Japan Women's Open Saturday: Mika Miyazato Collapses, Yukari Baba Takes the Lead

It's a war of attrition at the Japan Women's Open this year and the latest victim is Mika Miyazato, who broke her streak of 6-straight JWO rounds with at least a share of the lead when she stumbled to a 7-bogey, 2-double 79 that dropped her from +1 to +10 on the week.  Still, she trails Yukari Baba by only 4 shots--and only Ji-Hee Lee, Ritsuko Ryu, and Ai Miyazato stand between her and the leader.  Mikan can take a little comfort in the fact that she could still defend her title with a Sunday comeback that would do much to make up for the sting of her Sunday collapse 2 years ago that cost her a chance for her 1st professional win.

Here's how all the leaders and notables stand with only 18 more holes of suffering yet to endure:

1st/+6 Yukari Baba (73-69-74)
T2/+8 Ritsuko Ryu (74-73-71), Ji-Hee Lee (70-74-74)
4th/+9 Ai Miyazato (72-73-74)
T5/+10 Sun-Ju Ahn (72-74-74), Mika Miyazato (70-71-79)
T7/+11 Nachiyo Ohtani (75-72-74), Miki Uehara (74-72-75)
T9/+12 Bo-Bae Song (76-73-73), Shanshan Feng (75-72-75), Yuri Fudoh (73-73-76), Mi-Jeong Jeon (70-76-76), Akane Iijima (73-71-78)


T14/+13 Saiki Fujita (71-74-78), Ji-Woo Lee (75-68-80), Young Kim (71-71-81)
T17/+14 Hyun-Ju Shin (77-70-77), Chie Arimura (71-76-77), Na-Ri Lee (73-73-78), Yuki Ichinose (74-71-79), Ayako Uehara (72-71-81)
T23/+15 Na-Ri Kim (71-78-76), Onnarin Sattayabanphot (76-70-79), Eun-A Lim (73-73-79)
T26/+16 Sakura Yokomine (76-74-76), Teresa Lu (70-76-80)
T28/+17 Shinobu Moromizato (77-75-75)
T30/+18 Soo-Yun Kang (80-72-76), Eun-Hee Ji (72-79-77), Mayu Hattori (73-77-78)
T34/+19 Miki Saiki (82-72-75), Rikako Morita (74-79-76), Eun-Bi Jang (76-74-79), Momoko Ueda (75-74-80), Harukyo Nomura (72-77-80)
T40/+20 Tamie Durdin (76-76-78), Rui Kitada (75-74-81), Erika Kikuchi (72-77-81), Kumiko Kaneda (70-79-81), Ah-Reum Hwang (73-75-82), Mamiko Higa [a] (73-73-84)
T46/+21 Asako Fujimoto (75-74-82)
T48/+22 Yuko Mitsuka (79-73-80), Bo-Mee Lee (75-77-80), Rui Yokomine (79-72-81), Akiko Fukushima (72-79-81)
T55/+23 Sakura Kito [a] (76-78-79), Kaori Aoyama (77-76-80)
T60/+27 Kaori Ohe (81-73-83)
62nd/+31 Hinako Yamauchi [a] (75-79-87)

Me, I'm not sure which Miyazato I'd rather see win tomorrow....  I just hope that whatever's causing scoring to have been so high the 1st 3 rounds gives everyone a break in the final one!