Friday, October 18, 2013

Fujitsu Ladies Friday: Yukari Baba and Mihoko Iseri Take Lead in Wake of Killer Typhoon

Frankly, I'm amazed the JLPGA was able to start the Fujitsu Ladies on time, given how close to the path of Typhoon Wipha the Tokyu 700 Club is located in Chiba Prefecture, southeast of the Full Metal Archivist's home city.  But start the tournament they did, even with two dozen people dead and a few dozen more still missing.  In the wake of this tragedy, Yukari Baba and Mihoko Iseri took the lead with 7-birdie 67s, but they were followed closely by Ritsuko Ryu, Yumiko Yoshida, and Asako Fujimoto at -4, Mina Nakayama and Kaori Yamamoto at -3, and Teresa Lu, Eun-Bi Jang, and Ayaka Watanabe at -2.

Some of the biggest names on tour have their work cut out for them, as Mi-Jeong Jeon, Sun-Ju Ahn, Mamiko Higa, Na-Ri Lee, Megumi Kido, and Na-Ri Kim are 4 back, Rikako Morita, Erika Kikuchi, and Harukyo Nomura are 5 behind, and Yuri Fudoh, Mayu Hattori, and Erina Hara are 6 off the pace.  Meanwhile, Ji-Hee Lee, Yuki Ichinose, and Kumiko Kaneda (74), defending champion Misuzu Narita and Yuko Mitsuka (75), Sakura Yokomine, Bo-Mee Lee, Shinobu Moromizato, Young Kim, Maiko Wakabayashi, Lala Anai, and Yuki Sakurai (76), and Natsuka Hori and Hyun-Ju Shin (78) will be playing tomorrow with one or both eyes on the cut line.  At least they're playing; last week's winner Soo-Yun Kang and Bo-Bae Song were not able to start

I'm assuming the JLPGA has been planning to honor the victims of Japan's 26th typhoon of the season in some way this week.  I'll let you all know when I find out what it is.

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