able to get in before the decision was made to suspend play. All we know is that Erica Blasberg and Aree Song withdrew from the tournament, so my guess is that the LPGA kept them playing long enough for other players to blow up, as well. Could be ugly when the 3rd round is finally completed. We'll have to wait and see.
[Update 1 (4:28 am): May as well link to Beth Ann Baldry. Good thing the leaders only got 4 holes in yesterday, but what about the rest of the field?
In answer to her question--"where are the Koreans?"--I think it's safe to say that many new pros are getting their feet wet on the KLPGA or decided to play on the other side of the world this week in JLPGA Q-School. Former LPGA member Na Ri Kim was in Japan instead of in Florida and she'll be a JLPGA member in 2010. But except for Sun Ju Ahn and Jae Bae, it's not like there were all that many non-LPGA Koreans who met with a lot of success over there, either. I don't think it's just a matter of economics, either. I think it's safe to say that Hee Kyung Seo, So Yeon Ryu, and maybe Ha Neul Kim and He Yong Choi are the only KLPGA players really ready for prime time right now. But if they have decided the time is not yet ripe to try out the JLPGA or LPGA, then the bar on both tours is already very high.
Those who project the last decade's amazing growth of Korean players into the next decade haven't been paying all that much attention to what's actually happening in Asia.]
[Update 2 (4:37 am): Man, I am way too tired to be blogging. The LPGA.com leaderboard doesn't give you hole-by-hole results, but it does tell us how many holes each golfer has played and their cumulative score on the day.
Malinda Johnson is -4 through 8 and Beatriz Recari is -4 through 7. Sarah Wikstrom, Leah Wigger, Kris Tschetter, and Marianne Skarpnord are -2 through 5, while Nicole Hage is -2 through 9. So it's not all bad out there.
On the other hand, Dorothy Delasin's agonies continue. Yuko Mitsuka, Christine Song, and Jeehae Lee are all +3 as they approach the turn. There are an amazing number of big-name players (for Q-School) already +2 on their day. And 2 players I'm really rooting for, Tiffany Joh and Mariajo Uribe, are +1 with about a third of their rounds completed. Here's hoping they're all able to turn it around today.]
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