Around the World of Women's Golf in One Belated Post

Lots of crucial developments happening this month at work are coming to a head this coming week, so I've had to put my golf writing on the back burning the last few days. In the spirit of my overviews of major and developmental women's professional tours, I'll take a look at what's going on on the JLPGA, LET, LAGT, and Futures Tour, where Rui Kitada, Anja Monke, Solar Lee, and a player yet to be determined have taken the victor's laurels.

JLPGA

The big story in the inaugural T-Points Ladies Open was '09 stars Sakura Yokomine and Chie Arimura, along with last week's winner Yun-Jye Wei, blowing their chances to remain in contention during the final round. But they weren't alone in struggling in what must have been challenging weather conditions today--Yukari Baba's 70 was not only the low score of the day, but the only one under par in the entire field, while a walkoff triple cost Shinobu Moromizato a top 10 finish. Even though newcomers Sun-Ju Ahn and Young Kim continued to show great promise, it was tour veteran Rui Kitada who took advantage of a 67 on moving day and held on for a 5-shot victory over Yuko Mitsuka, thanks to a bogey-free 34 on her final 9. This is her 6th career JLPGA victory since joining the tour in 2004.

1st/-8 Rui Kitada (69-67-72)
2nd/-3 Yuko Mitsuka (72-69-72)
T3/-2 Young Kim (73-69-72), Ji-Hee Lee (73-68-73)
T5/-1 Yukari Baba (71-74-70), Sun-Ju Ahn (70-72-73), Sakura Yokomine (72-67-76), Chie Arimura (69-68-78)
T9/+1 Esther Lee (73-71-73), Yun-Jye Wei (72-66-79)

T11/+2 Shinobu Moromizato (71-72-75), Akiko Fukushima (74-68-76), Miki Saiki (73-69-76), Yuki Ichinose (69-72-77)
T17/+3 Ayako Uehara (73-73-73), Akane Iijima (76-68-75), Nikki Campbell (74-69-76), Yuri Fudoh (71-71-77)
T25/+5 Mie Nakata (76-70-75), Maiko Wakabayashi (75-71-75), Jae-Hee Bae (71-71-79)
T34/+6 Mi-Jeong Jeon (74-74-74), Eun-A Lim (70-77-75), Bo-Bae Song (75-71-76)
T41/+7 Hiromi Mogi (76-72-75), Na-Ri Lee (74-72-77)
T44/+8 Ritsuko Ryu (74-73-77)
T47/+9 Hyun-Ju Shin (72-73-80)
T55/+11 Rikako Morita (73-73-81)
T57/+13 Saiki Fujita (76-72-81), Miho Koga (75-73-81)
60th/+14 So-Hee Kim (77-70-83)
61st/+15 Erina Hara (74-73-84)

MC: Sakurako Mori, Kumiko Kaneda, Na-Ri Kim, Li-Ying Ye

Here's how the JLPGA money list now stands:

1. Sun Ju Ahn ￥18.62M
2. Rui Kitada ￥16.41M
3. Yun-Jye Wei ￥16.31M
5. Inbee Park ￥11.25M
5. Kaori Aoyama ￥9.73M
6. Chie Arimura ￥7.64M
7. Sakura Yokomine ￥7.52M
8. Shinobu Moromizato ￥7.51M
9. Mie Nakata ￥7.30M
10. Yuko Mitsuka ￥6.16M
11. Ji-Hee Lee ￥5.78M
12. Young Kim ￥5.43M
13. Ji-Yai Shin ￥4.93M
14. Yukari Baba ￥4.38M
15. Akane Iijima ￥4.04M
16. Ayako Uehara ￥3.75M
17. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥3.39M
18. Nikki Campbell ￥2.73M
19. Saiki Fujita ￥2.63M
20. Yuri Fudoh ￥2.56M
21. Orie Fujino ￥2.53M
22. Ai Miyazato ￥2.40M
23. Miki Saiki ￥2.33M
24. Esther Lee ￥2.25M
25. Miho Koga ￥2.25M
26. Rikako Morita ￥2.23M
27. Asako Fujimoto ￥1.80M
28. Akiko Fukushima ￥1.80M
29. Yeo-Jin Kang ￥1.80M
30. Natsu Nagai ￥1.80M

LET

Anja Monke beat Carin Koch by 1 shot in the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco. Other notable finishes include Maria Verchenova's T12 (-3), Ashleigh Simon's T15 (-1), Mallory Blackwelder's and Kiran Matharu's T23s (E), Stephanie Na's T28 (+1), Kim Welch's T47 (+5), and MCs by Mollie Fankhauser, Linda Wessberg, Nina Reis, and Sophie Giquel.

LAGT

Despite a final-round 76 caused by bogeys in 4 of her last 5 holes on the front, Korea's Solar Lee held on for a 1-shot victory over Japan's Mina Nakayama in the Ladies Indonesia Open today. A 75 dropped Nontaya Srisawang back to T4 (+3), while Onnarin Sattayabanphot jumped to T6 (+4) with a closing 71. Other notables include China's Tao Li Yang (T13, +7) and Na Zhang (T20, +10), Taiwan's Tzu-Chi Lin (19th, +9) and Pei Lin Yu (T25, +11), and Japan's Yuki Sakurai (T41, +17). Pornanong Phatlum is listed as "RTD."

Futures Tour

With several promising members playing internationally this week, 2nd-round co-leaders Angela Oh and Jane Rah have a great chance to establish themselves on the tour with a win today in the Florida's Natural Charity Classic. To do that, they'll have to hold off 7 players within 5 shots of their lead at -7, including Cindy LaCrosse (3rd, -6), Gerima Mendoza and Garrett Phillips (T4, -5), and Dewi Claire Schreefel and Esther Choe (T7, -3). A little farther back are my projected #1, #2, and #14 Kristie Smith, Carolina Llano and Jennie Lee (T10, -1) and #3 Tiffany Joh and #9 Paola Moreno (T23, E). Even further behind are #4 (but still amateur until after the Curtis Cup) Jennifer Song, #8 Christine Song, #11 Hannah Yun, and #15 Virada Nirapathpongporn (T39, +3), and #6 Sophia Sheridan, (T50, +4). I won't be able to follow the live scoring today, but I hope you can follow the players in person or on line. Good luck to all the competitors! I'll be back with results when I can.

[Update 1 (3/22/10, 12:39 am): Here's more on the LAGT's final round. And congrats to Angela Oh, who beat Jane Rah on the 1st playoff hole after weather forced the cancellation of the final round and a Monday finish proved impossible because of the condition of the course and the need to travel to Mexico next week.]