Munsingwear Ladies Tokai Classic Friday: Sakura Yokomine Shares 1st-Round Lead

While Ji-Yai Shin and Na Yeon Choi are neck-and-neck at the halfway point of the KLPGA's 2nd major of 2010, the JLPGA is right in between its 2nd and 3rd majors. And its stars are out in force at the Munsingwear Ladies Tokai Classic. The JLPGA's top gun over the past several seasons, Sakura Yokomine, went out in 31, thanks to a stretch where she went eagle-par-birdie-birdie-birdie and ended up in a share of the lead at -6 with veteran Midori Yoneyama, whose own 31 came on the back. But right behind them are a score of tough competitors, including Bo-Bae Song (-5), Yuri Fudoh (-4), and Momoko Ueda, Shinobu Moromizato, and Young Kim (all at -3). And don't count out Mi-Jeong Jeon and Shiho Oyama at -2, Inbee Park and Akane Iijima at -1, and Sun-Ju Ahn and Chie Arimura at E yet, either. Unfortunately, Miho Koga WDed, Teresa Lu and Hyun-Ju Shin opened with 75s, and Akiko Fukushima and Yuko Mitsuka could only manage 74s, but it still should be an exciting weekend. I'm rooting for LPGA Class of '06er Na-Ri Kim to walk away with her 1st JLPGA win this week. She's only 1 off the lead right now after opening with a bogey-free 67.

Here are the leaders and notables:

T1/-6 Sakura Yokomine, Midori Yoneyama (66)
T3/-5 Bo-Bae Song, Na-Ri Kim, Yoshimi Koda (67)
6th/-4 Yuri Fudoh (68)
T7/-3 Momoko Ueda, Shinobu Moromizato, Young Kim, Mayu Hattori, Li-Ying Ye, Na-Ri Lee, Kuniko Maeda, Kaori Nakamura (69)

T15/-2 Mi-Jeong Jeon, Shiho Oyama, Rui Kitada, Miki Saiki (70)
T23/-1 Inbee Park, Akane Iijima, Mie Nakata, Ji-Woo Lee, Ritsuko Ryu (71)
T34/E Sun-Ju Ahn, Chie Arimura, Ayako Uehara, Jae-Hee Bae (72)
T46/+1 Yukari Baba, Maiko Wakabayashi, Esther Lee (73)
T56/+2 Akiko Fukushima, Yuko Mitsuka, Ah-Reum Hwang, Erina Hara (74)
T72/+3 Teresa Lu, Hyun-Ju Shin, Tamie Durdin, Yuki Ichinose (75)
T83/+4 Kaori Aoyama, Yun-Jye Wei, So-Hee Kim (76)
T88/+5 Asako Fujimoto (77)
T96/+6 Rikako Morita (78)
WD Miho Koga

I'm seeing a lot of big numbers on the 9th and 18th (even Yokomine bogeyed the latter), so expect some interesting finishes to players' rounds over the weekend!