28-year-old Ayako Uehara is the most veteran player among the trio who lead the T-Point Ladies heading into the weekend, as she has 4 years on Mayu Hattori and 7 on Kaori Ohe. In fact, only 1 player over 30 broke 70 in the rainy conditions in Kagoshima today. And with Teresa Lu only 1 shot off the lead, Sakura Yokomine and Mi-Jeong Jeon 2 back, and Ji-Hee Lee and Harukyo Nomura only 3 off the pace, the odds are looking pretty good that someone in their 20s will win the tournament.
Here's how the leaderboard looks after 18 holes have been completed:
T1/-4 Ayako Uehara, Mayu Hattori, Kaori Ohe (68)
T4/-3 Teresa Lu, Yui Kawahara, Porani Chutichai, Nachiyo Ohtani (69)
T8/-2 Sakura Yokomine, Mi-Jeong Jeon, Ritsuko Ryu, Na-Ri Kim, Hiromi Mogi, Junko Omote, Li-Ying Ye, Lala Anai, Miyari Honda, Mamiko Higa [a] (70)
T18/-1 Ji-Hee Lee, Harukyo Nomura, Shinobu Moromizato, Asako Fujimoto, Maiko Wakabayashi, Na-Ri Lee, Yumiko Yoshida (71)
T26/E Soo-Yun Kang, Yuki Ichinose, Erika Kikuchi, Miki Sakai, Eun-Bi Jang, Tao-Li Yang (72)
T38/+1 Yuri Fudoh, Young Kim, Rui Kitada, Saiki Fujita, Akane Iijima, Erina Hara, Ah-Reum Hwang, Misuzu Narita, Mina Nakayama (73)
T52/+2 Yukari Baba, Kaori Aoyama, Da-Ye Na, Hsuan-Yu Yao, Saeko Endo (74)
T67/+3 Bo-Mee Lee, Hyun-Ju Shin, Rikako Morita, Tamie Durdin, Kumiko Kaneda, Onnarin Sattayabanphot, Satsuki Oshiro (75)
T77/+4 Erina Yamato, Sakurako Mori, Kotono Kozuma (76)
T83/+5 Megumi Kido (77)
T87/+6 Mie Nakata, So-Hee Kim, Airi Saitoh, Aoi Nagata, Aiko Kaneda (78)
T97/+7 Sae Yamamura (79)
With Sun-Ju Ahn sitting this one out, after all, and recent winners Lee and Saitoh off to bad starts, the door is wide open for someone else to step up. Let's see who does it over the next 36 holes!
Friday, March 16, 2012
RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup Thursday: Tseng Shoots 29 on Back to Catch Hee Young Park at -7
Yani Tseng put on an exhibition during the back 9 of the 1st round of the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup yesterday to catch Hee Young Park at -7 and take a 1-shot lead on Ji-Yai Shin, a 2-shot lead on Na Yeon Choi, Karen Stupples, Hee Kyung Seo, Pernilla Lindberg, and Christine Song, and a 3-shot lead on a host of golfers that included defending champion Karrie Webb, Cristie Kerr, Ai Miyazato, Stacy Lewis, Azahara Munoz, So Yeon Ryu, and Inbee Park. With 37 players in the 60s, 84 at par or better, and 54 holes to go, it's way too soon to call this one for the world #1, but when you consider that Tseng missed a short birdie putt on 18 and still went -7 over her last 8 holes, the rest of the field must be feeling the same kind of pressure that Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa used to put on them to go low, stay low, and never look over their shoulders.
Tseng talked in interviews about staying patient on the front when the putts weren't falling, but even more impressive to me than the fact that she went -8 over her last 14 holes of bogey-free golf was the following statement:
If Tseng is able to turn herself into what I call a "straight-up bomber"--that is, someone with great distance and good accuracy off the tee--she's going to become even more dominant than she was last year. To see what I'm talking about, compare her 1st-round stats to former world #1 and 8-time LPGA winner Ji-Yai Shin. Shin hit every fairway, but because she averaged only 245 yards off the tee, she hit only 13 greens and needed a hot putter to allow her to shoot her bogey-free 66. Tseng, meanwhile, hit 11 fairways while averaging over 280 yards off the tee, which enabled her to hit 16 greens and not only give herself loads of birdie chances but also make an eagle on the par-5 15th. If Tseng continues to hit fairways at that pace all year, she'd probably rank in the top 10 in driving accuracy (going by rankings over the last several seasons, not just last year, when driving accuracy was way up on tour). What does that mean? Well, in 2007, Lorena hit only 68.2% of her fairways, but combined with over 270 yards off the tee and some stellar iron play (#1 in greens in regulation) and putting (2nd in putts per green in regulation), she won 8 times and fell just short of $5M in winnings. That's the kind of year I'm talking about.
OK, enough about how awesome Tseng is and can be. Overshadowed by her fireworks was a smart little 30 on the back by Jane Park, who only improved 10 strokes from her front-9 score! It was great to see her playing like she's capable of again. And I was pleased to see good numbers from others of my faves, like Mika Miyazato and Mina Harigae at -3 and Seon Hwa Lee and In-Kyung Kim joining Park at -2. Almost makes up for my disappointment with that late double from Tiffany Joh that dropped her to a 74 or the back-9 collapse of Hannah Yun that saw her skyrocket to a 77. Or my shock that HSBC Women's Champions winner Angela Stanford hit 15 greens but could only manage a 75 on Thursday. But let's end on a positive note: it's really neat to see highly-hyped youngsters like Danielle Kang (68), Belen Mozo (68), Lexi Thompson (69), Jennifer Song (69), Caroline Hedwall (70), and Cydney Clanton (70) get off to good starts, more-under-the-radar youngsters who started last season off well like Christine Song (67) and Mindy Kim (68) put themselves in the mix right off the bat this week, and vets like Karen Stupples (67), Karrie Webb (68), Hee-Won Han (69), Pat Hurst (69), Janice Moodie (69), Se Ri Pak (70), Laura Davies (70), and Sophie Gustafson (70) show the kids a thing or two. But probably the player I'm happiest for right now is Pernilla Lindberg (67), who's struggled mightily in her transition to professional golf but who looks to be turning things around.
OK, who am I kidding? Yes, I'm totally psyched that Ai Miyazato shot an efficient 68 to put herself right where she needed to be. Glad she's recovered from her illness that almost forced her to withdraw from the HSBC Women's Champions! Let's see what she can do today!
[Update 1 (12:22 pm): Here are bangkokbobby (with loads of pics and youtube clips) and Emily Kay on the 1st round.]
[Update 2 (12:32 pm): Great pre-tournament profile of rookie Lizette Salas by Lisa Mickey in the New York Times!]
Tseng talked in interviews about staying patient on the front when the putts weren't falling, but even more impressive to me than the fact that she went -8 over her last 14 holes of bogey-free golf was the following statement:
I've been working really hard with my strategy, my driver, my tee‑off, because like first couple year when I was on Tour my driving accuracy was low in the rank. So after that I tell myself I want to get my driving accuracy at least top 50 because that way if I hit it more on the fairway I can have better chance to make birdie to hit it on the green.
So this Tour year I've been improving a lot of my driving accuracy today. Some of the holes I just choked down the three‑quarter shot. Some of it was wide hole, I just bumped in there and tried as hard. When you feel that rhythm there, you just hit a good shot, and I didn't worry about too much. So I didn't worry about if I hit it in the rough or I just think about where my ball is going to go. So it's kind of very positive thinking.
If Tseng is able to turn herself into what I call a "straight-up bomber"--that is, someone with great distance and good accuracy off the tee--she's going to become even more dominant than she was last year. To see what I'm talking about, compare her 1st-round stats to former world #1 and 8-time LPGA winner Ji-Yai Shin. Shin hit every fairway, but because she averaged only 245 yards off the tee, she hit only 13 greens and needed a hot putter to allow her to shoot her bogey-free 66. Tseng, meanwhile, hit 11 fairways while averaging over 280 yards off the tee, which enabled her to hit 16 greens and not only give herself loads of birdie chances but also make an eagle on the par-5 15th. If Tseng continues to hit fairways at that pace all year, she'd probably rank in the top 10 in driving accuracy (going by rankings over the last several seasons, not just last year, when driving accuracy was way up on tour). What does that mean? Well, in 2007, Lorena hit only 68.2% of her fairways, but combined with over 270 yards off the tee and some stellar iron play (#1 in greens in regulation) and putting (2nd in putts per green in regulation), she won 8 times and fell just short of $5M in winnings. That's the kind of year I'm talking about.
OK, enough about how awesome Tseng is and can be. Overshadowed by her fireworks was a smart little 30 on the back by Jane Park, who only improved 10 strokes from her front-9 score! It was great to see her playing like she's capable of again. And I was pleased to see good numbers from others of my faves, like Mika Miyazato and Mina Harigae at -3 and Seon Hwa Lee and In-Kyung Kim joining Park at -2. Almost makes up for my disappointment with that late double from Tiffany Joh that dropped her to a 74 or the back-9 collapse of Hannah Yun that saw her skyrocket to a 77. Or my shock that HSBC Women's Champions winner Angela Stanford hit 15 greens but could only manage a 75 on Thursday. But let's end on a positive note: it's really neat to see highly-hyped youngsters like Danielle Kang (68), Belen Mozo (68), Lexi Thompson (69), Jennifer Song (69), Caroline Hedwall (70), and Cydney Clanton (70) get off to good starts, more-under-the-radar youngsters who started last season off well like Christine Song (67) and Mindy Kim (68) put themselves in the mix right off the bat this week, and vets like Karen Stupples (67), Karrie Webb (68), Hee-Won Han (69), Pat Hurst (69), Janice Moodie (69), Se Ri Pak (70), Laura Davies (70), and Sophie Gustafson (70) show the kids a thing or two. But probably the player I'm happiest for right now is Pernilla Lindberg (67), who's struggled mightily in her transition to professional golf but who looks to be turning things around.
OK, who am I kidding? Yes, I'm totally psyched that Ai Miyazato shot an efficient 68 to put herself right where she needed to be. Glad she's recovered from her illness that almost forced her to withdraw from the HSBC Women's Champions! Let's see what she can do today!
[Update 1 (12:22 pm): Here are bangkokbobby (with loads of pics and youtube clips) and Emily Kay on the 1st round.]
[Update 2 (12:32 pm): Great pre-tournament profile of rookie Lizette Salas by Lisa Mickey in the New York Times!]
Monday, March 12, 2012
RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup Preview
After a two-week break, the tour resumes this week with the playing of the RR Donnelley Founders Cup. This will be the fourth official tournament of the year. I don't know what they can possibly do to top the first three. The first tournament of the year saw Jessica Korda win a six-player playoff. The second tournament saw Yani Tseng make a spectacular approach shot on the 72nd hole for a one-shot victory. The third tournament saw Angela Stanford get her first victory since 2009 in a thrilling four-player playoff. What could they possibly have in store for us next?
Here are some details on this week's event:
Course: Wildfire Golf Club - Desert Ridge Resort
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Defending Champion: Karrie Webb
2011 Winning Score: 71-66-67=204 (-12)
Final Field: 132 players
Par: 72
Yardage: 6613 Yards
Purse: 1.5 Million
Here is the television schedule:
March 15: 6:30-8:30 PM ET GC
March 16: 6:30-8:30 PM ET GC
March 17: 4:00-7:00 PM ET GC
March 18: 4:00-7:00 PM ET GC
Many changes have been made since the inaugural tournament last year. In 2011 the tournament was just 54 holes; this year it has expanded to 72. The biggest change is that last year the entire purse of 1 million dollars went to charity, this year the 1.5 million dollar purse will be shared by the players.
A very strong field will be playing this week; 15 of the top 20 players in the world will be teeing it up. The only top named players that are not participating are Michelle Wie, Shanshan Feng, Song-Hee Kim, Jessica Korda, and Haru Nomura.
My strength of field is a very solid 60%, up from 44% last year when it ranked last for the entire season.
A closer look at why the field is so much stronger than last year when there was no purse shows us the following:
I.K. Kim will be playing for the first time, although she can certainly be excused for skipping this event last year. Just a few months before, she had given her entire winning paycheck of $250,000 to charity.
Hee Young Park and Meena Lee did not play last year as they chose to play in Japan instead. They are both playing this week.
The Japanese trio of Ai Miyazato, Mika Miyazato, and Momoko Ueda all skipped the tournament last year and are teeing it up this week. Their absence can surely be excused considering the tragedy that struck their country.
Suzann Pettersen, Maria Hjorth, Anna Nordqvist, and Catriona Matthew all chose not to participate in this most charitable tournament last year. It is amazing what a purse of $1.5 million and a winner's check of $225,000 can do; they all chose to play this year.
Other tidbits:
Lexi Thompson has a new caddie. Greg Johnston who has caddied in the past for such stars as Amy Yang, Lorena Ochoa, Brittany Lincicome, Suzanne Pettersen and Michelle Wie, will now be on her bag. Johnston is most famous for carrying Juli Inkster's bag for 12 years, resulting in 7 major championships. Scott Thompson, Lexi's father, had been carrying her bag. Scott will now caddie for Lexi's brother Nicholas.
There have been a couple of name changes on the LPGA field list this week. M.J. Hur is now listed as Mi Jung Hur. Taylor Leon, who got married last month, is now listed as Taylor Coutu.
Rolex Mover of the Week:
Bo-Mee Lee, winner this past weekend in Japan, moves from #53 to #44.
Follow @tonyjesselli
Tweet
Here are some details on this week's event:
Course: Wildfire Golf Club - Desert Ridge Resort
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Defending Champion: Karrie Webb
2011 Winning Score: 71-66-67=204 (-12)
Final Field: 132 players
Par: 72
Yardage: 6613 Yards
Purse: 1.5 Million
Here is the television schedule:
March 15: 6:30-8:30 PM ET GC
March 16: 6:30-8:30 PM ET GC
March 17: 4:00-7:00 PM ET GC
March 18: 4:00-7:00 PM ET GC
Many changes have been made since the inaugural tournament last year. In 2011 the tournament was just 54 holes; this year it has expanded to 72. The biggest change is that last year the entire purse of 1 million dollars went to charity, this year the 1.5 million dollar purse will be shared by the players.
A very strong field will be playing this week; 15 of the top 20 players in the world will be teeing it up. The only top named players that are not participating are Michelle Wie, Shanshan Feng, Song-Hee Kim, Jessica Korda, and Haru Nomura.
My strength of field is a very solid 60%, up from 44% last year when it ranked last for the entire season.
A closer look at why the field is so much stronger than last year when there was no purse shows us the following:
I.K. Kim will be playing for the first time, although she can certainly be excused for skipping this event last year. Just a few months before, she had given her entire winning paycheck of $250,000 to charity.
Hee Young Park and Meena Lee did not play last year as they chose to play in Japan instead. They are both playing this week.
The Japanese trio of Ai Miyazato, Mika Miyazato, and Momoko Ueda all skipped the tournament last year and are teeing it up this week. Their absence can surely be excused considering the tragedy that struck their country.
Suzann Pettersen, Maria Hjorth, Anna Nordqvist, and Catriona Matthew all chose not to participate in this most charitable tournament last year. It is amazing what a purse of $1.5 million and a winner's check of $225,000 can do; they all chose to play this year.
Other tidbits:
Lexi Thompson has a new caddie. Greg Johnston who has caddied in the past for such stars as Amy Yang, Lorena Ochoa, Brittany Lincicome, Suzanne Pettersen and Michelle Wie, will now be on her bag. Johnston is most famous for carrying Juli Inkster's bag for 12 years, resulting in 7 major championships. Scott Thompson, Lexi's father, had been carrying her bag. Scott will now caddie for Lexi's brother Nicholas.
There have been a couple of name changes on the LPGA field list this week. M.J. Hur is now listed as Mi Jung Hur. Taylor Leon, who got married last month, is now listed as Taylor Coutu.
Rolex Mover of the Week:
Bo-Mee Lee, winner this past weekend in Japan, moves from #53 to #44.
Follow @tonyjesselli
Tweet
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Yokohama Tire PRGR Ladies Cup Sunday: Seoul Sisters Showdown as Bo-Mee Lee Beats Sun-Ju Ahn in Playoff
23-year-old Bo-Mee Lee split her time between the KLPGA and JLPGA last season, but this year she's focusing mainly on the JLPGA, and going by her playoff defeat of 24-year-old Sun-Ju Ahn at the Yokohama Tire PRGR Ladies Cup today, the 2010 KLPGA Player of the Year is ready to make some noise on the JLPGA in 2012.
Having dominated the JLPGA the last 2 seasons, Ahn started the final round looking like someone shooting for a Player of the Year hat trick, as she took over the lead from 2nd-round leaders Yuri Fudoh, Mi-Jeong Jeon, and Ayako Uehara at -2 on the strength of 4 birdies (including 3 in a row) over her 1st 7 holes. But an Ahn bogey on the 363-yard par 4 8th coupled with birdies by Uehara and Lee dropped her back into a 3-way tie for the lead. Lee kept pouring it on with birdies on the par-5 10th and par-4 12th (to bring her total to 4 in her previous 6 holes), but Uehara kept pace with her from the final group, joining her at -3 with 6 holes to play. Then it was Uehara's turn to blink, as her bogey on the 365-yard par-4 13th dropped her back into a tie for 2nd with Ahn, who could only manage 1 birdie (on the 296-yard par-4 11th) after her mistake on 8. But despite cooling off in the middle of her round Ahn kept her cool down the stretch and sank a clutch birdie putt on the 315-yard par-4 16th to join Lee at -3. When neither Lee nor Uehara could make a birdie down the stretch, it was playoff time for the 2nd week in a row on the JLPGA. In a classic Seoul Sisters showdown, Lee defeated Ahn with a par on the 2nd playoff hole.
Although there were bright spots for Japanese golfers on the 1-year anniversary of the horrific earthquake and typhoon--Akane Iijima birdied 3 of her last 5 holes to join Jeon and Soo-Yun Kang at E for the week, 21-year-old Mina Nakayama got her 1st career top 10 thanks to a 6-birdie 69, and Sakura Yokomine bounced back from a moving-day nightmare to just miss the top 10--the day belonged to the "Korean power wave" the Japanese media makes such a big deal of, with 26-year-old Na-Ri Kim getting within 2 shots of the lead before falling off the pace with back-to-back bogeys to close out her round, 23-year-old Na-Ri Lee posting her best finish since last October, and 24-year-old Da-Ye Na garnering her 2nd-straight top 20, not to mention the big names at the very top of the leaderboard.
1st/-3 Bo-Mee Lee (73-71-69) [won in playoff]
2nd/-3 Sun-Ju Ahn (73-73-67)
3rd/-2 Ayako Uehara (73-70-71)
T4/E Akane Iijima (73-74-69), Soo-Yun Kang (72-73-71), Mi-Jeong Jeon (69-74-73)
T7/+1 Mina Nakayama (76-72-69), Ritsuko Ryu (75-73-69), Na-Ri Kim (74-73-70)
10th/+2 Yuri Fudoh (68-75-75)
11th/+3 Teresa Lu (77-68-74)
T12/+4 Kumiko Kaneda (75-74-71), Na-Ri Lee (75-74-71), Sakura Yokomine (72-77-71), Saiki Fujita (73-73-74)
T18/+5 Mayu Hattori (74-77-70), Li-Ying Ye (73-78-70), Da-Ye Na (77-73-71)
T22/+6 Aiko Kaneda (75-74-73), Yuki Ichinose (75-73-74), Harukyo Nomura (74-74-74), Hiromi Mogi (73-75-74)
T28/+7 Erina Hara (77-73-73), So-Hee Kim (76-74-73), Hyun-Ju Shin (73-76-74), Asako Fujimoto (77-71-75), Yumiko Yoshida (70-75-78)
T33/+8 Shanshan Feng (76-76-72)
T37/+9 Yukari Baba (76-76-73), Esther Lee (73-77-75), Sae Yamamura (76-73-76), Shinobu Moromizato (73-74-78)
T43/+10 Erika Kikuchi (74-78-74), Rui Kitada (74-77-75), Haruka Kudo (77-74-76), Ji-Hee Lee (76-72-78)
56th/+13 Misuzu Narita (77-75-77)
T58/+15 Kaori Ohe (74-78-79)
Here are the top 20 on the new JLPGA money list:
1. Bo-Mee Lee ￥16.10M
2. Airi Saitoh ￥14.40M
3. Mi-Jeong Jeon, Akane Iijima ￥7.10M
5. Sun-Ju Ahn ￥7.04M
6. Ji-Hee Lee ￥6.60M
7. Yuko Mitsuka ￥6.32M
8. Ayako Uehara ￥5.97M
9. Soo-Yun Kang ￥5.30M
10. Erika Kikuchi ￥5.14M
11. Sakura Yokomine ￥4.27M
12. Rui Kitada ￥3.44M
13. Na-Ri Kim ￥3.05M
14. Ritsuko Ryu ￥2.84M
15. Mina Nakayama ￥2.77M
16. Mayu Hattori ￥2.49M
17. Teresa Lu ￥2.36M
18. Yuri Fudoh ￥2.31M
19. Rikako Morita ￥2.04M
20. Kumiko Kaneda ￥1.88M
Next up is the T-Point Ladies. Let's see if Ahn and Lee develop an ongoing JLPGA rivalry!
Having dominated the JLPGA the last 2 seasons, Ahn started the final round looking like someone shooting for a Player of the Year hat trick, as she took over the lead from 2nd-round leaders Yuri Fudoh, Mi-Jeong Jeon, and Ayako Uehara at -2 on the strength of 4 birdies (including 3 in a row) over her 1st 7 holes. But an Ahn bogey on the 363-yard par 4 8th coupled with birdies by Uehara and Lee dropped her back into a 3-way tie for the lead. Lee kept pouring it on with birdies on the par-5 10th and par-4 12th (to bring her total to 4 in her previous 6 holes), but Uehara kept pace with her from the final group, joining her at -3 with 6 holes to play. Then it was Uehara's turn to blink, as her bogey on the 365-yard par-4 13th dropped her back into a tie for 2nd with Ahn, who could only manage 1 birdie (on the 296-yard par-4 11th) after her mistake on 8. But despite cooling off in the middle of her round Ahn kept her cool down the stretch and sank a clutch birdie putt on the 315-yard par-4 16th to join Lee at -3. When neither Lee nor Uehara could make a birdie down the stretch, it was playoff time for the 2nd week in a row on the JLPGA. In a classic Seoul Sisters showdown, Lee defeated Ahn with a par on the 2nd playoff hole.
Although there were bright spots for Japanese golfers on the 1-year anniversary of the horrific earthquake and typhoon--Akane Iijima birdied 3 of her last 5 holes to join Jeon and Soo-Yun Kang at E for the week, 21-year-old Mina Nakayama got her 1st career top 10 thanks to a 6-birdie 69, and Sakura Yokomine bounced back from a moving-day nightmare to just miss the top 10--the day belonged to the "Korean power wave" the Japanese media makes such a big deal of, with 26-year-old Na-Ri Kim getting within 2 shots of the lead before falling off the pace with back-to-back bogeys to close out her round, 23-year-old Na-Ri Lee posting her best finish since last October, and 24-year-old Da-Ye Na garnering her 2nd-straight top 20, not to mention the big names at the very top of the leaderboard.
1st/-3 Bo-Mee Lee (73-71-69) [won in playoff]
2nd/-3 Sun-Ju Ahn (73-73-67)
3rd/-2 Ayako Uehara (73-70-71)
T4/E Akane Iijima (73-74-69), Soo-Yun Kang (72-73-71), Mi-Jeong Jeon (69-74-73)
T7/+1 Mina Nakayama (76-72-69), Ritsuko Ryu (75-73-69), Na-Ri Kim (74-73-70)
10th/+2 Yuri Fudoh (68-75-75)
11th/+3 Teresa Lu (77-68-74)
T12/+4 Kumiko Kaneda (75-74-71), Na-Ri Lee (75-74-71), Sakura Yokomine (72-77-71), Saiki Fujita (73-73-74)
T18/+5 Mayu Hattori (74-77-70), Li-Ying Ye (73-78-70), Da-Ye Na (77-73-71)
T22/+6 Aiko Kaneda (75-74-73), Yuki Ichinose (75-73-74), Harukyo Nomura (74-74-74), Hiromi Mogi (73-75-74)
T28/+7 Erina Hara (77-73-73), So-Hee Kim (76-74-73), Hyun-Ju Shin (73-76-74), Asako Fujimoto (77-71-75), Yumiko Yoshida (70-75-78)
T33/+8 Shanshan Feng (76-76-72)
T37/+9 Yukari Baba (76-76-73), Esther Lee (73-77-75), Sae Yamamura (76-73-76), Shinobu Moromizato (73-74-78)
T43/+10 Erika Kikuchi (74-78-74), Rui Kitada (74-77-75), Haruka Kudo (77-74-76), Ji-Hee Lee (76-72-78)
56th/+13 Misuzu Narita (77-75-77)
T58/+15 Kaori Ohe (74-78-79)
Here are the top 20 on the new JLPGA money list:
1. Bo-Mee Lee ￥16.10M
2. Airi Saitoh ￥14.40M
3. Mi-Jeong Jeon, Akane Iijima ￥7.10M
5. Sun-Ju Ahn ￥7.04M
6. Ji-Hee Lee ￥6.60M
7. Yuko Mitsuka ￥6.32M
8. Ayako Uehara ￥5.97M
9. Soo-Yun Kang ￥5.30M
10. Erika Kikuchi ￥5.14M
11. Sakura Yokomine ￥4.27M
12. Rui Kitada ￥3.44M
13. Na-Ri Kim ￥3.05M
14. Ritsuko Ryu ￥2.84M
15. Mina Nakayama ￥2.77M
16. Mayu Hattori ￥2.49M
17. Teresa Lu ￥2.36M
18. Yuri Fudoh ￥2.31M
19. Rikako Morita ￥2.04M
20. Kumiko Kaneda ￥1.88M
Next up is the T-Point Ladies. Let's see if Ahn and Lee develop an ongoing JLPGA rivalry!
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Yokohama Tire PRGR Ladies Cup Saturday: Ayako Uehara and Mi-Jeong Jeon Catch Yuri Fudoh
As bangkokbobby reported earlier today, Ayako Uehara and Mi-Jeong Jeon caught 1st-round leader of the Yokohama Tire PRGR Ladies Cup Yuri Fudoh at -1, on a day when even an eagle couldn't keep the JLPGA's only Billion Yen Woman from ballooning to a 75, as she offset it with back-to-back bogeys to close out her round. The round of the day, though, belonged to former LPGAer Teresa Lu, who fired a 68 that included 6 birdies, an eagle, and 4 bogeys and which improved on her 1st-round score by 9 shots, bringing her within 2 shots of the lead. KLPGA star Bo-Mee Lee birdied 4 holes in a row as she made the turn and parred out over her last 6 holes to stay within 1 of the 3 leaders. With 2-time player of the year Sun-Ju Ahn only 3 off the pace after birdieing 5 of her last 10 holes today, tomorrow's final round should be amazing. If you don't mind a spoiler, it's already tomorrow in Japan!
Here's how the top 10 and notables stand after 36 holes:
T1/-1 Ayako Uehara (73-70), Mi-Jeong Jeon (69-74), Yuri Fudoh (68-75)
4th/E Bo-Mee Lee (73-71)
T5/+1 Teresa Lu (77-68), Soo-Yun Kang (72-73), Yumiko Yoshida (70-75)
T8/+2 Shiho Toyonaga (74-72), Sun-Ju Ahn (73-73), Saiki Fujita (73-73), Nana Akahori (71-75)
T12/+3 Na-Ri Kim (74-73), Shinobu Moromizato (73-74), Akane Iijima (73-74)
T17/+4 Asako Fujimoto (77-71), Ji-Hee Lee (76-72), Mina Nakayama (76-72), Ritsuko Ryu (75-73), Yuki Ichinose (75-73), Harukyo Nomura (74-74), Hiromi Mogi (73-75)
T24/+5 Sae Yamamura (76-73), Kumiko Kaneda (75-74), Na-Ri Lee (75-74), Aiko Kaneda (75-74), Hyun-Ju Shin (73-76), Sakura Yokomine (72-77)
T31/+6 Erina Hara (77-73), Da-Ye Na (77-73), So-Hee Kim (76-74), Esther Lee (73-77)
T40/+7 Haruka Kudo (77-74), Mayu Hattori (74-77), Rui Kitada (74-77), Li-Ying Ye (73-78)
T47/+8 Misuzu Narita (77-75), Shanshan Feng (76-76), Yukari Baba (76-76), Kaori Ohe (74-78), Erika Kikuchi (74-78)
MC: Onnarin Sattayabanphot, Tamie Durdin, Satsuki Oshiro, Megumi Kido, Natsuka Hori, Rikako Morita, Kaori Aoyama, Maiko Wakabayashi, Miki Sakai, Kotono Kozuma, Porani Chutichai, Ah-Reum Hwang, Airi Saitoh, Young Kim, Miki Saiki, Eun-Bi Jang, Tao-Li Yang, Megumi Takahashi [a], Ming-Yen Chen, Nikki Campbell, Lala Anai, Hsuan-Yu Yao, Gloria Park
Too bad Yokomine, Feng, and Nomura will start the final round in the middle of the pack. Let's see if any of them can make a big move on the players going off in the last 3 or 4 threesomes....
Here's how the top 10 and notables stand after 36 holes:
T1/-1 Ayako Uehara (73-70), Mi-Jeong Jeon (69-74), Yuri Fudoh (68-75)
4th/E Bo-Mee Lee (73-71)
T5/+1 Teresa Lu (77-68), Soo-Yun Kang (72-73), Yumiko Yoshida (70-75)
T8/+2 Shiho Toyonaga (74-72), Sun-Ju Ahn (73-73), Saiki Fujita (73-73), Nana Akahori (71-75)
T12/+3 Na-Ri Kim (74-73), Shinobu Moromizato (73-74), Akane Iijima (73-74)
T17/+4 Asako Fujimoto (77-71), Ji-Hee Lee (76-72), Mina Nakayama (76-72), Ritsuko Ryu (75-73), Yuki Ichinose (75-73), Harukyo Nomura (74-74), Hiromi Mogi (73-75)
T24/+5 Sae Yamamura (76-73), Kumiko Kaneda (75-74), Na-Ri Lee (75-74), Aiko Kaneda (75-74), Hyun-Ju Shin (73-76), Sakura Yokomine (72-77)
T31/+6 Erina Hara (77-73), Da-Ye Na (77-73), So-Hee Kim (76-74), Esther Lee (73-77)
T40/+7 Haruka Kudo (77-74), Mayu Hattori (74-77), Rui Kitada (74-77), Li-Ying Ye (73-78)
T47/+8 Misuzu Narita (77-75), Shanshan Feng (76-76), Yukari Baba (76-76), Kaori Ohe (74-78), Erika Kikuchi (74-78)
MC: Onnarin Sattayabanphot, Tamie Durdin, Satsuki Oshiro, Megumi Kido, Natsuka Hori, Rikako Morita, Kaori Aoyama, Maiko Wakabayashi, Miki Sakai, Kotono Kozuma, Porani Chutichai, Ah-Reum Hwang, Airi Saitoh, Young Kim, Miki Saiki, Eun-Bi Jang, Tao-Li Yang, Megumi Takahashi [a], Ming-Yen Chen, Nikki Campbell, Lala Anai, Hsuan-Yu Yao, Gloria Park
Too bad Yokomine, Feng, and Nomura will start the final round in the middle of the pack. Let's see if any of them can make a big move on the players going off in the last 3 or 4 threesomes....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)