Many of us have been following the LPGA's elite on their early-season Asian swing and their exodus onto the LET/ALPG and JLPGA, but Hound Dog wonders about the LPGA's rank-and-file and the consequences of being shut out of money-making opportunities at the start of the season. Well, check out the results of the 5 Cactus Tour events that have been completed thus far, as well as their money list (as of event #4). Ditto for the current action on the SunCoast Series, along with their (more recently-updated) money list. Sure, the winnings are much smaller than on the big tours, but when you factor in the money saved on international travel, those who have played well on the mini-tours haven't done all that badly for themselves. And when you break down the LPGA's money list, you'll find that Ai Miyazato is the only player to have earned more than $200K, Suzann Pettersen, Cristie Kerr, Ya Ni Tseng, and Song-Hee Kim are the only players to have joined her in breaking the $100K barrier, it only takes $15K to knock Stacy Prammanasudh out of the #40 spot, and #56 Michele Redman has a whopping $3,354 lead on everyone else.
Meanwhile, Pernilla Lindberg has taken a big lead on the LET Rookie of the Year race and will be looking to extend it at the Women's Australian Open this week, but even after the tour's 3-event Down Under swing comes to a close, most of the relatively small number of LETers who got into those events won't have all that large a lead on their competitors who couldn't.
The bottom line is that 2 or 3 bad results aren't much of an improvement on not playing at all. Sure, by playing more often you get more chances to get that 1 good or great result that can make your season or catapult you to the next level. But these days you have to take advantage of every opportunity you get to play. Whether you get into 20 or 15 or 10 or 5 events, everyone else is struggling to maximize their playing time and their results the same as you. With so few events and purses down in so many of them, we could see the lowest #80 and #100 thresholds on the LPGA money list in a long time. In a race to, say, $100K (a ballpark estimate for #80 because the LPGA still hasn't given me access to their media center and I haven't had time to do the math on my own), every little bit counts, but it's the big chunks of change that make the biggest difference. We'll see who can handle that kind of pressure in a few weeks!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Good Asian American, Bad Asian; or, What Do Responses to the LPGA Reveal about Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class in America Today?
Consider for a moment the following thought experiment: what if Michelle Wie had been the player to kick off the LPGA season with back-to-back wins for the 1st time in 44 years, instead of Ai Miyazato? Wouldn't we have been treated to breathless speculation on Golf Channel (including on-line streaming video from Golf Central) on her odds of doing it, expanded tv coverage of the HSBC two weekends ago, endless arguments over the significance of her feat, and top billing for her on every sports highlight show, sports page, and sports site for a couple of days, at least, all as a prelude to the media rush to Okinawa to follow her every move in this past week's attempt to make the JLPGA opener her 3rd worldwide win in a row?
So why not for Miyazato? She's at least as big a global star in women's golf as Wie, plus she already has 18 wins on major tours to her credit. After her HSBC win, she moved up to #3 in the world, only .01 points behind Ji-Yai Shin and within striking range of Lorena Ochoa. Plus, she was competing against Shin, Momoko Ueda, Sakura Yokomine, and other top 50 players in the JLPGA's debut this week, so even though she had trouble getting the ball in the hole and finished T7, behind Sun Ju Ahn, Shinobu Moromizato, and Chie Arimura, she's likely to make up even more ground on Ochoa when the new Rolex Rankings are released today. I'm certainly not the only one to have predicted this level of success. Of those participating in the 2010 LPGA Prognostication Derby, Ron Sirak anticipated the worst finish for her (10th), I of course foresaw the best (1st), while there was a 4th, 2 5ths, a 7th, and a 9th from everyone in between. While two wins in a row from her is a hotter start than even I expected, it shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone that Miyazato has joined the LPGA's elite. So why is she being concern-trolled for being unable to win in North America thus far in her career? Why are Hound Dog and Jason Sobel the only golf writers or bloggers I know of toreally take her devote a paragraph or more in the last week or two to her 3 LPGA wins in the last 8 months? seriously? [Update (3/9/10, 5:12 am): Little rewrite there to acknowledge that of course the usual suspects are taking her accomplishments seriously! Bill Jempty wrote, "Miyazato has come out blazing. Can she challenge for #1? I think so." Tim Maitland, who predicted her 2009 breakthrough, has been following her closely ever since. But why so few outside the usual suspects? And why so many mistakes in what they produced?] And how in the world did Hunter Mahan getting his 2nd career win get pitched as a bigger story anywhere in the world than what Miyazato accomplished two Sundays ago in Singapore?
Yes, I said "anywhere"--even in the U.S. Of course in Japan Miyazato is neck-and-neck with Ryo Ishikawa, Daisuke Takahashi, and Mao Asada, among others, for most popular athlete in the country. Where does she stand in the U.S.? Let's see: every major golf site relied on wire reports of her HSBC victory and in the week after it there was a grand total of three hastily-put-together career overviews (by Sal Johnson of Golf Observer and Beth Ann Baldry of Golfweek--scroll down in my Ai-sama victory post to updates 34 and 35 for my assessment of them--as well as a halfway decent one by Larry Bohannan). Even an online golf magazine you might expect better of, Global Golf Post, had Miyazato sharing a page with Laura Davies (good company, but Davies was playing in the minor leagues that week, even if she did get worldwide win #73), in the back half of this week's issue--behind a nice full-page profile of Shin by Lewine Mair. Seems like there's a "no woman allowed in the 1st 10 pages" rule at Global Golf Post.
This despite the fact that the LPGA's tournament previews, notes, and interviews have gotten sharper in the Mike Whan era, that there's been a concerted effort to take advantage of opportunities in Asia and to promote Asian stars, and that even the golf industry seems to be waking up, as evidenced by Titleist's new LPGA ad that was getting serious air time during the HSBC (but has not yet made it onto teh youtubes). So why is the U.S. golfy media so far behind the curve, particularly when it comes to coverage of the new generations on tour? Why do we see more profiles of and promotion of the LPGA's Asian-American stars like Michelle Wie, Christina Kim, Vicky Hurst, and Jane Park--and even of Futures Tour prospects like Tiffany Joh and Hannah Yun--than of Asian stars like Miyazato, Shin, Ya Ni Tseng, In-Kyung Kim, Na Yeon Choi, Eun-Hee Ji, and Momoko Ueda? Consider the golfy media's relatively equal embrace of both Asian-Americans like Anthony Kim, Tadd Fujikawa, and Rickie Fowler and of Asians like Ryo Ishikawa and Danny Lee. As I asked over at Citizen of Somewhere Else yesterday on a very different topic last week, "what's going on?" Is it that hard to talk to English-speaking caddies or agents? To hire translators for interviews with players or to get background from Asian reporters? To read reporting from Asia in translation?
I don't think this is an individual failing, a breakdown in journalistic integrity, or the natural outcome of nationalism or impersonal market forces. It's not often that I get to cite books by academics here, but Colleen Lye's 2005 study America's Asia: Racial Form and American Literature, 1893-1945 is remarkably relevant to any analysis of what responses to the LPGA reveal about race, ethnicity, gender, and class in America today. Even though Lye focuses on a very different time period than our own, she shows how relevant anxieties from even progressive and liberal leaders and writers from then are to us now. Consider the following passage:
Lye's focus on the "initial textual presence of Asiatic racial form as an economic trope" (11) and argument that late-19th- and early-20th-century Americans displaced their anxieties over capitalism and globalization onto Asians of their own imagining is entirely relevant to our own time, when the LPGA has been featured more in the business section than the sports section, when Americans and Europeans on tour are individualized and "the Koreans" are generally treated en masse and as a mass, and when the presence of Asians on the LPGA is sensationalized either as nightmare or dream. Lye again:
The Bivens regime spent too much time worrying about the former, while the Whan regime is working to make the latter a reality. Here's a suggestion: helping American media and fans get to know Asian players as individuals is only part of the solution. (A big part, to be sure, as the closest the lazy American media has come up with anything interesting thus for for Miyazato is that she's a "rock star" in Japan who at first "lost her confidence" on coming to America.) Encouraging American fans and media to embrace globalization is also only part of the solution. (Although highlighting more cross-continent friendships among the players as well as the economic benefits to the tour and its sponsors of exposure in Asia, as well as in Europe and America, wouldn't be a bad idea.) The task is much larger than that: defusing American anxieties that capitalism may be passing them by and that Americans can no longer succeed against global competition and trying to interrupt the historical short-circuit that makes American images of Asia and Asians a symbol for economic transformation. They already realize this can't be done simply by massively promoting American stars (and thus adding to the media and fan pressure on them).
One small start might be pairing Americans of Asian descent with their lesser-known counterparts who were born in Asia--and this could extend more generally between Asian and non-Asian players. The Lorena Ochoa-Ai Miyazato connection has already been established; Suzann Pettersen and Ya Ni Tseng could become a regular pairing, as could Cristie Kerr and Song-Hee Kim, Angela Stanford and Sun Young Yoo, Michelle Wie and Ji-Yai Shin, Paula Creamer (when she's healthy) and In-Kyung Kim, Karrie Webb and Amy Yang, Vicky Hurst and Momoko Ueda, Christina Kim and Jee Young Lee, Jane Park and Na Yeon Choi, Morgan Pressel and Eun-Hee Ji, Mina Harigae and Mika Miyazato, and so on. The point is to put players who combine in interesting ways together on a fairly regular basis, either by game, level of accomplishment or promise, or personality/style. Having tv commentators, golf journalists, and everyday fans on the course and in front of their tv sets getting used to seeing Asians and non-Asians showcasing their games and interacting without the world coming to an end could add up to one giant leap for America.
[Update 1 (3/9/10, 5:21 am): The new Titleist commercial is up on LPGA.com--oh, wait, wrong one....]
[Update 2 (5:33 am): This is not the one I saw during the HSBC--a lot more Asians on that one!
Anyone know where I can find the one aired during the Asian swing?]
[Update 3 (3/10/10, 3:00 am): Here's Stephanie Wei on Momoko Ueda--it's the latest installment in her Know Your Asians feature.]
So why not for Miyazato? She's at least as big a global star in women's golf as Wie, plus she already has 18 wins on major tours to her credit. After her HSBC win, she moved up to #3 in the world, only .01 points behind Ji-Yai Shin and within striking range of Lorena Ochoa. Plus, she was competing against Shin, Momoko Ueda, Sakura Yokomine, and other top 50 players in the JLPGA's debut this week, so even though she had trouble getting the ball in the hole and finished T7, behind Sun Ju Ahn, Shinobu Moromizato, and Chie Arimura, she's likely to make up even more ground on Ochoa when the new Rolex Rankings are released today. I'm certainly not the only one to have predicted this level of success. Of those participating in the 2010 LPGA Prognostication Derby, Ron Sirak anticipated the worst finish for her (10th), I of course foresaw the best (1st), while there was a 4th, 2 5ths, a 7th, and a 9th from everyone in between. While two wins in a row from her is a hotter start than even I expected, it shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone that Miyazato has joined the LPGA's elite. So why is she being concern-trolled for being unable to win in North America thus far in her career? Why are Hound Dog and Jason Sobel the only golf writers or bloggers I know of to
Yes, I said "anywhere"--even in the U.S. Of course in Japan Miyazato is neck-and-neck with Ryo Ishikawa, Daisuke Takahashi, and Mao Asada, among others, for most popular athlete in the country. Where does she stand in the U.S.? Let's see: every major golf site relied on wire reports of her HSBC victory and in the week after it there was a grand total of three hastily-put-together career overviews (by Sal Johnson of Golf Observer and Beth Ann Baldry of Golfweek--scroll down in my Ai-sama victory post to updates 34 and 35 for my assessment of them--as well as a halfway decent one by Larry Bohannan). Even an online golf magazine you might expect better of, Global Golf Post, had Miyazato sharing a page with Laura Davies (good company, but Davies was playing in the minor leagues that week, even if she did get worldwide win #73), in the back half of this week's issue--behind a nice full-page profile of Shin by Lewine Mair. Seems like there's a "no woman allowed in the 1st 10 pages" rule at Global Golf Post.
This despite the fact that the LPGA's tournament previews, notes, and interviews have gotten sharper in the Mike Whan era, that there's been a concerted effort to take advantage of opportunities in Asia and to promote Asian stars, and that even the golf industry seems to be waking up, as evidenced by Titleist's new LPGA ad that was getting serious air time during the HSBC (but has not yet made it onto teh youtubes). So why is the U.S. golfy media so far behind the curve, particularly when it comes to coverage of the new generations on tour? Why do we see more profiles of and promotion of the LPGA's Asian-American stars like Michelle Wie, Christina Kim, Vicky Hurst, and Jane Park--and even of Futures Tour prospects like Tiffany Joh and Hannah Yun--than of Asian stars like Miyazato, Shin, Ya Ni Tseng, In-Kyung Kim, Na Yeon Choi, Eun-Hee Ji, and Momoko Ueda? Consider the golfy media's relatively equal embrace of both Asian-Americans like Anthony Kim, Tadd Fujikawa, and Rickie Fowler and of Asians like Ryo Ishikawa and Danny Lee. As I asked over at Citizen of Somewhere Else yesterday on a very different topic last week, "what's going on?" Is it that hard to talk to English-speaking caddies or agents? To hire translators for interviews with players or to get background from Asian reporters? To read reporting from Asia in translation?
I don't think this is an individual failing, a breakdown in journalistic integrity, or the natural outcome of nationalism or impersonal market forces. It's not often that I get to cite books by academics here, but Colleen Lye's 2005 study America's Asia: Racial Form and American Literature, 1893-1945 is remarkably relevant to any analysis of what responses to the LPGA reveal about race, ethnicity, gender, and class in America today. Even though Lye focuses on a very different time period than our own, she shows how relevant anxieties from even progressive and liberal leaders and writers from then are to us now. Consider the following passage:
Through observations of shifts in naturalism's representation of Asiatic figures to exemplify the promise and the peril of free market expansion, my study seeks to reveal one systematic way in which the critical potential for revealing the damages wrought by globalization in the American context has been short-circuited....
The remedy and exacerbation posed by America's Asia to the crisis of the closing of the frontier entwined the emergence of Asiatic racial form with the intensification of commodity relations and capital's global expansion. The legal designation of Asian immigrants as "aliens ineligible to citizenship" reflected the freighting of Asiatic racial form with an abiding tension between U.S. national interests and capital's transnational movement, between the exceptionalist dream of the identity of nation and capital logic and the nightmare of their nonidentity. (8, 9)
Lye's focus on the "initial textual presence of Asiatic racial form as an economic trope" (11) and argument that late-19th- and early-20th-century Americans displaced their anxieties over capitalism and globalization onto Asians of their own imagining is entirely relevant to our own time, when the LPGA has been featured more in the business section than the sports section, when Americans and Europeans on tour are individualized and "the Koreans" are generally treated en masse and as a mass, and when the presence of Asians on the LPGA is sensationalized either as nightmare or dream. Lye again:
To the extent that American universality depends upon the possibility of assimilation, there is always the danger of finding aliens in our midst, or the wholesale possibility of American takeover by aliens....
In a fifty-year period, a vision of California as a post-frontier about to be engulfed by coolie hordes and Oriental despotism is succeeded by visions of a Pacific Rim utopia, where the local and the global could be made happily coextensive. (8, 11)
The Bivens regime spent too much time worrying about the former, while the Whan regime is working to make the latter a reality. Here's a suggestion: helping American media and fans get to know Asian players as individuals is only part of the solution. (A big part, to be sure, as the closest the lazy American media has come up with anything interesting thus for for Miyazato is that she's a "rock star" in Japan who at first "lost her confidence" on coming to America.) Encouraging American fans and media to embrace globalization is also only part of the solution. (Although highlighting more cross-continent friendships among the players as well as the economic benefits to the tour and its sponsors of exposure in Asia, as well as in Europe and America, wouldn't be a bad idea.) The task is much larger than that: defusing American anxieties that capitalism may be passing them by and that Americans can no longer succeed against global competition and trying to interrupt the historical short-circuit that makes American images of Asia and Asians a symbol for economic transformation. They already realize this can't be done simply by massively promoting American stars (and thus adding to the media and fan pressure on them).
One small start might be pairing Americans of Asian descent with their lesser-known counterparts who were born in Asia--and this could extend more generally between Asian and non-Asian players. The Lorena Ochoa-Ai Miyazato connection has already been established; Suzann Pettersen and Ya Ni Tseng could become a regular pairing, as could Cristie Kerr and Song-Hee Kim, Angela Stanford and Sun Young Yoo, Michelle Wie and Ji-Yai Shin, Paula Creamer (when she's healthy) and In-Kyung Kim, Karrie Webb and Amy Yang, Vicky Hurst and Momoko Ueda, Christina Kim and Jee Young Lee, Jane Park and Na Yeon Choi, Morgan Pressel and Eun-Hee Ji, Mina Harigae and Mika Miyazato, and so on. The point is to put players who combine in interesting ways together on a fairly regular basis, either by game, level of accomplishment or promise, or personality/style. Having tv commentators, golf journalists, and everyday fans on the course and in front of their tv sets getting used to seeing Asians and non-Asians showcasing their games and interacting without the world coming to an end could add up to one giant leap for America.
[Update 1 (3/9/10, 5:21 am): The new Titleist commercial is up on LPGA.com--oh, wait, wrong one....]
[Update 2 (5:33 am): This is not the one I saw during the HSBC--a lot more Asians on that one!
Anyone know where I can find the one aired during the Asian swing?]
[Update 3 (3/10/10, 3:00 am): Here's Stephanie Wei on Momoko Ueda--it's the latest installment in her Know Your Asians feature.]
Sunday, March 7, 2010
LET/ALPG Update: Fountain of Youth II
Last week on the LET/ALPG, it was Laura Davies who got her 73rd worldwide win in New Zealand; this week, it was Karrie Webb who got her 46th overall and 7th at the ANZ Ladies Masters on the strength of a 64-61 weekend performance that brought her to -26 and beat Katherine Hull and Bo-Mee Lee by 6 shots.
With the current top 2 players on the KLPGA, Hee Kyung Seo and So Yeon Ryu, finishing 4th and 5th, respectively, and former top pair Sun Ju Ahn and Ji-Yai Shin finishing 1-2 on the JLPGA this week, Korea and the KLPGA has reaffirmed their reputation for nurturing the best female players in the world. But with Nikki Campbell snagging a top 10 on the JLPGA and Tamie Durdin and Lindsey Wright getting top 10s in a field with many visiting LPGAers, Australia and the ALPG can take comfort in their graduates' success this week. There's even hope for the future of American golf, what with Amanda Blumenherst, Stacy Lewis, and Vicky Hurst playing so well this week (and Mina Harigae closing with a fine 66 to notch a T25 finish).
But there's no clearer evidence the rest of the world is catching up to the U.S. and that other tours are catching up to the LPGA than the results from the other side of the globe this week. Sure, LPGAers made up 6 of the top 10 in Australia, but they were only 3 of the top 10 in Okinawa, where Seon Hwa Lee WDed, Teresa Lu MCed, Young Kim barely made the top 50, and Momoko Ueda could only manage a T25. Meanwhile, with the exception of Ya Ni Tseng (T11), Eun-Hee Ji (13th), Hee Young Park (T19), and Jeong Jang (T25), most of the LPGAers playing in Australia were American or European, and while they did make up the vast majority of the players who finished between 11th and 50th, they didn't monopolize the top of the leaderboard. The LPGA remains the deepest women's tour in the world, not least because so many from the JLPGA, KLPGA, and LET join it, but the numbers of non-dual LPGA members at the top of the women's game are dwindling--only 8 in the top 50. I wonder what the consequences will be for putting together a worldwide women's professional golf schedule in 2011 and beyond.
[Update 1 (12:34 pm): Bill Jempty has more on Webb's win.]
[Update 2 (3/8/10, 10:54 am): Here's Jeff Skinner, too.]
[Update 3 (3/11/10, 5:40 am): Here's Happy Fan's overview of the JLPGA and LET/ALPG action!]
With the current top 2 players on the KLPGA, Hee Kyung Seo and So Yeon Ryu, finishing 4th and 5th, respectively, and former top pair Sun Ju Ahn and Ji-Yai Shin finishing 1-2 on the JLPGA this week, Korea and the KLPGA has reaffirmed their reputation for nurturing the best female players in the world. But with Nikki Campbell snagging a top 10 on the JLPGA and Tamie Durdin and Lindsey Wright getting top 10s in a field with many visiting LPGAers, Australia and the ALPG can take comfort in their graduates' success this week. There's even hope for the future of American golf, what with Amanda Blumenherst, Stacy Lewis, and Vicky Hurst playing so well this week (and Mina Harigae closing with a fine 66 to notch a T25 finish).
But there's no clearer evidence the rest of the world is catching up to the U.S. and that other tours are catching up to the LPGA than the results from the other side of the globe this week. Sure, LPGAers made up 6 of the top 10 in Australia, but they were only 3 of the top 10 in Okinawa, where Seon Hwa Lee WDed, Teresa Lu MCed, Young Kim barely made the top 50, and Momoko Ueda could only manage a T25. Meanwhile, with the exception of Ya Ni Tseng (T11), Eun-Hee Ji (13th), Hee Young Park (T19), and Jeong Jang (T25), most of the LPGAers playing in Australia were American or European, and while they did make up the vast majority of the players who finished between 11th and 50th, they didn't monopolize the top of the leaderboard. The LPGA remains the deepest women's tour in the world, not least because so many from the JLPGA, KLPGA, and LET join it, but the numbers of non-dual LPGA members at the top of the women's game are dwindling--only 8 in the top 50. I wonder what the consequences will be for putting together a worldwide women's professional golf schedule in 2011 and beyond.
[Update 1 (12:34 pm): Bill Jempty has more on Webb's win.]
[Update 2 (3/8/10, 10:54 am): Here's Jeff Skinner, too.]
[Update 3 (3/11/10, 5:40 am): Here's Happy Fan's overview of the JLPGA and LET/ALPG action!]
Daikin Orchid Ladies Sunday: Just Like the Old Days...on the KLPGA?!
Sun Ju Ahn and Ji-Yai Shin are locked in an asynchronous duel in the final round of the JLPGA's kickoff event in 2010, the Daikin Orchid Ladies, just like they used to be 2 and more years ago on the KLPGA. Shin, going off 5 groups ahead of Ahn, is showing why she's been given the nickname "Final Round Queen." With 4 birdies and no bogeys over her 1st 17 holes, she's caught up to where Ahn stood at the end of the 2nd round. But Ahn is playing flawless golf of her own through her 1st 13 holes. Her back-to-back birdies on the par-5 11th and par-4 12th have brought her to -3 on the day and -8 overall.
That's not to say this is a 2-player race as the JLPGA live-scoring page enters its "tv timeout" phase. Chie Arimura climbed to -5, along with Shin, thanks to a birdie train that started on 12 and 13 and may well be continuing, while Kaori Aoyama has birdied every even-numbered hole on the back thus far to join her. One of yesterday's co-leaders, Okinawan Ayako Uehara, has made 1 lone bogey in a sea of pars thus far today and remains 4 back with 5 holes left to play. Her more famous countrywoman, Ai Miyazato, made it to -4 overall after a bogey-free 35 on the front, but bogeyed her 1st 2 odd-numbered holes on the back and is 6 back with only 4 left to play. The chances of her getting her 3rd straight worldwide win are looking pretty slim right now, even with a closing par 5 that has given up its share of birdies and even eagles this week. Meanwhile, in the next-to-last group, Bo-Bae Song had been struggling all day but was hanging tough, 4 behind Ahn, until a double bogey on the 13th dropped her back to Ai-sama territory. That means that Inbee Park is the only other player within 4 shots of the lead in the entire field. But after shooting a 34 on the front, Park has rattled off 7 pars in a row and is running out of chances to put pressure on Ahn.
As we wait for play to end, Sakura Yokomine (69), Nikki Campbell (70), and Yuko Saitoh (70) are the co-leaders in the clubhouse at -2. We'll see if the leaders can avoid the home stretch collapses that plagued so many yesterday.
[Update 1 (4:11 am): In the end, Ahn made it boring! She birdied her last 2 holes to get to -10 and take a 5-shot victory over her former KLPGA rival Shin (among others). Here's how everyone ended up:
1st/-10 Sun Ju Ahn (69-70-67)
T2/-5 Ji-Yai Shin (71-72-68), Inbee Park (71-71-69), Shinobu Moromizato (72-69-70), Kaori Aoyama (72-69-70), Chie Arimura (72-68-71)
T7/-3 Saiki Fujita (73-70-70), Ai Miyazato (70-71-72), Ayako Uehara (69-70-74)
T10/-2 Sakura Yokomine (72-73-69), Nikki Campbell (70-74-70), Yuko Saitoh (75-69-70)
T13/-1 Junko Omote (70-71-74), Yuri Fudoh (69-72-74), Yukari Baba (69-70-76)
T16/E Miho Koga (72-73-71), Miki Saiki (73-71-72), Hiromi Mogi (73-71-72), Mi-Jeong Jeon (72-70-74), Bo-Bae Song (69-71-76)
T25/+1 Momoko Ueda (70-74-73)
T27/+2 Ji-Hee Lee (75-72-71)
T32/+3 Mayu Hattori (75-72-72), Eun-A Lim (77-69-73), Rui Kitada (74-71-74), Hyun-Ju Shin (71-73-75), Rikako Morita (67-77-75), Mie Nakata (72-71-76), Ritsuko Ryu (68-74-77)
T40/+4 Ji-Woo Lee (74-73-73), Yuki Ichinose (74-71-75)
T47/+5 Young Kim (71-76-74)
T58/+9 So-Hee Kim (70-74-81)
Looks like Moromizato and Arimura are picking up right where they left off last season. Although Yokomine is still a little rusty, she still managed to snag a top 10, which is more than other elite JLPGA regulars (from Fudoh to Koga to Jeon to Song to Lee) and irregulars (from Ueda to Kim) can say. Speaking of the latter, a very impressive finish for Inbee Park this week! I can't feel too bad for Ai-sama, in the end, as she never played well enough to win.]
[Update 2 (4:22 am): Here's who's in the top spots on the new JLPGA money list:
1. Sun Ju Ahn ￥14.40M
T2. Ji-Yai Shin ￥4.93M
T2. Inbee Park ￥4.93M
T2. Shinobu Moromizato ￥4.93M
T2. Kaori Aoyama ￥4.93M
T2. Chie Arimura ￥4.93M
T7. Saiki Fujita ￥2.40M
T7. Ayako Uehara ￥2.40M
T7. Ai Miyazato ￥2.40M
T10. Sakura Yokomine ￥1.47M
T10. Nikki Campbell ￥1.47M
T10. Yuko Saitoh ￥1.47M
It'll be interesting to see how long the various LPGAers stay in Japan! Next up is the Yokohama PRGR Ladies Cup, for which the field list has not yet been released.]
That's not to say this is a 2-player race as the JLPGA live-scoring page enters its "tv timeout" phase. Chie Arimura climbed to -5, along with Shin, thanks to a birdie train that started on 12 and 13 and may well be continuing, while Kaori Aoyama has birdied every even-numbered hole on the back thus far to join her. One of yesterday's co-leaders, Okinawan Ayako Uehara, has made 1 lone bogey in a sea of pars thus far today and remains 4 back with 5 holes left to play. Her more famous countrywoman, Ai Miyazato, made it to -4 overall after a bogey-free 35 on the front, but bogeyed her 1st 2 odd-numbered holes on the back and is 6 back with only 4 left to play. The chances of her getting her 3rd straight worldwide win are looking pretty slim right now, even with a closing par 5 that has given up its share of birdies and even eagles this week. Meanwhile, in the next-to-last group, Bo-Bae Song had been struggling all day but was hanging tough, 4 behind Ahn, until a double bogey on the 13th dropped her back to Ai-sama territory. That means that Inbee Park is the only other player within 4 shots of the lead in the entire field. But after shooting a 34 on the front, Park has rattled off 7 pars in a row and is running out of chances to put pressure on Ahn.
As we wait for play to end, Sakura Yokomine (69), Nikki Campbell (70), and Yuko Saitoh (70) are the co-leaders in the clubhouse at -2. We'll see if the leaders can avoid the home stretch collapses that plagued so many yesterday.
[Update 1 (4:11 am): In the end, Ahn made it boring! She birdied her last 2 holes to get to -10 and take a 5-shot victory over her former KLPGA rival Shin (among others). Here's how everyone ended up:
1st/-10 Sun Ju Ahn (69-70-67)
T2/-5 Ji-Yai Shin (71-72-68), Inbee Park (71-71-69), Shinobu Moromizato (72-69-70), Kaori Aoyama (72-69-70), Chie Arimura (72-68-71)
T7/-3 Saiki Fujita (73-70-70), Ai Miyazato (70-71-72), Ayako Uehara (69-70-74)
T10/-2 Sakura Yokomine (72-73-69), Nikki Campbell (70-74-70), Yuko Saitoh (75-69-70)
T13/-1 Junko Omote (70-71-74), Yuri Fudoh (69-72-74), Yukari Baba (69-70-76)
T16/E Miho Koga (72-73-71), Miki Saiki (73-71-72), Hiromi Mogi (73-71-72), Mi-Jeong Jeon (72-70-74), Bo-Bae Song (69-71-76)
T25/+1 Momoko Ueda (70-74-73)
T27/+2 Ji-Hee Lee (75-72-71)
T32/+3 Mayu Hattori (75-72-72), Eun-A Lim (77-69-73), Rui Kitada (74-71-74), Hyun-Ju Shin (71-73-75), Rikako Morita (67-77-75), Mie Nakata (72-71-76), Ritsuko Ryu (68-74-77)
T40/+4 Ji-Woo Lee (74-73-73), Yuki Ichinose (74-71-75)
T47/+5 Young Kim (71-76-74)
T58/+9 So-Hee Kim (70-74-81)
Looks like Moromizato and Arimura are picking up right where they left off last season. Although Yokomine is still a little rusty, she still managed to snag a top 10, which is more than other elite JLPGA regulars (from Fudoh to Koga to Jeon to Song to Lee) and irregulars (from Ueda to Kim) can say. Speaking of the latter, a very impressive finish for Inbee Park this week! I can't feel too bad for Ai-sama, in the end, as she never played well enough to win.]
[Update 2 (4:22 am): Here's who's in the top spots on the new JLPGA money list:
1. Sun Ju Ahn ￥14.40M
T2. Ji-Yai Shin ￥4.93M
T2. Inbee Park ￥4.93M
T2. Shinobu Moromizato ￥4.93M
T2. Kaori Aoyama ￥4.93M
T2. Chie Arimura ￥4.93M
T7. Saiki Fujita ￥2.40M
T7. Ayako Uehara ￥2.40M
T7. Ai Miyazato ￥2.40M
T10. Sakura Yokomine ￥1.47M
T10. Nikki Campbell ￥1.47M
T10. Yuko Saitoh ￥1.47M
It'll be interesting to see how long the various LPGAers stay in Japan! Next up is the Yokohama PRGR Ladies Cup, for which the field list has not yet been released.]
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Daikin Orchid Ladies Saturday: JLPGA Veterans Moving on Moving Day
JLPGA veterans Yui Kawahara, Yuko Saitoh, and Junko Omote are showing the tour's young guns a thing or 2 about taking advantage of moving day in the 2nd round of the Daikin Orchid Ladies. Saitoh and Kawahara posted the 1st 69s of the day to move up to T26 (E) and T19 (-1), respectively. Their only blemishes came on the challenging par-4 17th. We'll see if leader Omote can avoid their mistake. She's playing bogey-free golf today and, at -4 through 13 holes, stands alone at -6 overall.
Even though 1st-round leaders Rikako Morita and Ritsuko Ryu are having trouble getting out of the gates (both are +1 through 11), that doesn't mean the rest of the JLPGA's youngsters are standing aside while their elders make runs at the top of the leaderboard. KLPGA transplant and JLPGA rookie Sun Ju Ahn has made 3 birdies in her last 9 holes to catch Okinawan Ayako Uehara, who's made 3 birdies and 1 bogey in her 1st 12 holes herself, at -5 overall. Uehara's countrywoman Ai Miyazato is showing why she's ranked #3 in the world and gunning for her 3rd straight worldwide victory. After an uncharacteristic 38 on the front, she's come out firing on the back, making 3 birdies in her 1st 4 holes to get back within 3 of the lead. Meanwhile, 2 players who were in contention for money list queen on the back 9 of the final tournament of 2009 made big runs of their own. After a bad start, Shinobu Moromizato played her last 15 holes bogey-free; her 5 birdies in that stretch gave her a 69 today and brought her back to -3 on the tournament. And Chie Arimura did her 1 better on both counts, thanks to a birdie-eagle finish.
In less happy news, 73s by the previous 2 season's money list queens, Sakura Yokomine and Miho Koga, dropped them out of contention. And disastrous days by Teresa Lu, Akiko Fukushima, Erina Hara, Maiko Wakabayashi, Riko Higashio, Jae-Hee Bae, Na-Ri Kim, and Yuko Mitsuka mean that their tournament is over. Seon Hwa Lee bounced back with a 73, but it was too little, too late--plus, it appears she WDed rather than taking an MC. Waiting to see whether they'll get to play Sunday are Ji-Hee Lee and Mayu Hattori, who both posted 72s to remain at +3 overall (T49 right now). Young Kim is one of the many players on the bubble as she heads into her final holes. More soon!
[Update 1 (12:04 am): Nice 32 on the back by Kaori Aoyama to fire a 69 of her own and move to -3 overall (T7 right now with Moromizato).]
[Update 2 (12:10 am): Mi-Jeong Jeon became the 1st player on the 1st page of the leaderboard to fail to birdie the par-5 18th, so she had to accept a 70 today. Still, she played her last 11 holes bogey-free in -3 to move to -2 overall. A great round tomorrow could still get her a win.]
[Update 3 (12:14 am): Look out! Bo-Bae Song, who got 2 wins last season against perhaps the 2 toughest fields of the year, has just birdied 3 of her 1st 5 holes on the back to move to -5 overall, tied with Ahn and Uehara, and still 1 behind Omote.]
[Update 4 (12:16 am): Uh-oh! Omote made her 1st bogey of the day on the par-4 15th, which fellow veteran Maria Iida had earlier eagled. It's now a 4-way tie for the lead at -5!]
[Update 5 (12:20 am): Ji-Yai Shin couldn't birdie the 18th, so she ends the day with a 72 and sits T18 at -1. Inbee Park did birdie it, so moved to -2 (T12) after her 2nd-straight 71.]
[Update 6 (12:22 am): Others definitely missing the cut include Akane Iijima, Kumiko Kaneda, Sakurako Mori, and Li-Ying Ye. The cut line remains at +4.]
[Update 7 (12:25 am): A bogey at 14 dropped Uehara back to -4, T4 right now with Arimura.]
[Update 8 (12:29 am): Just a quick observation on how well Ai-sama is playing. She was 1 of only 3 players today to birdie the tough par-3 13th, a hole that saw loads of bogeys and a large number of doubles.]
[Update 9 (1:13 am): Have I mentioned before how much I hate the JLPGA's "live-scoring tv timeout" policy?]
[Update 10 (7:41 am): Here are the final results for round 2--ended up being moving backwards day for all too many top players:
T1/-5 Sun Ju Ahn (69-70), Ayako Uehara (69-70), Yukari Baba (69-70)
T4/-4 Chie Arimura (72-68), Bo-Bae Song (69-71)
T6/-3 Shinobu Moromizato (72-69), Kaori Aoyama (72-69), Ai Miyazato (70-71), Junko Omote (70-71), Hiroko Ayada (70-71), Yuri Fudoh (69-72)
T12/-2 Mi-Jeong Jeon (72-70), Inbee Park (71-71), Ritsuko Ryu (68-74)
T15/-1 Saiki Fujita (73-70), Mie Nakata (72-71), Ji-Yai Shin (71-72)
T21/E Miki Saiki (73-71), Hiromi Mogi (73-71), Hyun-Ju Shin (71-73), Momoko Ueda (70-74), Nikki Campbell (70-74), So-Hee Kim (70-74), Rikako Morita (67-77)
T34/+1 Rui Kitada (74-71), Yuki Ichinose (74-71), Sakura Yokomine (72-73), Miho Koga (72-73)
T41/+2 Eun-A Lim (77-69)
T47/+3 Ji-Hee Lee (75-72), Mayu Hattori (75-72), Ji-Woo Lee (74-73), Young Kim (71-76)
T61/+4 Maiko Wakabayashi (72-76)
T68/+5 Kumiko Kaneda (75-74), Akane Iijima (74-75)
T76/+6 Li-Ying Ye (78-72), Yuko Mitsuka (76-74)
T82/+7 Sakurako Mori (78-73), Erina Hara (73-78), Akiko Fukushima (71-80)
T90/+8 Na-Ri Kim (75-77), Teresa Lu (71-81)
T100/+11 Ai-Yu Tu (79-76)
T103/+14 Jae-Hee Bae (77-81)
WD Seon Hwa Lee (79-WD)
Wow, some major collapses down the stretch!]
Even though 1st-round leaders Rikako Morita and Ritsuko Ryu are having trouble getting out of the gates (both are +1 through 11), that doesn't mean the rest of the JLPGA's youngsters are standing aside while their elders make runs at the top of the leaderboard. KLPGA transplant and JLPGA rookie Sun Ju Ahn has made 3 birdies in her last 9 holes to catch Okinawan Ayako Uehara, who's made 3 birdies and 1 bogey in her 1st 12 holes herself, at -5 overall. Uehara's countrywoman Ai Miyazato is showing why she's ranked #3 in the world and gunning for her 3rd straight worldwide victory. After an uncharacteristic 38 on the front, she's come out firing on the back, making 3 birdies in her 1st 4 holes to get back within 3 of the lead. Meanwhile, 2 players who were in contention for money list queen on the back 9 of the final tournament of 2009 made big runs of their own. After a bad start, Shinobu Moromizato played her last 15 holes bogey-free; her 5 birdies in that stretch gave her a 69 today and brought her back to -3 on the tournament. And Chie Arimura did her 1 better on both counts, thanks to a birdie-eagle finish.
In less happy news, 73s by the previous 2 season's money list queens, Sakura Yokomine and Miho Koga, dropped them out of contention. And disastrous days by Teresa Lu, Akiko Fukushima, Erina Hara, Maiko Wakabayashi, Riko Higashio, Jae-Hee Bae, Na-Ri Kim, and Yuko Mitsuka mean that their tournament is over. Seon Hwa Lee bounced back with a 73, but it was too little, too late--plus, it appears she WDed rather than taking an MC. Waiting to see whether they'll get to play Sunday are Ji-Hee Lee and Mayu Hattori, who both posted 72s to remain at +3 overall (T49 right now). Young Kim is one of the many players on the bubble as she heads into her final holes. More soon!
[Update 1 (12:04 am): Nice 32 on the back by Kaori Aoyama to fire a 69 of her own and move to -3 overall (T7 right now with Moromizato).]
[Update 2 (12:10 am): Mi-Jeong Jeon became the 1st player on the 1st page of the leaderboard to fail to birdie the par-5 18th, so she had to accept a 70 today. Still, she played her last 11 holes bogey-free in -3 to move to -2 overall. A great round tomorrow could still get her a win.]
[Update 3 (12:14 am): Look out! Bo-Bae Song, who got 2 wins last season against perhaps the 2 toughest fields of the year, has just birdied 3 of her 1st 5 holes on the back to move to -5 overall, tied with Ahn and Uehara, and still 1 behind Omote.]
[Update 4 (12:16 am): Uh-oh! Omote made her 1st bogey of the day on the par-4 15th, which fellow veteran Maria Iida had earlier eagled. It's now a 4-way tie for the lead at -5!]
[Update 5 (12:20 am): Ji-Yai Shin couldn't birdie the 18th, so she ends the day with a 72 and sits T18 at -1. Inbee Park did birdie it, so moved to -2 (T12) after her 2nd-straight 71.]
[Update 6 (12:22 am): Others definitely missing the cut include Akane Iijima, Kumiko Kaneda, Sakurako Mori, and Li-Ying Ye. The cut line remains at +4.]
[Update 7 (12:25 am): A bogey at 14 dropped Uehara back to -4, T4 right now with Arimura.]
[Update 8 (12:29 am): Just a quick observation on how well Ai-sama is playing. She was 1 of only 3 players today to birdie the tough par-3 13th, a hole that saw loads of bogeys and a large number of doubles.]
[Update 9 (1:13 am): Have I mentioned before how much I hate the JLPGA's "live-scoring tv timeout" policy?]
[Update 10 (7:41 am): Here are the final results for round 2--ended up being moving backwards day for all too many top players:
T1/-5 Sun Ju Ahn (69-70), Ayako Uehara (69-70), Yukari Baba (69-70)
T4/-4 Chie Arimura (72-68), Bo-Bae Song (69-71)
T6/-3 Shinobu Moromizato (72-69), Kaori Aoyama (72-69), Ai Miyazato (70-71), Junko Omote (70-71), Hiroko Ayada (70-71), Yuri Fudoh (69-72)
T12/-2 Mi-Jeong Jeon (72-70), Inbee Park (71-71), Ritsuko Ryu (68-74)
T15/-1 Saiki Fujita (73-70), Mie Nakata (72-71), Ji-Yai Shin (71-72)
T21/E Miki Saiki (73-71), Hiromi Mogi (73-71), Hyun-Ju Shin (71-73), Momoko Ueda (70-74), Nikki Campbell (70-74), So-Hee Kim (70-74), Rikako Morita (67-77)
T34/+1 Rui Kitada (74-71), Yuki Ichinose (74-71), Sakura Yokomine (72-73), Miho Koga (72-73)
T41/+2 Eun-A Lim (77-69)
T47/+3 Ji-Hee Lee (75-72), Mayu Hattori (75-72), Ji-Woo Lee (74-73), Young Kim (71-76)
T61/+4 Maiko Wakabayashi (72-76)
T68/+5 Kumiko Kaneda (75-74), Akane Iijima (74-75)
T76/+6 Li-Ying Ye (78-72), Yuko Mitsuka (76-74)
T82/+7 Sakurako Mori (78-73), Erina Hara (73-78), Akiko Fukushima (71-80)
T90/+8 Na-Ri Kim (75-77), Teresa Lu (71-81)
T100/+11 Ai-Yu Tu (79-76)
T103/+14 Jae-Hee Bae (77-81)
WD Seon Hwa Lee (79-WD)
Wow, some major collapses down the stretch!]
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