I wonder how it would feel to be 21 years old and duelling in the final round with 1 of the best golfers ever to play on the JLPGA? To watch her playing in the group ahead of you making 3 birdies and and eagle in her 1st 11 holes to get to -11 for the tournament, but respond with a bogey, 2 birdies, and an eagle of your own in that same span to hold onto a 1-shot lead with only 7 holes to play? To bounce back from a bogey on the long par-4 13th with a birdie on the long par-5 14th to lose and then regain the lead, then see it extended to 2 when she uncharacteristically bogeys the short par-4 17th? And how to you deal with the crushing disappointment when you not only bogey the very same hole but double bogey the next to miss your chance even for playoff redemption? I'm talking, of course, about 2nd-round leader of the Resort Trust Ladies Satsuki Oshiro and its eventual winner Sakura Yokomine. For Yokomine, who broke a long-for-her 13-tournament non-winning streak on the JLPGA dating back to last season, her 18th career victory on her home tour must be particularly satisfying. For Oshiro, who finished the tournament tied for 2nd with Rui Kitada and Ah-Reum Hwang, well, she can look back on this and take some satisfaction from her best finish as a professional, along with lots of lessons for the future.
Here's how the leaders and notables ended up:
1st/-10 Sakura Yokomine (70-68-68)
T2/-9 Ah-Reum Hwang (71-67-68), Rui Kitada (70-69-68), Satsuki Oshiro (71-64-72)
T5/-8 Mie Nakata (69-70-69), Ayako Uehara (73-65-70)
T7/-7 Chie Arimura (69-72-68), Ji-Hee Lee (73-67-69), Ritsuko Ryu (68-72-69)
T10/-6 Ji-Woo Lee (72-70-68), Midori Yoneyama (69-69-72)
T12/-5 Yukari Baba (74-69-68), Shinobu Moromizato (69-69-73)
T14/-4 Rikako Morita (73-71-68), Miho Koga (69-74-69)
T16/-3 Mayu Hattori (76-68-69), Na-Ri Lee (71-71-71), Yuki Ichinose (70-72-71), So-Hee Kim (74-67-72)
T21/-2 Young Kim (71-73-70), Nikki Campbell (70-72-72), Hyun-Ju Shin (71-70-73)
T24/-1 Hiromi Mogi (71-75-69), Akiko Fukushima (75-69-71), Esther Lee (72-72-71), Teresa Lu (71-73-71), Tamie Durdin (70-71-74)
T33/E Li-Ying Ye (74-72-70), Maiko Wakabayashi (73-71-72), Kaori Ohe (73-71-72)
T39/+1 Mika Takushima (71-72-74)
T42/+2 Miki Saiki (73-73-72), Megumi Kido (76-69-73), Kumiko Kaneda (69-74-75)
T49/+3 Miki Sakai (72-74-73), Asako Fujimoto (73-71-75), Akane Iijima (70-74-75)
T54/+5 Pei-Ying Tsai (70-75-76)
58th/+9 Jae-Hee Bae (74-72-79)
With Yokomine's win, the JLPGA's money-list race is tightening up!
1. Miki Saiki ￥38.87M
2. Sun-Ju Ahn ￥32.42M
3. Sakura Yokomine ￥32.09M
4. Yuri Fudoh ￥30.10M
5. Ji-Hee Lee ￥23.01M
6. Rui Kitada ￥22.53M
7. Hiromi Mogi ￥22.31M
8. Inbee Park ￥21.51M
9. Kumiko Kaneda ￥19.90M
10. Yukari Baba ￥15.73M
11. Momoko Ueda ￥13.77M
12. Chie Arimura ￥13.09M
13. Teresa Lu ￥12.52M
14. Ji-Woo Lee ￥12.40M
15. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥11.64M
16. Ayako Uehara ￥10.82M
17. Ji-Yai Shin ￥10.67M
18. Ritsuko Ryu ￥10.44M
19. Mie Nakata ￥10.02M
20. Mayu Hattori ￥10.02M
21. Saiki Fujita ￥10.01M
22. Bo-Bae Song ￥8.94M
23. Kaori Aoyama ￥8.67M
24. Rikako Morita ￥8.24M
25. Young Kim ￥7.92M
26. Yumiko Yoshida ￥7.74M
27. Shinobu Moromizato ￥7.63M
28. Bo-Mee Lee ￥7.49M
29. Megumi Kido ￥7.07M
30. Satsuki Oshiro ￥6.86M
31. Akiko Fukushima ￥6.63M
32. So-Hee Kim ￥6.55M
33. Hyun-Ju Shin ￥6.40M
34. Ah-Reum Hwang ￥6.34M
35. Akane Iijima ￥6.26M
36. Shiho Oyama ￥6.23M
37. Asako Fujimoto ￥6.21M
38. Na-Ri Lee ￥5.49M
39. Yuki Ichinose ￥5.45M
40. Ji-Na Lim ￥4.79M
41. Miki Sakai ￥4.77M
42. Na-Ri Kim ￥4.65M
43. Soo-Yun Kang ￥4.18M
44. Esther Lee ￥4.12M
45. Lala Anai ￥3.95M
With Ai Miyazato returning to Japan, Sun-Ju Ahn, Yuri Fudoh, and Inbee Park returning to JLPGA action, and promising amateurs Miho Mori and Min-Jung Koh getting sponsor exemptions into next week's Suntory Ladies Open, the only way its field could have been stronger would have been for Ji-Yai Shin, Momoko Ueda, Shanshan Feng, and Hee Young Park (along with non-members Mika Miyazato and Harukyo Nomura) to skip the LPGA State Farm Classic. Should be pretty exciting!
[Update 1 (5:46 am): Ah, Ahn came in 2nd on the KLPGA this week.]
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