Some of the JLPGA's hottest young players took runs at Natsuka Hori today at the AXA Ladies, but the 20-year-old followed up yesterday's sizzling 64 with a bogey-free 69 that proved too much for Harukyo Nomura and Rikako Morita. Nomura was hot early, making 3 birdies in her 1st 4 holes and following them up with back-to-back birdies on 10 and 11 to tie Hori for the lead at the time at -12. Morita got hot late, birdieing 4 of her 1st 5 holes on the back to pull within sight of the leaders. But neither player could keep up with Hori as she birdied the 178-yard par-3 13th and 388-yard par-4 15th to get to -14. Morita blinked first with a bogey on the 15th, while Nomura's Waterloo was the 162-yard par-3 16th, which she bogeyed to fall 3 off the pace. Meanwhile, JLPGA veteran and former LPGAer Shiho Oyama got stuck in neutral for 11 holes--going +1 over her final 8 holes yesterday and +1 over her 1st 3 today--and had to rally with 4 birdies over her remaining holes, including a walkoff birdie that matched Morita's, to tie the 23-year-old money-list leader for 3rd, 1 shot behind Nomura and 4 behind Hori. This was Hori's 1st career JLPGA victory, and she did it in style, denying Nomura her 2nd JLPGA win (and 1st as a member) and forcing Morita to wait for her 4th JLPGA win.
Low round of the day went to Na-Ri Lee, who leaped into the top 10 with a 6-birdie 67, tying the likes of Erina Hara, Onnarin Sattayabanphot, and Yumiko Yoshida at -5. Matching Nomura's and Morita's 68s was 25-year-old Ritsuko Ryu, who tied Miki Saiki and 23-year-old Megumi Kido for 7th, 1 shot behind 24-year-old Erika Kikuchi and 22-year-old Mikiko Nishi. The JLPGA's biggest names could be found a little further down the leaderboard, with Sakura Yokomine, Mi-Jeong Jeon, Bo-Mee Lee, and Teresa Lu tied with 17-year-old amateur Asuka Kashiwabara in T16 at -4, Sun-Ju Ahn and Ji-Hee Lee stuck in T24 at -2, and Shinobu Moromizato and Young Kim back in T44 at +1.
Here's how the JLPGA money list now looks:
1. Rikako Morita ￥31.36M
2. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥20.97M
3. Natsuka Hori ￥15.48M
4. Yuki Ichinose ￥14.21M
5. Erika Kikuchi ￥11.27M
6. Harukyo Nomura ￥10.74M
7. Sakura Yokomine ￥10.19M
8. Ritsuko Ryu ￥9.49M
9. Young Kim ￥8.24M
10. Megumi Kido ￥7.12M
11. Shiho Oyama ￥6.82M
12. Onnarin Sattayabanphot ￥6.79M
13. Na-Ri Lee ￥5.46M
14. Yun-Jye Wei ￥5.33M
15. Teresa Lu ￥5.32M
Next up on the JLPGA is the Yamaha Ladies, which features pretty much all the tour's finest, including Yuri Fudoh, as well as 17-year-olds new pro Hyo-Joo Kim and amateur Nao Honda.
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