Mizuno Classic Weekend: Mi Hyang Lee Prevails in Classic Barnburner

21-year-old Mi Hyang Lee won the 2nd tournament of 2014 among major women's professional tours by firing a final-round 63 in New Zealand and blowing past Lydia Ko, among others.  And she's just won the Mizuno Classic, the 2nd of November--and her 1st on the LPGA--by blowing past 51-year-old Laura Davies, among others, catching Ilhee Lee and Kotomo Kozuma at -11, and beating them with a birdie on the 5th playoff hole.  With 9 players finishing at -10 and 5 at -9, it's amazing that Lee could prevail, but somebody had to do it.  Here's how it happened.

Lee had sprung into contention with a 2nd-round 67, but it wasn't nearly the best round on moving day.  The JLPGA's young star Ai Suzuki birdied her last 4 holes in a row (and 5 of her last 6) for a 64 that got her a share of the lead with Davies (67) and Ilhee Lee (66) at -9.  Na-Ri Lee birdied 6 of her last 11 holes to post a 65 that got her into solo 7th, 2 shots off the lead and 1 behind Mi Hyang Lee, Kozuma (67), and Chella Choi (68).  With Jessica Korda, Misuzu Narita, and Teresa Lu firing 67s of their own to move to -6, -5, and -4, respectively, and with big names Karrie Webb (68), Sakura Yokomine (69), and Bo-Mee Lee (69) lurking, Sunday dawned with 21 players within 5 shots of the lead.  The only disappointment was that the 2 biggest names in the field, LPGA money-list leader Stacy Lewis and JLPGA money-list leader Sun-Ju Ahn, were not in that group.

Even without them in the hunt, what a Sunday it turned out to be!  Hall of Famer and 2006 champion Webb kicked off the festivities with a bogey-free 31 on the front from the 3rd-to-last group to move to -11 at the turn.  Playing in the next-to-last group, Choi and Mi Hyang Lee birdied 4 of her 1st 7 holes and 3 of her 1st 7, respectively, to join her.  Meanwhile Korda, sandwiched between those 2 groups, got it to -10 with a birdie-free 32 on the front.  But all of them were chasing Choi's and Lee's playing partner Kozuma, who birdied 4 holes in a row after parring the 1st and got it to -13 with a birdie on the par-5 7th.  As the 2nd-round co-leaders stumbled out of the gates--Suzuki bogeyed her 1st 2 holes and scrambled her way to a 37 that left her at -8, Davies offset her 2 birdies with 2 bogeys to stay at -9, and Ilhee Lee made 11-straight pars dating back to the end of moving day before making her lone birdie on the front that got her to -10--Kozuma suddenly gave everyone hope with bogeys on 9 and 11 that dropped her back to -11.

Even as the 22-year-old looking for her 1st JLPGA victory looked like she was starting to fumble it, other players entered the fray.  LPGA newbie Ayako Uehara, a 3-time winner on the JLPGA who was a fixture in the top 26 of their money list from 2006 to 2012, ended her 8-hole par train that closed out yesterday's round with a birdie on her 1st hole today and followed it up with 4 more in her next 12 holes of bogey-free golf to climb to -11 and into a tie for the lead with her playing partner Korda (who birdied the 12th to get there), Choi (who would follow up her birdie barrage on the 1st 7 holes with a par train over her next 7), Kozuma, and Ilhee Lee (who birdied the 7th and 11th to get there and had gone without a bogey for 33 holes and counting at that point).  But what of Webb, Davies, and the eventual winner?  Well, Webb went bogey-birdie-bogey to fall back to -10 with only 4 holes left to play, Mi Hyang Lee had bogeyed the 10th to join her there but fought back into a tie for the lead with a birdie on the 14th, and Davies birdied the par-5 13th to get to -10.

A bunch of late charges complicated matters yet further.  1st-round leader Morgan Pressel, who had stalled Saturday after an opening 67 due to an unexpectedly balky putter, followed up her bogey-free 33 on the front today with 3 birdies in her last 6 holes, including 2 in her last 3, to post her 2nd 67 of the week and become the leader in the clubhouse at -10.  She was joined a few minutes later by playing partners Sakura Yokomine and Saiki Fujita.  Yokomine had birdied 2 of her 1st 3 holes but stalled midway through her round, yet finished strong with 4 birdies in her last 8 holes, including 3 of her last 6.  Fujita, meanwhile, followed up her 4 birdies in her 1st 6 holes with a lone eagle on the 13th in a sea of pars.  Their final playing partner, Harukyo Nomura, had a great chance to become the 4th co-leader in the clubhouse, but despite making 5 birdies between the 7th and 15th holes, could not make another on the 540-yard par-5 16th, 180-yard par-3 17th, or 405-yard par-4 18th.

So the big question as the leaders entered the home stretch was who would join Pressel, Yokomine, and Fujita at -10--and who would surpass them?

The 1st to try was Webb.  She made a heroic birdie on 17 to get to -11, but had to settle for becoming the 4th co-leader in the clubhouse when she suffered a walkoff bogey.

Next up were Korda, Uehara, and Na-Ri Lee.  Korda had fallen back to -10 with a bogey on the par-4 14th and couldn't make a birdie coming home.  Lee did birdie 2 of her last 4 holes, but it was too little, too late.  So all Uehara needed to do to pass the 6 co-leaders was to stay at -11.  She did it with pars on 14, 15, 16, and 17, but she couldn't do it on 18.  Now there were 7 players at -10 and only 6 left on the course.  Would anyone break the logjam?

The next threesome featured up-and-coming golfers looking for their 1st win ever (Choi and Kozuma) or 1st win on the LPGA (Mi Hyang Lee).  Kozuma had righted the ship after her mid-round stumbles and had made 6-straight pars as she headed into the 18th at -11.  Lee had followed up her birdie on 14 with 3-straight pars to keep pace with the JLPGA's last hope for a homegrown winner.  But Choi had bogeyed the par-4 15th and needed a birdie on 18 or walkoff bogeys by her playing partners to have a hope of winning.  In the end, all 3 parred out, making it 8 golfers at -10--and 2 at -11.

Would anyone in the final group be able to beat Lee and Kozuma?  Davies couldn't do it, as she finished with 5-straight pars to become the 9th player to end the week at -10.  After her rough start, Suzuki had fought back to -9 with 2 holes to play, but parred out.  Ilhee Lee got it to -12 with a birdie on the long par-5 16th, but she ended her 38-hole bogey-free run with a bogey on 17.  Could she birdie 18 for the win?  Would she join Webb and Uehara in the walkoff bogey club?  Nope, she parred it to join the playoff with Kozuma and Mi Hyang Lee.

And what a playoff it was!  They played the tough 18th over and over...and over.  All pars the 1st go-round...and the 2nd.  All birdies the 3rd.  All pars the 4th.  Finally Mi Hyang Lee prevailed with her 2nd birdie of the playoff on the 5th go-round!

If you had told me at the start of the week that Stacy Lewis, Na Yeon Choi, and Sun-Ju Ahn would finish outside the top 30 and Bo-Mee Lee, Ji-Yai Shin, Misuza Narita, Teresa Lu, and Mirim Lee would struggle to make the top 20, I would have told you that anyone could walk away with the victory (and that I'd be in contention for the wooden spoon, the cellar-dweller's prize in SeoulSisters.com's PakPicker, this week!).  In the midst of Morgan Pressel, Chella Choi, and Na-Ri Lee putting on a ball-striking exhibition, Ai Suzuki and Ayako Uehara putting on a putting exhibition, and Laura Davies and Karrie Webb showing the kids a thing or two, Mi Hyang Lee, Ilhee Lee, and Kotono Kozuma showed us all that you don't need to have a big name or a huge resume to create a lot of drama.  Mi Hyang Lee's 2nd win of 2014 will move her up my ranking of the top 22 under 22 on major women's professional tours.  Congratulations to Lee and condolences to everyone she surpassed!

[Update 1 (5:39 am):  Sunday was a day of playoffs, as Min Sun Kim broke through for her 1st career KLPGA victory and Lee-Anne Pace made it 3 Ws in her last 3 starts!]

Lalla Meryem Cup Sunday: Charley Hull Forces Playoff with Gwladys Nocera

Charley Hull made a huge Sunday charge at the Lalla Meryem Cup with 4 birdies and an eagle on the front for a 30 that brought her within reach of 3rd-round leader Gwladys Nocera, then followed that up with 3 more birdies on the back for a 62 and a -15 finish for the week.  But the LET veteran stayed strong, making 5 birdies in her 1st 13 holes and taking a bogey-free round and a 1-shot lead into the final hole.  Hold the presses, though!  Nocera bogeyed the par-3 18th and we have a playoff at -15!!

[Update 1 (11:05 am):  The outcome of the playoff will determine if today will be a better day for the English or the French.  Nocera's countrywoman Sophie Giquel-Bettan finished at -11 for the bronze, and Lee-Anne Pace (66, -10, T4) and Stacy Lee Bregman (67, -6, T10) represented for South Africa, but it's England as far as the eye can see (at least in the top 10):  Hannah Burke (66, -10), Sophie Walker (68, -8), Holly Clyburn (69, -8), Trish Johnson (68, -7), Laura Davies (69, -7).  Tough day for Team Thailand, as defending champion and 2nd-round leader Ariya Jutanugarn submitted to the Mostly Harmless jinx with a 72-73 weekend, tying countrywoman Titiya Plucksataporn (72) and France's Joanna Klatten (69) at -5.  If Hull can pull this off, it'll be a huge day for England!]

[Update 2 (11:20 am):  Charley did it with a birdie on the 1st playoff hole!]

[Update 3 (11:26 am):  I'm guessing that Hull's 1st LET victory will get a little more attention than Yuki Ichinose's 2nd on JLPGA earlier today!  This is why Asian golf needs the LPGA's International Crown....]

[Update 4 (11:44 am):  I want to formally apologize to Ariya Jutanugarn for my part in calling down the wrath of the Mostly Harmless jinx on her!]

[Update 5 (12:20 pm):  Hull's made it onto Golf Babes!  Not for the 1st time, I'm sure, but the 1st time with a major professional tour victory under her belt!]

[Update 6 (12:28 pm):  On the anniversary of Annika's 59, here's how Hull described her win on twitter!]

[Update 7 (12:36 pm):  Brent Kelley has the Charley Hull story on about.com's golf page!]

[Update 8 (2:58 pm):  With so many folks focusing on Charley and her dad, it's worth noting that English golfer Karen Stupples has been blogging about her early days in the game and her dad's support and influence, most recently yesterday.]

[Update 9 (10:18 pm):  The LET has an interview with Hull posted on youtube, but I'm not finding her 4-iron to 4 feet from the playoff.]

HSBC Women's Champions Sunday: Paula Creamer and Azahara Munoz in Playoff!

Yesterday I asked if Karrie Webb (-11) and Angela Stanford (-10) would further separate themselves from the field or come back to it in the final round of the HSBC Women's Champions--and today it was the latter, with the Hall of Famer shooting a 74 and the American a 75.  The chief beneficiaries of the veterans' struggles are Paula Creamer (69, -10) and Azahara Munoz (70, -10), who are locked in a playoff even as I write.  More on how they got there and what happens in it soon!

[Update 1 (2:50 am):  Disaster struck Stanford 1st, as she bogeyed 1 and 5 and double bogeyed 6 to drop to -6.  She fought back with 3 birdies in her next 6 holes to get to -9, but it seemed that Webb had the tournament well in hand by that time.  After a bogey on 2, she had birdied the next 2 par 5s (the 4th and 7th holes) and stayed at -12 all the way through the 12 hole.  By that point, she lead Munoz by 4 shots and Stanford and Creamer by 3.  Munoz had bogeyed her 1st 2 holes to drop to -6 but fought back to -8 with back-to-back birdies on 4 and 5; Creamer, meanwhile, had gotten off to a great start with 3 birdies in her 1st 12 holes of bogey-free golf, but had fallen back to -9 with a bogey on the par-4 13th.]

[Update 2 (2:55 am):  Creamer was playing in the threesome ahead of Webb, Stanford, and Munoz, so she was the 1st in the clubhouse to double digits under par, as she birdied the par-4 15th and parred every other hole.  With bogeys on 13 and 15, Webb rapidly fell back to -10, as Munoz birdied the par-3 14th to join Stanford at -9.  She followed it up with another birdie on a par 3, this time on the 17th, as Stanford bogeyed 16 and 17 to fall out of contention.  So with 3 players at -10, 1 in the clubhouse, the final threesome played the par-5 18th.]

[Update 3 (2:56 am):  I'm not sure how Munoz parred it and Webb bogeyed it, but that's how we got to this playoff.  More details when I find them out!]

[Update 4 (3:00 am):  So at this point I went to twitter, and here's how it played out down the stretch.  Both Creamer and Munoz hit the fairway off the tee of the par-5 18th, while Creamer stayed in it on her second shot and Munoz barely found the right rough.  Both hit the green, with Munoz missing her birdie putt 1st on the low side and Creamer sending them back to the 18th tee.]

[Update 5 (3:02 am):  Creamer has just hit the par 5 in 2, while Munoz laid up and put herself in good position for her approach.]

[Update 6 (3:05 am):  OMG, Webb had tried to hit a rescue club from a fairway bunker on her 2nd shot on 18 and left it in the trap!  She then needed to get up and down from 100 yards out to stay at -10.  Ouch!  She had 32 putts today, easily her worst putting day of the week, too.]

[Update 7 (3:07 am):  The wait is over!  Paula wins with a massive eagle putt!  I can't believe it!!!]

[Update 8 (3:08 am):  That's LPGA victory #10 and her 1st since the U.S. Women's Open in 2010.  Not that anyone's counting right now!]

[Update 9 (3:14 am):  I think So Yeon Ryu (bogey-free 66), Inbee Park (bogey-free 68), Suzann Pettersen (4-birdie 70), and Morgan Pressel (3-birdie 71), who tied Stanford in 4th at -7, just got officially overshadowed.  As it undoubtedly should be!]

[Update 10 (3:16 am):  Stanford also had her worst putting day of the week by far today.  Creamer actually did, too, but she hit 16 greens and that made all the difference in regulation.  Turned out she was just saving up her putting heroics for the playoff!]

[Update 11 (3:23 am):  On the down side, Teresa Lu fell out of contention early and finished with a 75 today (she did tie Michelle Wie for 9th), Stacy Lewis's top-10 streak ended at "13" (I would have called it over when she WDed late last season), Na Yeon Choi (who I picked to win this thing) ended up just outside the top 10 with Chella Choi at -4, Caroline Hedwall tumbled all the way to T16 with a closing 75, Ji-Yai Shin (74) and Anna Nordqvist (75) barely made the top 25, former #1s Cristie Kerr (73) and Ya Ni Tseng (74) finished in T35, Shanshan Feng joined Lewis at T40, and Ai Miyazato, Jessica Korda, and Lizette Salas finished near the bottom of the pile.]

[Update 12 (3:25 am):  Meanwhile, Mika Miyazato was low Japanese golfer at +3.  At least she was 6 of 8 in sand saves and had a walkoff birdie.  And she was among the 1st to congratulate Paula Creamer on twitter.  It looks like she's headed back to Okinawa for the JLPGA season-opener, along with Ji-Yai Shin and Teresa Lu (and I think Shanshan Feng).]

[Update 13 (9:30 am):  Here's the putt on Golf Channel video:

 http://www.golfchannel.com/media/creamer-wins-10th-lpga-title-dramatic-fashion/

Awesome!]

[Update 14 (11:06 am):  Paula's putt made SportsCenter!  And it got the Brent Kelley treatment, too!]

[Update 15 (11:21 am):  Paula made it onto Golf Babes, too.  (As if there was a doubt!)]

[Update 16 (3:24 pm):  Tony Jesselli's excited!  (Surprisingly, even more than onechan!)]

[Update 17 (7:26 pm):  As always, bangkokbobby comes through with videos, photos, and personal observations.]

LPGA Rookie of the Year Race Scenarios

With the top 6 rookies on the LPGA--Caroline Masson, Moriya Jutanugarn, Ayako Uehara, Chie Arimura, Austin Ernst, and Lisa McCloskey--all playing in the Mizuno Classic, Ward Clayton reminds us that the points breakdown for Rookie of the Year is much more generous than for any of the other LPGA points races (say, for Player of the Year or to make the Solheim Cup)--and hence the race is much closer than it may appear.

With a win worth 150 points, a runner-up finish worth 80, the next 3 spots worth 5 fewer points each, 6th through 10th worth 3 fewer points each, 11th through 20th worth 2 fewer points each, and 21st through 40th worth 1 fewer point each, with everyone else making the cut earning 5 points (so that 5th is worth 65 points, 10th is worth 50, 20th 30, 25th 25, 30th 20, 40th 10, and 41st+ 5), Masson can lose her lead to a few of those chasing her and open the door to many in her lead chase pack with a finish of 41st place or worse this week.

Masson's 26-point lead on Jutanugarn can be erased in the following scenarios:

• Jutanugarn win, any Masson finish
• Jutanugarn 2nd, Masson 9th or worse
• Jutanugarn 3rd, Masson 11th or worse
• Jutanugarn 4th, Masson 13th or worse
• Jutanugarn 5th, Masson 16th or worse
• Jutanugarn 6th, Masson 17th or worse
• Jutanugarn 7th, Masson 19th or worse
• Jutanugarn 8th, Masson 20th or worse
• Jutanugarn 9th, Masson 23rd or worse
• Jutanugarn 10th, Masson 26th or worse
• Jutanugarn 11th, Masson 28th or worse
• Jutanugarn 12th, Masson 30th or worse
• Jutanugarn 13th, Masson 32nd or worse
• Jutanugarn 14th, Masson 34th or worse
• Jutanugarn 15th, Masson 36th or worse
• Jutanugarn 16th, Masson 38th or worse
• Jutanugarn 17th, Masson 40th or worse

By contrast, there's only one way Uehara can pass Masson:

• Uehara win, Masson 7th or worse

If Uehara doesn't win, she'll need a lot of help from Masson.  Sure, if Uehara earns a silver and Masson finishes T41 or worse, for instance, Ayako would pull within 15 points of Caroline.  However, the worse Uehara finishes and the better Masson finishes, the more pressure there is on Uehara to drop out of the LPGA ROY race.  Here's why:  if Uehara's Mizuno winnings don't count on the JLPGA money list (which I read somewhere recently but now can't find the source), she'll stay at 51st, one spot out of a guaranteed card for 2014.  Now, she's not entered in Lorena's tournament (where Masson is 1st alternate), but has qualified for the CME Titleholders.  Meanwhile, on the JLPGA, Uehara also hasn't entered next week's Ito-En Ladies.  But to get into the Ricoh Cup, the final JLPGA major of the season, which is contested the week after the Titleholders, she needs to either win on the JLPGA, be in the top 25 on the JLPGA money list, or be ranked in the top 25 of the Rolex Rankings.  So if Uehara doesn't win this week and can't enter the Ito-En late, she's going to need to choose between the Daio Paper Elleair Ladies on the JLPGA and the Titleholders on the LPGA.  In short, it's looking like the only way Uehara has a chance to get 2013 LPGA ROY and keep her dual membership on the LPGA and JLPGA in 2014 is to win the Mizuno this week.  No pressure!

Things are simpler--and strangely enough, a little less pressured this week--for Uehara's fellow LPGA-JLPGA dual member, Chie Arimura, because Arimura has clearly decided to focus on the LPGA in 2014.  No matter how she does in the Mizuno, she won't play in enough events on the JLPGA this season to be eligible for a 2014 card.  Even if Arimura wins this week, qualifies for and wins the Ricoh, and ends up in the top 50 on the JLPGA money list, she will only have 5 JLPGA starts in 2013, whereas you need 8 to have started in at least 20% of the JLPGA's total number of tournaments (36).  So Arimura has this week and the Titleholders to make it to the finish line of the LPGA ROY race in 1st.  Here's what has to happen this week for her to have a chance:

• Arimura win, Masson 41st or worse:  Arimura pulls within 32 points of Masson
• Arimura runner-up, Masson 41st or worse:  Arimura pulls within 102 points of Masson
• Arimura 3rd, Masson 41st or worse: Arimura pulls within 107 points of Masson
• [and so on:  Arimura makes up less ground on Masson if she medals and Masson finishes 40th or better (up to 15th--for more details, see below); Arimura also makes up less ground if she finishes 4th or worse, down to 16th, so long as Masson finishes 41st or worse]

But if Arimura finishes 17th or worse this week, she can't catch Masson (who's guaranteed a minimum of 10 points in her last 2 events), no matter how badly Masson plays.

Things are even simpler for Ernst and McCloskey:  they need to win this week to have a chance to be ROY.  Anything but a win eliminates them from the race.  Plus they'll need help from Masson.  For Ernst, she's eliminated if Masson finishes 5th or better, period.  Even if McCloskey wins (and hence qualifies for the Titleholders), all Masson has to do is finish 28th or better to eliminate her.

Let's continue in this vein and see what else Masson has to do this week to eliminate more of her competition from the race.  If Masson wins the Mizuno, she clinches ROY; anything else keeps Jutanugarn alive.  

Things get a little more complicated with Uehara, who's eliminated in the following scenarios:

• Masson 2nd, Uehara 26th or worse
• Masson 3rd, Uehara 31st or worse
• Masson 4th, Uehara 36th or worse
• Masson 5th, Uehara 41st or worse

If Masson finishes 5th or worse, however, she can't eliminate Uehara.  A 5th-place finish for Masson and a 40th-place finish for Uehara means the best Uehara can do is tie Masson (and force a playoff by scoring average if they are tied for 1st), assuming Masson doesn't get into Lorena's tournament.  That said, the lower down the leaderboard Uehara finishes, the more likely she is to focus on the JLPGA the rest of 2013, even if Masson doesn't statistically eliminate her.

There are even more ways Masson can knock Arimura out of the ROY race this week:

• Masson 2nd-10th, Arimura 2nd or worse
• Masson 11th-13th, Arimura 3rd or worse
• Masson 14th or 15th, Arimura 4th or worse
• Masson 16th-18th, Arimura 5th or worse
• Masson 19th, Arimura 6th or worse
• Masson 20th-22nd, Arimura 7th or worse
• Masson 23rd-25th, Arimura 8th or worse
• Masson 26th-28th, Arimura 9th or worse
• Masson 29th-31st, Arimura 10th or worse
• Masson 32nd or 33rd, Arimura 11th or worse
• Masson 34th or 35th, Arimura 12th or worse
• Masson 36th or 37th, Arimura 13th or worse
• Masson 38th or 39th, Arimura 14th or worse
• Masson 40th, Arimura 15th or worse

It's statistically possible for Arimura and Masson to end the season in a tie (assuming Arimura wins the Titleholders and Masson comes in 41st or worse that week--another scenario in which scoring average is the tie-breaker), if any of the following Arimura/Masson combinations arise this week (and Masson doesn't get into Lorena's tournament):  2nd/11th, 6th/20th, 7th/23rd, 8th/26th, 9th/29th, 10th/32nd, 11th/34th, 12th/36th, 13th/38th, 14th/40th.  But remember, all this is moot if Arimura can't finish 16th or better in the Mizuno.

In short, even if Masson plays badly this week, she can still eliminate all her competition except Jutanugarn, because McCloskey and Ernst still need to win to stay alive, while Uehara needs to win or come very close and Arimura needs to finish 16th or better.  The better Masson plays, the more of her competition she eliminates this week.  A really good week eliminates everyone but Jutanugarn, practically no matter how well they all play.

Lacoste Ladies Open de France Set-up: French Trio Leads Munoz, Ciganda, Hull, Pace

The cream is rising over through 54 holes of the Lacoste Ladies Open de France.  Gwladys Nocera, Joanna Klatten, and Valentine Derrey are all at -10 and lead Azahara Munoz by 1 shot and Carlota Ciganda, Charley Hull, and Lee-Anne Pace by 2 shots.  With Nikki Campbell and Sarah Kemp at -6, Karine Icher at -4, and Lindsey Wright at -2, there are probably a couple of dozen players with a decent chance of coming out on top tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

Fantasy Island Family Friday or Symetra Tour in Syracuse?

So we finally had a day with no gymnastics or skating or swimming lessons, no art class or music lesson, no playdates or festivals or movie nights.  What to do?  In one ring was the Constructivist, lobbying for a trip to Syracuse to catch Tiffany Joh, Hannah Yun, and Mitsuki Katahira and the rest of the Symetra Tour in round 1 at the Credit Union Classic.  In the other ring was the Full Metal Archivist, onechan, imoto, and tomodachi-chan, demanding we go to a Fantasy Island Family Friday on Grand Island.  I don't need to tell you who won that bout--it was a quick knockout, not least because tomodachi-chan will be back in Chiba next Friday and her favorite part of last year's visit was our visit to the oxymoronically-named Marine Land.  

Of course we had a great time--I even got to ride alone with the FMA on 2 rides!--and we even had trouble dragging the kids away before the place closed down for the night.  And it turns out it's just as well we missed today's round:  Katahira shot the low score of our faves, a 74, while T-Joh opened with a 76 and Yun ballooned to an 85 that included a 10 on the tricky par-4 14th.  To add insult to injury, 35 golfers shot par or better and 13 broke 70.  (Last week's winner P.K. Kongkraphan led the way with a 66 that included an eagle on the par-5 13th.; Birdie Kim was part of a big group at -1 70.)  So it looks like my family made the right call today.  And if I had qualified for the NYSGA's Men's Amateur and somehow made the cut, I probably would have missed out on the fun!

Plus there's another silver lining.  Given that at least one of our faves won't be playing Sunday, maybe I have a stronger case for a Saturday trip to Syracuse!  (Besides alliteration, that is.)  The girls might not wake up in time to see much of Joh's or Yun's morning rounds, but Katahira doesn't tee off till 1:40 pm (and she plays with Jean Reynolds and Mallory Blackwelder, who also opened with 74s).  We'll see if the girls would rather play golf or drive 3 hours each way to watch golf....

LPGA LOTTE Championship Friday: Suzann Pettersen Maintains 1-Shot Lead, This Time on Hee Kyung Seo

Couldn't we all use a Hawaiian vacation after this week?  Well, we can't all get that, but we can check out tomorrow's final round of the LPGA LOTTE Championship, which is shaping up to be one of the most compelling Saturday finishes ever on any tour.

Consider first who's in contention.  Suzann Pettersen started moving day with a roar, birdieing her 1st 3 holes and 4 of her 1st 7, then bounced back from an 8th-hole bogey with a birdie on the par-5 14th to post a 68 that brought her to -14 after 54 holes.  That was just good enough to keep her in the top spot for the 2nd day in a row, as Hee Kyung Seo just missed posting her 2nd 65 of the week when she bogeyed the 18th hole to drop to -13 for the tournament.  Seo, the 2011 LPGA Rookie of the Year, also got off to a hot start, with an eagle and 2 birdies in her 1st 7 holes, but was better able to keep the pedal to the metal on the back, with birdies in 4 of her 1st 5 holes there, marred only by a bogey on the par-3 12th and that frustrating walkoff bogey.  As both Seo and Pettersen were stalling a bit down the stretch, Ai Miyazato came alive.  Unfazed by the disappointment of following up her front-side 32 and 31 in the previous 2 rounds with a birdieless 36 to kick off moving day, Miyazato birdied the 10th and 2 of her last 4 holes to offset a bogey on the par-3 16th and finish the day at -11, still within 3 shots of the lead.

A win by any of these 3 would be a big deal.  Pettersen and Miyazato would immediately join Inbee Park, Stacy Lewis, Ya Ni Tseng, and Na Yeon Choi in the thick of the race for #1 in the world.  Seo would finally back up her 2010 non-member win, something she's had many chances to do since the joined the LPGA two seasons ago.

Plus, keep in mind that tomorrow is not likely to be just a 3-player race.  Chasing the lead trio are a passel of youngsters and a pair of contenders for #1 in the Rolex Rankings.  True, 17-year-old Hyo Joo Kim is 4 back after a bogey-free 32 on the back earned her a 69, 17-year-old Ariya Jutanugarn is 5 back thanks to a 5-birdie 68 that brought her even with Stacy Lewis (69) and Lizette Salas (67), and 20-year-old Jessica Korda is 6 off the pace after tying Seo for low round of the day on the strength of 6 birdies in her 1st 11 holes and catching world #1 Inbee Park (who shot a bogey-free 67 of her own) and Jodi Ewart Shadoff (who shot her 2nd-straight 68).  Still others I pegged as contenders are even further back, with Beatriz Recari at -7, In-Kyung Kim at -6, Na Yeon Choi, So Yeon Ryu, and Danielle Kang at -5, Lydia Ko at -4, and Karrie Webb at -3.  But it's hard to count any of these players out when a round in the low 60s is entirely possible from at least one of them.  Lewis hasn't gone on any of the sustained birdie barrages that she's known for yet this week.  Choi's 67 might be the taste of even more to come tomorrow.  And who knows what these kids are capable of?

That's where Hawaii's weather brings a lot of extra drama to the final round.  If the winds are blowing hard, it doesn't matter how well you have been playing.  All that matters is how you handle them that day.  As we've seen already this week, for some players it messes with their driving.  For others it wreaks havoc with their approach shots.  For others it makes putting even more bedeviling than usual.  And still others run into trouble with more than one facet of their games.  So if the top trio falters in the slightest, while others are able to go low from their lead chase pack or even further down the leaderboard, we'll see huge and dramatic swings tomorrow.

Well, I won't.  I still don't have Golf Channel.  Maybe once the semester's over....  I will say this:  I picked Ai Miyazato to win this week over at Seoul Sisters.com....

Kia Classic Sunday: Beatriz Recari Beats In-Kyung Kim in 2-Hole Playoff

OK, so let me get this straight.  World #1 Stacy Lewis was making one of her soon-to-be-patented Sunday charges at the Kia Classic, with 3 birdies in a row over her 1st 4 holes and another on the 10th to get her to -11, but she finished 3 shots out of the playoff between Beatriz Recari and In-Kyung Kim?!  IK herself was -11 with 8 holes to play, bogeyed 3 holes in a row, then offset her 2 birdies in a row with a walkoff bogey and still had a chance to win the tournament?  Recari was having a bad day, with bogeys on the par 3s 6 and 11 to fall back to single digits under par for the week, but fought back to match Kim's birdie on 16--and then also bogeyed 18?  What the heck was going on today on Aviara's back 9?

Yup, Stacy Lewis doubled 11 to fall to -9, bogeyed the par-3 14th to fall to -8, then needed a birdie to have a chance and instead doubled it.  Pornanong Phatlum had a chance to put pressure on the leaders and finish at -10 with a birdie and -9 with a par, so of course she bogeyed it.  Karrie Webb needed a birdie on it to post -9--she bogeyed it, too.  Others did their self-destructive thing a bit earlier in the round.  Mo Martin birdied 5 of her 1st 12 holes to get to -10, but immediately went bogey-par-bogey-bogey, so that her birdie on 17 left her 1 shot out of the playoff.  It was a double on 11 that knocked Cristie Kerr back from -9 to -7 and even though she fought back with a birdie on 16, it was still too little, too late.  Paula Creamer was by no means out of it when she birdied the 10th to get to -8, but she was after she had finished bogeying her next 5 holes in a row.  Lizette Salas and Jane Park were still at -8 pretty late in the day, but moved 1 shot in the wrong direction.  Even Haeji Kang, Suzann Pettersen, and Azahara Munoz had their chances--Kang birdied 5 of her 1st 11 holes to get to -7, but a double bogey-bogey-eagle run left her at -6 for the tournament, while Pettersen had birdied 3 of her 1st 10 holes to fight to -7, but a bogey on 12 and a double on 14 ended her chances and for Munoz, who was also -7 well into the back, it was a double on 13 and a walkoff bogey with made her birdies on 14 and 16 moot.  Even Giulia Sergas, who matched Phatlum's and Kang's 68s for low round of the day, bogeyed a couple of holes midway through the back 9.

This one sounds like it would have been fun to watch, with more cliffhangers than a 15-minute Japanese morning soap opera and more crashes than my '90s-era Macs.  So somebody who saw it, please tell me: how did Recari find a way to win this thing?!

OMG! Nadeshiko Japan vs. Team USA Rematch for Olympic Gold

The Constructivist household is going nuts for Nadeshiko Japan, who held on over the last 25 minutes of their semi-final match and held off a scrappy French team to get into the gold-metal game at the London Olympics.  And when Team USA kept coming back against Canada and beat them in the final seconds of overtime, well, you know we can't wait for the rematch of the amazing 2011 World Cup finals!  We love Abby Wambach (a western NYer!), Alex Morgan, and the rest of Team USA, but there's no doubt we'll be rooting for a Nadeshiko Japan repeat Thursday afternoon (our time)!

Mizuno Classic Sunday: Playoff Time! Feng vs. Ueda

Shanshan Feng fired a bogey-free 65 in the final round of the Mizuno Classic to catch 2nd-round leader Momoko Ueda at -16 and force a playoff.  I'll have more when I know more!

[Update 1 (2:07 am - 1 "fall back" hour):  While I wait for the results to be posted online, it's worth noting that a bogey on the 15th hole kept Na Yeon Choi from tying Sakura Yokomine's tournament record at Kintetsu Kashikojima Country Club--and, more important, kept her 1 shot out of the playoff.  Failing to birdie either par 5 on the back also played a role, but she put on a great charge with birdies on her final 2 holes.  A few minutes later, Kyeong Bae matched Choi's 64 from the last group off the back, moving from the cellar to the middle of the pack, and 1-upping Christel Boeljon, who dropped a 65 on the field from the 1st group off the front.  Stacy Lewis also made an early move with yet another bogey-free 65, but it seems those early charges just woke Ueda up.  After starting out with a birdie and 1 bogey in her 1st 7 holes, she got it to -15 with birdies on 9 and 10.  But even though she stalled there on the back, when Feng got it to -16 on the par-3 17th in the group ahead of her, Ueda responded with a clutch birdie on the par-5 16th.  Those birdies helped make moot Catriona Matthew's great start--she birdied 6 of her 1st 10 holes to get to -14--but like Sakura Yokomine (who bogeyed her last 2 holes in a row after getting to -14 on the 13th) and Mina Harigae (whose bogeys on the last holes on each side undermined her 4 birdie run over a 5-hole stretch midway through the back that almost brought her into contention), Matthew bogeyed the last hole to cap off a birdieless stretch run over her last 8 holes.]

[Update 2 (1:09 am):  Ueda won the playoff!  Congrats to Momo-chan for her 1st win as an LPGA member and 2nd at this event!]

[Update 3 (10:15 am):  Asian Golf Daily has the details on the playoff.  Straight from LPGA.com.]

[Update 4 (1:04 pm):  Here are the final results from the final round (in Japanese).  Ueda's out-of-nowhere win brings her from #44 to #23 on the JLPGA money list, while Ji-Yai Shin's Sunday 66 and top-10 finish gets her barely into the top 50 and Sun-Ju Ahn's closing 68 helps her maintain and even extend her lead on some of her nearest chasers:

1. Sun-Ju Ahn ￥116.05M
2. Chie Arimura ￥83.27M
3. Sakura Yokomine ￥76.87M
4. Ji-Hee Lee ￥74.01M
5. Yukari Baba ￥66.14M
6. Miki Saiki ￥62.14M
7. Shanshan Feng ￥58.75M
8. Ritsuko Ryu ￥56.22M
9. Yuri Fudoh ￥55.84M
10. Shiho Oyama ￥50.50M
11. Mayu Hattori ￥44.82M
12. Ayako Uehara ￥44.53M
13. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥41.57M
14. Saiki Fujita ￥39.06M
15. Kumiko Kaneda ￥38.07M
16. Hiromi Mogi ￥35.97M
17. Rikako Morita ￥35.59M
18. Rui Kitada ￥35.27M
19. Na-Ri Kim ￥33.30M
20. Asako Fujimoto ￥31.94M
21. Bo-Bae Song ￥31.72M
22. Junko Omote ￥31.11M
23. Momoko Ueda ￥29.93M
24. Yuko Mitsuka ￥29.37M
25. Ji-Woo Lee ￥28.09M
26. Li-Ying Ye ￥26.87M
27. Akane Iijima ￥25.87M
28. Na-Ri Lee ￥25.48M
29. Inbee Park ￥25.11M
30. Hyun-Ju Shin ￥24.87M
31. Ah-Reum Hwang ￥24.41M
32. Teresa Lu ￥23.83M
33. Esther Lee ￥22.95M
34. Akiko Fukushima ￥22.63M
35. Soo-Yun Kang ￥21.90M
36. Eun-A Lim ￥21.79M
37. Kaori Aoyama ￥21.70M
38. Eun-Bi Jang ￥21.05M
39. Young Kim ￥20.82M
40. Shinobu Moromizato ￥17.88M
41. Bo-Mee Lee ￥17.62M
42. Yumiko Yoshida ￥17.11M
43. Nikki Campbell ￥16.58M
44. Tamie Durdin ￥15.98M
45. Megumi Kido ￥15.45M
46. Nachiyo Ohtani ￥15.04M
47. Miho Koga ￥14.87M
48. Ji-Yai Shin ￥14.48M
49. Maiko Wakabayashi ￥14.22M
50. So-Hee Kim ￥13.81M

Looks like Ueda, Feng, Shiho Oyama, and Inbee Park are playing in the Ito-En Ladies next week, along with former LPGAers Na-Ri Kim, Teresa Lu, Shinobu Moromizato, Young Kim, Soo-Yun Kang, and Tamie Durdin.  Ai Miyazato is #68 on the money list, so it'll be interesting to see if the JLPGA forces her to play in Q-School (which somewhere Meena Lee and Hee Young Park will have to go if they want to maintain their dual memberships in 2012).  This coming week, Ai-sama goes to Mexico for the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, still over $55K shy of the $1M mark on the LPGA money list.  Here's hoping she bounces back from a tough week quickly!]

[Update 5 (6:44 pm):  bangkokbobby found some great photos and video--very dramatic and emotional win!]