Sunday, May 23, 2010

Chukyo TV Bridgestone Ladies Open Weekend: Can Fudoh Seal the Deal?

Yuri Fudoh followed up her opening 66 with a 67 yesterday to take a 3-shot lead on Rikako Morita and Na-Ri Kim into today's round at the Chukyo TV Bridgestone Ladies Open. Through the 1st 2/3 of the day thus far, she's played bogey-free golf and extended her lead on them to 4, but they've been passed by 4 players going low so far: Chie Arimura, Young Kim, Rui Kitada, and Saiki Fujita. Kitada's -5 today with 4 holes to go, while the rest are -4 with 5 to go. They'll need to make some birdies down the home stretch to put some pressure on the JLPGA's Billion-Yen Woman, who's 3-up on the lead chase pack with 6 holes left to play. Can Fudoh log her 1st JLPGA victory since 2008 today? Stay tuned!

[Update 1 (3:49 am): Here's where everyone stood heading into today's round:

1st/-11 Yuri Fudoh (66-67)
T2/-8 Na-Ri Kim (68-68), Rikako Morita (65-71)
T4/-6 Saori Ikushima (70-68), Mi-Jeong Jeon (66-72), Asako Fujimoto (66-72)
T7/-5 Young Kim (73-66), Chie Arimura (71-68), Saiki Fujita (69-70)
T10/-4 Kumiko Kaneda (71-69), Rui Kitada (68-72)

T12/-3 Sakura Yokomine (71-70), Ayako Uehara (70-71), Yukari Baba (70-71), Yun-Jye Wei (70-71), Tamie Durdin (67-74), Miki Saiki (67-74)
T19/-2 Na-Ri Lee (72-70), Hiromi Mogi (71-71), Bo-Bae Song (68-74)
T24/-1 Akane Iijima (74-69), Shinobu Moromizato (73-70), Miho Koga (71-72)
T29/E Ji-Woo Lee (75-69), Ritsuko Ryu (74-70), So-Hee Kim (72-72)
T44/+1 Li-Ying Ye (74-71), Sun-Ju Ahn (73-72), Kaori Aoyama (73-72)

MC Esther Lee (76-70), Eun-A Lim (72-74), Ji-Hee Lee (76-72), Erina Hara (76-72), Mayu Hattori (71-77), Yuki Ichinose (72-78), Jae-Hee Bae (75-74), Maiko Wakabayashi (75-76), Ai-Yu Tu (78-78)
WD Hyun-Ju Shin (74-WD), Yuko Saitoh (74-WD)

Wow, Ahn just squeaked by the cut line--exactly 50 made it to today's round!]

[Update 1 (4:01 am): And here's where everyone stood coming out of it:

1st/-13 Yuri Fudoh (66-67-70)
2nd/-11 Na-Ri Kim (68-68-69)
3rd/-10 Saiki Fujita (69-70-67)
T4/-9 Rui Kitada (68-72-67), Young Kim (73-66-68)
6th/-8 Chie Arimura (71-68-69)
T7/-7 Shinobu Moromizato (73-70-66), Saori Ikushima (70-68-71), Rikako Morita (65-71-73)
10th/-6 Ayako Uehara (70-71-69)

T11/-5 Sakura Yokomine (71-70-70), Yukari Baba (70-71-70), Tamie Durdin (67-74-70), Miki Saiki (67-74-70), Mi-Jeong Jeon (66-72-73), Asako Fujimoto (66-72-73)
T18/-4 Akane Iijima (74-69-69), Yun-Jye Wei (70-71-71)
T22/-3 So-Hee Kim (72-72-69), Miho Koga (71-72-70), Na-Ri Lee (72-70-71), Hiromi Mogi (71-71-70), Kumiko Kaneda (71-69-73)
T27/-2 Sun-Ju Ahn (73-72-69), Kaori Aoyama (73-72-69)
T32/E Li-Ying Ye (74-71-71), Bo-Bae Song (68-74-74)
T34/+1 Ritsuko Ryu (74-70-73)
T48/+5 Ji-Woo Lee (75-69-77)

Great win for Fudoh and great runner-up for Kim, who decided to strike out for the JLPGA this season rather than try to get back to the LPGA via the Futures Tour!]

[Update 3 (4:14 am): Here's how the money list now stands:

1. Sakura Yokomine ¥39.74M
2. Inbee Park ¥36.50M
3. Sun-Ju Ahn ¥31.53M
4. Chie Arimura ¥29.31M
5. Rui Kitada ¥26.56M
6. Ji-Yai Shin ¥25.76M
7. Yuri Fudoh ¥25.69M
8. Miho Koga ¥25.25M
9. Mayu Hattori ¥21.87M
10. Yun-Jye Wei ¥19.24M
11. Mie Nakata ¥17.16M
12. Asako Fujimoto ¥16.72M
13. Nikki Campbell ¥15.89M
14. Hiromi Mogi ¥15.45M
15. Mi-Jeong Jeon ¥14.76M
16. Shinobu Moromizato ¥14.67M
17. Young Kim ¥13.98M
18. Akane Iijima ¥13.50M
19. Ji-Hee Lee ¥12.99M
20. Bo-Bae Song ¥12.98M
21. Saiki Fujita ¥12.84M
22. Yukari Baba ¥12.47M
23. Kaori Aoyama ¥12.11M
24. Hyun-Ju Shin ¥11.38M
25. Na-Ri Kim ¥11.12M
26. Tamie Durdin ¥11.04M
27. Chieko Amanuma ¥10.88M
28. Esther Lee ¥10.50M
29. Ayako Uehara ¥10.30M
30. Ah-Reum Hwang ¥10.03M

The season is still young, but wouldn't it be cool if Fudoh continued to play well?]

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This is a great result for Yuri, unfortunately she lost abit of confidence on the greens following the dissapointment at the season ending JLPGA Tour Championship in 2008.

In the past she was just fearlous and would win, win, win and it seems she has her motivation back having played nine of the first eleven tournaments of the season.

Todays win is her 47th so i am hoping she can reach the magical number of 50 by year end.

LPGA Fan said...

Nice to see Yuri win. Thanks for the update. Always look for your post of the JLPGA. It's the best way for me stay informed of the JLPGA and progress of some of the ladies I like to follow.