CAT Ladies Sunday: Momoko Ueda Defeats Rikako Morita for 10th Career JLPGA Victory, 1st Since 2011

Momoko Ueda birdied 3 of her 1st 4 holes in the final round of the CAT Ladies to erase Rikako Morita's 3-shot 36-hole lead, then outlasted the 2013 JLPGA money-list title-holder in a tense seesaw battle.  It was the 10th JLPGA victory of the 2007 money-list title-holder's career and 1st since the 2011 Mizuno Classic.  Be sure to check out bangkokbobby's post for further context and photos of all the contenders!

This tournament really did come down to 2 players, as nobody close to them could make a run and those who did started the day too far behind them to become a factor.  Teresa Lu, for instance, birdied 4 of her last 8 holes for a bogey-free 33 on the par-37 back-9, but couldn't even catch this year's money-list leader, Bo-Mee Lee, who finished 3rd at -6, 3 shots off the pace.  A bogey-free 32 on the front by Asako Fujimoto helped her catch Esther Lee at -3, but neither could chase down 20-year-old Ayaka Watanabe, who scattered 4 birdies and 4 bogeys through her round to finish alone in 5th at -4.  Mamiko Higa and Yeo-Jin Kang fired 70s to join Sun-Ju Ahn, Erina Hara, Natsuka Hori, and Kaori Ohe at +1, while Yumiko Yoshida's and Megumi Kido's 69s tied Ueda and Fujimoto for 2nd-lowest rounds of the day and earned them top 20s.  Journeywoman Kaori Yamamoto struggled to a 76, but still ended up with the 2nd-best finish of her career and 2nd-straight top-10 of the season.

So this really was a straight-up duel between Ueda and Morita.  After Ueda caught her, Morita struck back 1st with a birdie on the 158-yard par-3 5th, her 2nd of the day, to get to -9 and take a 1-shot lead.  The ex-LPGAer responded with a birdie on the 329-yard par-4 7th, but gave it right back with a bogey on the 378-yard par-4 8th, so Morita still led at the turn.  But not for long, for she bogeyed the 370-yard par-4 10th and 484-yard par-5 13th even as Ueda birdied the 182-yard par-3 12th.  With a 2-shot lead and only 5 holes to play, Ueda parred in while Morita could manage only 1 birdie, on the 563-yard par-5 15th.  The end result:  Ueda -9, Morita -8.

Lee's 3rd-place finish left her just shy of the 100M yen barrier on the JLPGA money list.  Just as this tournament turned into a faceoff between Ueda and Morita, this year's race to the money-list title is starting to look like a Lee-Ahn showdown.

1. Bo-Mee Lee ￥99.33M
2. Sun-Ju Ahn ￥90.51M
3. Misuzu Narita ￥69.87M
4. Miki Sakai ￥59.89M
5. Ji-Yai Shin ￥55.53M
6. Erina Hara ￥47.30M
7. Teresa Lu ￥46.57M
8. Ayaka Watanabe ￥42.42M
9. Onnarin Sattayabanphot ￥38.39M
10. Esther Lee ￥37.93M
11. Rikako Morita ￥36.57M
12. Lala Anai ￥34.08M
13. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥33.92M
14. Ritsuko Ryu ￥31.85M
15. Yuki Ichinose ￥31.61M
16. Momoko Ueda ￥30.03M
17. Shiho Oyama ￥28.50M
18. Ji-Hee Lee ￥27.65M

19. Phoebe Yao ￥27.65M
20. Na-Ri Lee ￥26.99M
21. Mayu Hattori ￥26.20M
22. Hikari Fujita ￥25.13M
23. Saiki Fujita ￥24.94M
24. Kaori Ohe ￥22.39M
25. Asako Fujimoto ￥21.88M
26. Sakura Yokomine ￥21.42M
27. Yukari Baba ￥21.29M
28. Yeon-Ju Jung ￥20.52M
29. Megumi Kido ￥20.33M
30. Shanshan Feng ￥20.04M
31. Junko Omote ￥19.91M
32. Mami Fukuda ￥19.73M
33. Yumiko Yoshida ￥19.57M
34. Mamiko Higa ￥19.52M
35. Erika Kikuchi ￥18.73M
36. Soo-Yun Kang ￥18.02M

37. Rumi Yoshiba ￥17.82M
38. Akane Iijima ￥17.45M

39. Natsuka Hori ￥17.32M
40. Miki Saiki ￥15.88M
41. Kotono Kozuma ￥15.62M
42. Na-Ri Kim ￥15.41M
43. Yuri Fudoh ￥14.29M
44. Megumi Shimokawa ￥13.79M
45. Yukari Nishiyama ￥13.10M

As you can see, only a few million yen separate players between #25 and #39 on the money list, so leaps like Ueda's from #32 to #16 are still entirely possible in the 14 events, including 3 majors, remaining on the JLPGA schedule.  Next chance for that to happen comes next week at the Nitori Ladies, which features most of the JLPGA's finest.  Let's see if Ueda and Morita can keep it rolling!