Samantha Thavasa Ladies Sunday: Yumiko Yoshida Chases Down Junko Omote, Wins in Playoff

Yumiko Yoshida trailed Junko Omote by 5 shots heading into the final round of the Samantha Thavasa Ladies, but by the time they reached the 14th tee today, Yoshida had a 1-shot lead, thanks to 5 birdies in her 1st 13 holes and 2 bogeys in a row by Omote on the 12th and 13th holes.  But Omote, who had made only 1 bogey in her 1st 46 holes, bounced back on the par-5 15th with her 19th birdie of the week, to force a playoff.  When Yoshida birdied the 2nd playoff hole, the 7th-year pro earned her 2nd victory of the season and 3rd of her career.  The 26-year-old continues the trend of young winners from Japan dominating the JLPGA this season.  23-year-old Kumiko Kaneda tied 26-year-old Sun-Ju Ahn for 3rd at -13, 3 shots behind Yoshida and Omote, while 19-year-old Mamiko Higa continued her fine play this season, finishing at -12, and 21-year-old Harukyo Nomura got back on track with a -10 total that tied her with Mi-Jeong Jeon and Korean teen sensation Hyo-Joo Kim in 11th place.

With money-list leader Rikako Morita suffering her worst finish since missing the cut in late April, her closest pursuers inched closer to her, but the 23-year-old's lead remains over 30 million yen.

1. Rikako Morita ￥89.57M
2. Natsuka Hori ￥58.65M
3. Miki Saiki ￥56.46M
4. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥50.61M
5. Mamiko Higa ￥47.97M
6. Yumiko Yoshida ￥47.25M
7. Sakura Yokomine ￥47.03M
8. Hiromi Mogi ￥35.88M
9. Junko Omote ￥34.57M
10. Kumiko Kaneda ￥33.83M
11. Ritsuko Ryu ￥33.82M
12. Onnarin Sattayabanphot ￥33.00M
13. Yuki Ichinose ￥30.92M

14. Teresa Lu ￥26.68M
15. Yukari Baba ￥26.55M
16. Maiko Wakabayashi ￥24.28M

17. Bo-Mee Lee ￥23.07M

18. Mayu Hattori ￥22.84M

19. Na-Ri Lee ￥22.55M
20. Shiho Oyama ￥22.34M

21. Erika Kikuchi ￥22.14M

22. Sun-Ju Ahn ￥22.01M

23. Young Kim ￥21.12M

24. Misuzu Narita ￥20.07M

25. Megumi Kido ￥20.04M
26. Asako Fujimoto ￥19.68M

27. Kaori Ohe ￥19.37M
28. Na-Ri Kim ￥19.30M
29. Miki Sakai ￥18.81M

30. Kaori Nakamura ￥17.76M

31. Rui Kitada ￥17.39M

32. Ji-Hee Lee ￥16.91M
33. Esther Lee ￥16.75M
34. Soo-Yun Kang ￥15.82M

35. Yuri Fudoh ￥15.69M

36. Phoebe Yao ￥15.47M

37. Erina Hara ￥15.10M
38. Yuki Sakurai ￥14.47M
39. Harukyo Nomura ￥13.94M
40. Eun-Bi Jang ￥13.00M

The JLPGA takes another break, this time for the Women's British Open, and returns in the second week of August with the Meiji Cup in Sapporo, which features defending champion Shanshan Feng on its sponsor page.  With the LPGA not returning to action until late August following the Solheim Cup, it'll be interesting to see how many other Asian players travel from Scotland to Hokkaido to compete in this event!