Japan Women's Open Friday: Mika Miyazato Takes 1-Shot Lead

Ohtone Country Club's East course isn't long--those competing there in the Japan Women's Open this week are playing from tees that measure less than 6,400 yards--but it sure is playing tough.  Nobody in the star-studded field is at or under par after 36 holes.  The golfer closest to par, however, is none other than defending champion and 1st-round co-leader Mika Miyazato.  Surprise, surprise--this is now 6 rounds in a row that she's finished the day with at least a share of the lead in this, the biggest event in women's golf in Japan.  Starting on the back, Mikan made 2 bogeys in her 1st 5 holes before bouncing back with back-to-back birdies late on the side; after bogeying the long par-4 18th, she steadied the ship and finished with 9 straight pars.

Here's how the leaders and notables stand heading into the weekend:

1st/+1 Mika Miyazato (70-71)
T2/+2 Yukari Baba (73-69), Young Kim (71-71)
T4/+3 Ji-Woo Lee (75-68), Ayako Uehara (72-71)
T6/+4 Akane Iijima (73-71), Ji-Hee Lee (70-74)
T8/+5 Yuki Ichinose (74-71), Ai Miyazato (72-73), Saiki Fujita (71-74)

T11/+6 Onnarin Sattayabanphot (76-70), Miki Uehara (74-72), Yuri Fudoh (73-73), Eun-A Lim (73-73), Na-Ri Lee (73-73), Mamiko Higa [a] (73), Sun-Ju Ahn (72-74), Mi-Jeong Jeon (70-76), Teresa Lu (70-76)
T20/+7 Hyun-Ju Shin (77-70), Shanshan Feng (75-72), Ritsuko Ryu (74-73), Chie Arimura (71-76)
T26/+8 Ah-Reum Hwang (73-75)
T28/+9 Bo-Bae Song (76-73), Momoko Ueda (75-74), Rui Kitada (75-74), Asako Fujimoto (75-74), Harukyo Nomura (72-77), Erika Kikuchi (72-77), Na-Ri Kim (71-78), Kumiko Kaneda (70-79)
T37/+10 Sakura Yokomine (76-74), Eun-Bi Jang (76-74), Mayu Hattori (73-77)
T40/+11 Rui Yokomine (79-72), Eun-Hee Ji (72-79), Akiko Fukushima (72-79)
T46/+12 Soo-Yun Kang (80-72), Yuko Mitsuka (79-73), Shinobu Moromizato (77-75), Tamie Durdin (76-76), Bo-Mee Lee (75-77)
T53/+13 Kaori Aoyama (77-76), Rikako Morita (74-79)
T57/+14 Miki Saiki (82-72), Kaori Ohe (81-73), Sakura Kito [a] (76-78), Hinako Yamauchi [a] (75-79)

MC:  Maria Iida (81-74), Junko Omote (78-77), Li-Ying Ye (77-78), Megumi Kido (77-80), Haruka Morita [a] (75-84), Maiko Wakabayashi (83-76), Chihiro Ikeda [a] (74-86), Woo-Soon Ko (80-81), Tao-Li Yang (79-83), Sakurako Mori (82-82)
WD:  Yun-Jye Wei (74-WD)
 
As you can see, there are still 19 players within 6 shots of the lead and lots of opportunities for the leaders to blow up in a bad way.