Kingsmill Championship Saturday: Cristie Kerr's 2nd 66 of the Week Gives Her a Great Chance for a Hat Trick

Cristie Kerr roared to the front of the pack today at the Kingsmill Championship on the strength of her 2nd 66 of the week, but as great as she's been in every facet of her game through 54 holes, don't be handing her the 3rd title of her career at one of the LPGA's most popular stops just yet.  Only 2 shots behind her are Stacy Lewis and Suzann Pettersen, who have each fired 3 straight rounds in the 60s.  Angela Stanford had a chance to join them at -8, but she bogeyed the par-3 17th, while Ilhee Lee got it to -9 with a bogey-free 31 on the front, but went bogey-par-double-double-birdie-birdie to post a 38 on the back and fall 4 shots off the pace.  Two late bogeys dropped 1st- and 2nd-round leader Ariya Jutanugarn to -5, tied with Lizette Salas, who fired the low round of the day, a bogey-free 65.

There weren't too many other good rounds on moving day, however.  Sure, I'm super-excited that Laura Diaz posted a 5-birdie 67 to leap into the top 20, impressed at Jenny Shin's and Chella Choi's 68s, and psyched to see Mo Martin continue fine play this week (at -3, she's only 1 shot behind world #1 Inbee Park!), but I'm really bummed about Ai Miyazato's 76, Ji-Yai Shin's 75, Paula Creamer's 74, and Chie Arimura's 73, and not all that excited about where Shanshan Feng, So Yeon Ryu, Na Yeon Choi, Ya Ni Tseng, and Amy Yang find themselves with 18 holes left to play.

I know, it's been cool and breezy down there while we've had perfect weather up here in upstate NY.  (Not that it's helped my initial forays out onto the course for the first times this year the last two weekends, but at least I have the excuse of a nagging left shoulder injury I'm dealing with, a couple of lessons I'm trying to groove, and, oh yeah, my being a pretty mediocre amateur to begin with....)  Blame the good weather for drawing me out of the house with my folks rather than watching much of the Golf Channel coverage.  But from what I saw Cristie Kerr is finally rolling the ball the way she's capable of and looks quite ready to celebrate her sweet 16(th win) in Williamsburg.  Will Lewis, Pettersen, or Stanford play the spoiler?  Or will they all get passed by someone from further back in the pack who puts together a perfect final round?  Here are the pairings....

Kingsmill Championship Friday: Ariya Jutanugarn Maintains Tenacious Hold on Lead

If Ariya Jutanugarn's 64 to open the Kingsmill Championship was impressive for how low she could taken it, her 71 today was impressive for how high it could have gone if she had let it spiral out of control.  As LPGA.com details, the 17-year-old refused to panic when her putter left her down early in yesterday's round, leading to 3 bogeys and no birdies in her 1st 8 holes.  Instead, she bounced right back to play her last 10 holes bogey-free and -3...and hold onto the lead for the 2nd round in a row.  Now it's only 1 shot over recent world #1 Stacy Lewis and the dangerous Angela Stanford, while Suzann Pettersen and Sandra Gal (who eagled the par-4 8th) have joined Cristie Kerr, who started the day 2 shots back and ended up there, as well.

But as tough as Jutanugarn proved to be, she did open the door to a host of proven winners.  Ai Miyazato, So Yeon Ryu, Shanshan Feng, and Juli Inkster are 3 back, Paula Creamer and Karen Stupples are 4 behind, Inbee Park and Karrie Webb are 5 off the pace, and even disappointing rounds by Ya Ni Tseng, Azahara Munoz, Amy Yang, and Caroline Hedwall didn't knock them out of the tournament.

In fact, counter to my expectation that you'd need to be under par to make the cut, the cut line actually fell at +3, saving a lot of good golfers who had flat-out bad days and allowing others to make big moves up the leaderboard.  Guilia Sergas's 68 tied Lewis and Stanford for low round of the day and brought her back to even par, tied with the likes of defending champion Ji-Yai Shin, Na Yeon Choi, Hee Kyung Seo, Lexi Thompson, and Anna Nordqvist--all of whom need to go low tomorrow to get into real contention.  Lizette Salas, Moriya Jutanugarn, and Catriona Matthew are now in the middle of the pack, despite having done nothing all that special this week as of yet.  Chie Arimura and Brittany Lincicome went under par yesterday to make the cut with ease, while plenty of people who did great yesterday and terrible today lived to fight another couple of rounds.

Unfortunately, fellow Mohawk Valley Junior Golf veteran Moira Dunn missed the cut by a shot, as did Se Ri Pak, Hee-Won Han, Michelle Wie, Haeji Kang, and Jennifer Johnson, while Song-Hee Kim came within 2 shots of making it and my faves Seon Hwa Lee, Tiffany Joh, Mariajo Uribe, Hannah Yun, and Danielle Kang missed it by more (and Jennifer Song WDed).

I may actually get to watch some of moving day with my folks this afternoon.  Will let you know what I notice if so!

Kingsmill Championship Thursday: Ariya Jutanugarn Leads Cristie Kerr by 2

The scariest thing about Ariya Jutanugarn's opening round in the Kingsmill Championship is how much better it could have been.  Without the double bogey she took on the par-3 17th, how low could her 9-birdie 64 have ended up?  As it is, she leads a resurgent Cristie Kerr by 2, So Yeon Ryu and Dewi Claire Schreefel by 3, and a host of golfers--including Inbee Park, Stacy Lewis, Suzann Pettersen, Ai Miyazato, Angela Stanford, Azahara Munoz, Caroline Hedwall, Hee Young Park, and Jee Young Lee--by 4.  With Na Yeon Choi, Ya Ni Tseng, Paula Creamer, Shanshan Feng, and Amy Yang breaking 70 on the par-71 River Course as well, the 17-year-old LET member has her work cut out for her over the next 54 holes, but Ariya is already proving she belongs on the LPGA and that she's a favorite for Rookie of the Year next season.

Not everyone who's gotten off to good starts in 2013 thus far had strong opening rounds, however.  Defending champion Ji-Yai Shin averaged less than 220 yards off the tee and made only 2 birdies on her way to a blah kind of 70, but even worse was Hee Kyung Seo at 71, Se Ri Pak, In-Kyung Kim, Beatriz Recari, Catriona Matthew, and Lizette Salas at 72, Moriya Jutanugarn at 73, Guilia Sergas and Danielle Kang at 74, and Christina Kim and Seon Hwa Lee at 76.  If they can stay or get under par by the end of the day today, they're likely to make the cut, but they have a whole lot of ground to make up to be factors on Sunday.  I'm interested in seeing if Michelle Wie (73) and Chie Arimura (74) can make the cut and finally get some momentum going in their respective races to make the Solheim Cup team and win Rookie of the Year this year.  And I'll be rooting for Hannah Yun (73), Mariajo Uribe (73), Moira Dunn (74), Morgan Pressel (74), Jeong Jang (74), and Jennifer Song (74) to take advantage of a course that historically has proven vulnerable to low rounds.

[Update (7:25 am): Color bangkokbobby impressed! And check out his photo gallery from round 1....]

Who Would You (Have Golf Channel) Follow at the Kingsmill Championship?

Maybe you are going to the Kingsmill Championship today.  If so, tell me who you're planning to follow.  But if you could send a Golf Channel camera crew to follow a certain threesome for you, whose would it be?

Here's my favorite threesome of the morning wave: Shanshan Feng, Hee Young Park, Danielle Kang at 8:14 am off the 1st tee. I have a feeling we might see plenty of fireworks from them today.

Here's my favorite threesome of the afternoon wave: Stacy Lewis, Na Yeon Choi, and Lizette Salas at 1:36 pm off the 10th tee (not least because I'd see plenty of Ai Miyazato and Ya Ni Tseng right behind them!).

Here's my favorite unsung threesome of the morning wave: Jennifer Song, Pernilla Lindberg, and Austin Ernst at 7:41 am off the 1st tee. Huge upside potential for all 3, not yet tapped.

Here's my favorite unsung threesome of the afternoon wave: Mina Harigae, Hannah Yun, and Jennifer Gleason at 12:30 pm off the 10th tee. Just because I've written so much on Mina and Hannah and would want to see how they're playing with my own eyes.

Who Are Your Picks for the Kingsmill Championship?

Here are mine!

1. Choi Na Yeon
2. Park Inbee
3. Lewis, Stacy
4. Shin Ji-Yai
5. Pettersen
6. Kang Haeji
7. Creamer
8. Ryu So Yeon
9. Miyazato Ai
10. Kim In-Kyung
11. Jutanugarn Ariya
12. Feng

Alts: Stanford; Park Hee Young; Matthew