Masters GC Ladies Friday and Saturday: Yukari Baba Holds onto Slim Lead

With 2nd-round play suspended at the Masters GC Ladies, Yukari Baba holds onto a 1-shot lead, thanks to a closing birdie barrage on her part that brought her to -4 and closing stumbles by Yuri Fudoh, Ayako Uehara, and Akane Iijima--although Fudoh and Uehara both will have their chances to recover early tomorrow morning and try to tie Baba for the lead.  Similarly, Sun-Ju Ahn, who's still looking for her 5th JLPGA win of the season, has a shot at shrinking her 2-shot deficit, while former money-list title-holder Shiho Oyama is done at -2.  Meanwhile, 2005 champion Paula Creamer, Ji-Hee Lee, defending champion Sakura Yokomine, and Chie Arimura will need some serious final-round charges to put any pressure on Baba and her lead chase pack on Sunday.

Here's how the leaders and notables stood when play was suspended:

1st/-4 Yukari Baba (72-68)
T2/-3 Akane Iijima (72-69), Ayako Uehara (71-2-under through 17), Yuri Fudoh (69-E through 16)
T5/-2 Shiho Oyama (72-70), Sun-Ju Ahn (70-E through 17)
T7/-1 Natsu Nagai (76-67), Yumiko Yoshida (71-E through 17)
T9/E Mamiko Higa [a] (76-68), Ritsuko Ryu (75-69), Paula Creamer (72-72), Ji-Hee Lee (72-72), Harukyo Nomura (72-72), Kumiko Kaneda (72-72), Na-Ri Lee (72-72), Erina Hara (71-1-over through 17), Mihiko Iseri (69-3-over through 16)

T18/+1 Esther Lee (74-71), Kaori Aoyama (72-73), Ji-Woo Lee (72-73), Sakura Yokomine (71-74), Na-Ri Kim (70-3-over through 16)
T23/+2 Chie Arimura (73-73), Asako Fujimoto (72-74), Miho Koga (71-75), Maiko Wakabayashi (71-3-over through 17)
T30/+3 Mi-Jeong Jeon (75-72), Junko Omote (75-72), Miki Sakai (75-72), Onnarin Sattayabanphot (74-73), Erika Kikuchi (74-73), Saiki Fujita (73-74), Soo-Yun Kang (73-74), Li-Ying Ye (73-74), Bo-Bae Song (72-75)
T43/+4 Megumi Kido (73-75), Aiko Ueno (73-75)
T50/+5 Bo-Mee Lee (77-72), Hiromi Mogi (76-73), Tamie Durdin (76-73), Eun-A Lim (74-75)

MC: Akiko Fukushima (75-75), Nikki Campbell (79-72), Miki Saiki (78-73), Hyun-Ju Shin (77-74), Teresa Lu (76-75), Rikako Morita (75-76), Mayu Hattori (75-77), Rui Kitada (72-80), So-Hee Kim (75-78), Ji-Na Lim (78-76), Yuki Ichinose (80-75), Lala Anai (78-77), Julie Lu (78-79), Kyung-Min Lim (77-80), Mie Nakata (82-9-over through 16)
WD:  Young Kim, Kaori Ohe, Miki Uehara, Tao-Li Yang

With Baba gunning for her 2nd win in her last 4 starts, Uehara looking for her 2nd of 2011, Fudoh pushing for her 3rd of the year, Iijima hoping for her 1st since last year's Golf5 Ladies, and Oyama riding a 4-event to-10 streak in which she's regularly contended for her 1st win since the title she won here in 2008, the JLPGAs only 100-Million Yen Woman of 2011 has plenty of tough company.  Should be a great finish!