Sakura Yokomine had a slow start to 2010, but she's been playing better of late and this week at the Fundokin Ladies in Fukuoka she finally broke through for her 1st win of the season.
With 2nd-round leader and JLPGA living legend Yuri Fudoh uncharacteristically playing herself out of the mix early on, Yokomine took charge with birdies on the long par 4 4th and 5th while playing partner Hyun-Ju Shin bogeyed both then followed it up with her 3rd straight birdie on the next hole, a 520-yard par-5. After a bogey on the par-3 8th, Yokomine bounced back with back-to-back birdies to get to -9 for the tournament and -4 on her day. At that point, she led Shin, Fudoh, and the charging Sun-Ju Ahn by 4, Teresa Lu by 5, and Esther Lee by 6, so she put it in cruise control for the next several holes, playing the next 5 in +1. But that's just when everyone else (except Ahn and Fudoh) got hot: Lee played 11 through 16 in -4, making 3 consecutive birdies on the 14th through 16th; Lu also got the birdie hat trick over those same holes; and Shin birdied the 13th, 15th, and 16th. Fortunately for Yokomine, she, too, birdied the par-5 16th and when the dust settled after a bunch of pars on 17 and 18 from those in contention, she ended up with a 1-shot victory over Shin and a 2-shot victory over Lu and Lee. Fudoh roared back with 3 birdies in her last 4 holes to pass Ahn, who got caught by a bogey-free 67 by Eun-A Lim. Lots of action on the back 9!
Here's how the top 10 and notables ended up:
1st/-9 Sakura Yokomine (69-70-68)
2nd/-8 Hyun-Ju Shin (69-70-69)
T3/-5 Teresa Lu (72-68-69), Esther Lee (73-66-70)
5th/-6 Yuri Fudoh (69-69-72)
T6/-5 Eun-A Lim (73-71-67), Sun-Ju Ahn (72-70-69)
8th/-4 Yukari Baba (70-70-72)
T9/-3 Chie Arimura (75-69-69), Ji-Hee Lee (74-69-70), Shinobu Moromizato (73-70-70), Hiromi Mogi (74-67-72), Asako Fujimoto (71-69-73)
T14/-2 Nikki Campbell (76-69-69), Seon Hwa Lee (73-72-69), Rui Kitada (73-71-70)
T17/-1 Akiko Fukushima (71-73-71)
T20/E Rikako Morita (73-74-69), Saiki Fujita (71-76-69)
T22/+1 Mayu Hattori (73-73-71), Na-Ri Kim (73-72-72)
T24/+2 Ritsuko Ryu (75-73-70), Miho Koga (76-71-71), Ah-Reum Hwang (77-67-74)
T29/+4 Yuki Ichinose (78-71-71), Tamie Durdin (76-71-73), Miki Saiki (75-71-74), Sakurako Mori (71-75-74)
T37/+5 Yun-Jye Wei (77-73-71), Maiko Wakabayashi (75-74-72), Na-Ri Lee (73-73-75)
T41/+6 Ayako Uehara (75-72-75)
T45/+7 Kaori Aoyama (75-75-73), Akane Iijima (78-71-74)
53rd/+9 Erina Hara (76-74-75)
59th/+15 Yuko Saitoh (74-75-82)
Yokomine's win puts her back atop the JLPGA money list! Now let's see how much distance she can put between herself and the JLPGA's irregulars before they return to action on tour. And if Ahn, Arimura, Koga, and the rest of the JLPGA's finest will step up, as well.
1. Sakura Yokomine ￥38.61M
2. Inbee Park ￥36.50M
3. Sun-Ju Ahn ￥30.92M
4. Chie Arimura ￥26.51M
5. Ji-Yai Shin ￥25.76M
6. Miho Koga ￥24.58M
7. Rui Kitada ￥22.71M
8. Mayu Hattori ￥21.87M
9. Yun-Jye Wei ￥18.46M
10. Mie Nakata ￥17.16M
11. Nikki Campbell ￥15.89M
12. Asako Fujimoto ￥15.60M
13. Hiromi Mogi ￥14.79M
14. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥13.63M
15. Yuri Fudoh ￥13.09M
16. Ji-Hee Lee ￥12.99M
17. Akane Iijima ￥12.72M
18. Shinobu Moromizato ￥12.57M
19. Bo-Bae Song ￥12.44M
20. Kaori Aoyama ￥11.150M
21. Hyun-Ju Shin ￥11.38M
22. Yukari Baba ￥11.34M
23. Chieko Amanuma ￥10.88M
24. Esther Lee ￥10.50M
25. Young Kim ￥10.13M
26. Ah-Reum Hwang ￥10.03M
27. Tamie Durdin ￥9.92M
28. Ai Miyazato ￥9.44M
29. Yuko Mitsuka ￥8.95M
30. Ayako Uehara ￥8.90M
Momoko Ueda dropped to #34, while Teresa Lu climbed to #38 and Seon Hwa Lee to #43. The latter 2 are staying on the JLPGA until the LPGA's major season begins, so let's see how high they can get before they go!
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