Sun-Ju Ahn weathered some early charges from golfers playing several groups ahead of her, stumbled a bit in the middle of her round, but came on strong when the chips were down at the Sankyo Ladies Open and got for her efforts her 4th JLPGA win of 2011 and 8th overall on tour since she joined in 2010.
Shiho Oyama, with 4 birdies in her 1st 6 holes, was the 1st player to take a run at Ahn. At -6 with 12 holes to play, she was only 1 behind the 3rd-round leader, who started her round with 6 straight pars. But others quickly joined Oyama, including Mi-Jeong Jeon, who birdied 4, 6, 7, and 8 to tie Ahn at -7, and her playing partner Ji-Woo Lee, who birdied 1, 2, and 8 to get to -5. Ahn briefly took the solo lead back from Jeon with a birdie on the 7th hole, and extended it when Jeon bogeyed the 400-yard par-4 9th, but when she, too, bogeyed the last hole on the front, she dropped back into a tie with her playing partner, 22-year-old Satsuki Oshiro, who was hanging tough with 9 straight pars of her own. Oyama, who had started fast twice before but faded in a big way both previous rounds, was making pars in bunches, as well. After her opening bogey-free 32, she stayed at -6 until she birdied the 500-yard par-5 14th, which actually vaulted her ahead of both Ahn and Oshiro back in the final group when they each bogeyed the 374-yard par-4 12th. However, a bogey on the 377-yard par-4 16th dropped Oyama back into a tie at -6 with Ahn, Oshiro, Lee, who birdied the 384-yard par-4 15th a little while later, and Jeon, who had righted the ship after her lone bogey with a long string of pars. But when both Ahn and Oshiro responded with birdies of their own--Ahn on the 370-yard par-4 13th and Oshiro on the very next hole--Oyama knew she'd need at least 1 birdie down the stretch to have a chance for her 12th career JLPGA victory. When she did it at the 555-yard par-5 18th, she became the sole leader in the clubhouse at -7--and she could only wait to see what those behind her would do.
Next to come in were Lee and Jeon, and they both matched Oyama's walkoff birdie to join her as co-leaders in the clubhouse. Nobody in the penultimate group was doing anything special--living legend Yuri Fudoh was chugging along but not making any kind of move while youngsters Harukyo Nomura and Erika Kikuchi were struggling mightily--so it all came down to the final group. Although Hyun-Ju Shin birdied 3 holes in a row down the stretch to fight back to -6 after a terrible start to her day and end up catching Oshiro in a tie for 5th after the youngster bogeyed the 15th, it was too little, too late, as Ahn refused to let her +2 run from the 8th through the 12th rattle her and followed up her 13th-hole birdie with a final 1-2-punch on the 16th and 177-yard par-3 17th. After safely parring her last hole, Ahn ended up with a 2-shot victory and a successful title defense over Oyama, Lee, and Jeon.
So here's how the leaders and notables ended up:
1st/-9 Sun-Ju Ahn (71-66-70)
T2/-7 Ji-Woo Lee (73-69-67), Shiho Oyama (69-73-67), Mi-Jeong Jeon (71-70-68)
T5/-6 Hyun-Ju Shin (69-71-70), Satsuki Oshiro (71-66-73)
7th/-5 Yuri Fudoh (72-69-70)
T8/-4 Kaori Aoyama (75-70-67), Ikue Asama (73-70-69),
Young Kim (72-71-69)
T11/-3 Sakura Yokomine (74-70-69), Akane Iijima (73-71-69), Rikako Morita (74-69-70), Chie Arimura (73-70-70), Onnarin Sattayabanphot (70-72-71)
T17/-2 Kumiko Kaneda (74-71-69), Hiromi Mogi (73-72-69), Rui Kitada (76-68-70), Junko Omote (73-70-71), Akiko Fukushima (72-70-72), Erika Kikuchi (71-70-73), Harukyo Nomura (68-72-74)
T24/-1 Miho Koga (75-69-71), Mika Takushima (70-74-71), Na-Ri Kim (73-70-72), Yukari Baba (72-70-73), Mayu Hattori (70-71-74)
T30/E Yumiko Yoshida (74-72-70), Esther Lee (71-74-71), Ji-Hee Lee (70-74-72), Maiko Wakabayashi (72-70-74)
T36/+1 Yuki Ichinose (76-69-72)
T39/+2 Ayako Uehara (74-71-73), Ah-Reum Hwang (73-71-74)
T42/+3 Tao-Li Yang (75-71-73), Megumi Kido (72-72-75)
T46/+4 Tamie Durdin (75-71-74), Aiko Ueno (74-70-76), Kaori Ohe (73-70-77)
T51/+6 Rui Yokomine (73-73-76)
With her win, Ahn becomes the 1st player in 2011 to break the 100-million-yen barrier on the JLPGA money list:
1. Sun-Ju Ahn ￥103.64M
2. Sakura Yokomine ￥72.71M
3. Ji-Hee Lee ￥69.77M
4. Chie Arimura ￥67.73M
5. Miki Saiki ￥61.44M
6. Yukari Baba ￥52.38M
7. Yuri Fudoh ￥52.17M
8. Ritsuko Ryu ￥50.07M
9. Shanshan Feng ￥45.79M
10. Mayu Hattori ￥42.27M
11. Mi-Jeong Jeon ￥38.68M
12. Kumiko Kaneda ￥36.22M
13. Hiromi Mogi ￥34.48M
14. Rui Kitada ￥33.54M
15. Ayako Uehara ￥33.33M
16. Bo-Bae Song ￥30.49M
17. Junko Omote ￥29.39M
18. Yuko Mitsuka ￥29.37M
19. Rikako Morita ￥27.81M
20. Na-Ri Kim ￥26.61M
21. Ji-Woo Lee ￥26.58M
22. Shiho Oyama ￥26.13M
23. Li-Ying Ye ￥24.74M
24. Inbee Park ￥24.33M
25. Ah-Reum Hwang ￥24.07M
26. Hyun-Ju Shin ￥23.37M
27. Asako Fujimoto ￥23.31M
28. Saiki Fujita ￥21.97M
29. Akiko Fukushima ￥21.64M
30. Eun-Bi Jang ￥20.82M
31. Young Kim ￥20.08M
32. Soo-Yun Kang ￥20.01M
33. Kaori Aoyama ￥17.73M
34. Eun-A Lim ￥18.62M
35. Teresa Lu ￥18.40M
36. Esther Lee ￥17.33M
37. Shinobu Moromizato ￥17.30M
38. Bo-Mee Lee ￥17.07M
39. Na-Ri Lee ￥17.04M
40. Akane Iijima ￥16.24M
41. Momoko Ueda ￥15.53M
42. Nikki Campbell ￥14.03M
43. So-Hee Kim ￥13.81M
44. Yumiko Yoshida ￥13.70M
45. Nachiyo Ohtani ￥13.68M
46. Maiko Wakabayashi ￥12.82M
47. Miho Koga ￥12.78M
48. Satsuki Oshiro￥12.48M
49. Megumi Kido ￥12.24M
50. Ji-Yai Shin ￥11.91M
With Ai Miyazato now at #61 on the money list, Harukyo Nomura at #82, Hee Young Park at #87, and Meena Lee at #100, time is running out on many dual LPGA-JLPGA members to attempt to avoid JLPGA Q-School. That's why it's interesting that the field list for the Fujitsu Ladies next week is so short right now. Perhaps it's no surprise that Shin, both Miyazatos, Ueda, Feng, Hee Young Park, and Lee are all playing in the LPGA's Sime Darby Malaysia event instead (plus it appears that Inbee Park is taking the week off from both tours). But it either shows how confident these players are that they'll remain in, return to, or break into the top 50 at the Mizuno--or how little they care about retaining their JLPGA membership (can you really see them going to Q-School in December?). I'm curious to see how many choose the lucrative Masters GC Ladies over the LPGA's new Taiwan event the following week and/or enter the Hisako Higuchi Morisaga Weider Ladies the week after when the LPGA has an off week before the Mizuno Classic. This is going to come down to the wire for a lot of international stars!
[Update 1 (8:12 am): Looks like virtually all the dual LPGA-JLPGAers have committed to the Taiwan event, if their player profile page is to be trusted.]
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Hana Bank Championship Friday: Soo-Jin Yang Upstages Ya Ni Tseng and Na Yeon Choi
KLPGA star Soo-Jin Yang made 4 birdies in her 1st 5 holes today then tacked on another 3 to post a bogey-free 65 and move into the 36-hole lead of the Hana Bank Championship at -10. With only 1 round left to play, she's 1 ahead of 2-time defending champion Na Yeon Choi, who's got a bogey-free run of 36 holes and counting going this week, as well as world #1 Ya Ni Tseng, who made 4 birdies in a row on the front and brought her total for the week to 16 with a pair on the back, but offset them with 4 bogeys on her day (to bring that total to 7!). And if tomorrow's final pairing falters in the heat of Sunday competition, there are a number of golfers poised to take advantage: Jimin Kang and Chella Choi at -7, Meena Lee at -6, and Mi Hyun Kim, Angela Stanford, Brittany Lincicome, Sun Young Yoo, and Shin-Ae Ahn at -5.
Unfortunately (from my perspective since I picked her to win this week, and no doubt onechan's, as well), Paula Creamer's 1 bogey and 1 birdie today mean she's stuck at -4--and has been caught at T12 by Maria Hjorth (who shot a sweet bogey-free 66), Shanshan Feng (who fired a bogey-free 67), and Ji-Yai Shin (who posted a 6-birdie 68), among many others, including the likes of Juli Inkster, Amy Yang, Azahara Munoz, and Ha-Neul Kim. Even worse, my other picks in this week's PakPicker at Seoul Sisters.com need to make runs tomorrow to get into the top 12: In-Kyung Kim's at -3, Hee Kyung Seo's at -2, Inbee Park's at -1, Morgan Pressel and Anna Nordqvist are at E, Stacy Lewis and So Yeon Ryu are at +1, and Suzann Pettersen's at +3! It's not looking good for me to make it it 2 wins in a row over there. But it is looking pretty good for Na Yeon Choi to make it 3 in a row over there. I'll be rooting for her to pull it off!
I'll update this post after I get to watch the 2nd-round action on Golf Channel. With some premiere pairings going off early on the back--Pettersen/Nordqvist/Lewis are 1st off the 10th and Wie/Kerr/Pressel are 2 after them--I'm wondering how much we'll see of the struggling stars and how much we'll see of the actual leaders! While you wait, here's the AP story from the New York Times, which has details on how Se Ri Pak got DQed for turning herself in after realizing she turned in the wrong score Friday.
Unfortunately (from my perspective since I picked her to win this week, and no doubt onechan's, as well), Paula Creamer's 1 bogey and 1 birdie today mean she's stuck at -4--and has been caught at T12 by Maria Hjorth (who shot a sweet bogey-free 66), Shanshan Feng (who fired a bogey-free 67), and Ji-Yai Shin (who posted a 6-birdie 68), among many others, including the likes of Juli Inkster, Amy Yang, Azahara Munoz, and Ha-Neul Kim. Even worse, my other picks in this week's PakPicker at Seoul Sisters.com need to make runs tomorrow to get into the top 12: In-Kyung Kim's at -3, Hee Kyung Seo's at -2, Inbee Park's at -1, Morgan Pressel and Anna Nordqvist are at E, Stacy Lewis and So Yeon Ryu are at +1, and Suzann Pettersen's at +3! It's not looking good for me to make it it 2 wins in a row over there. But it is looking pretty good for Na Yeon Choi to make it 3 in a row over there. I'll be rooting for her to pull it off!
I'll update this post after I get to watch the 2nd-round action on Golf Channel. With some premiere pairings going off early on the back--Pettersen/Nordqvist/Lewis are 1st off the 10th and Wie/Kerr/Pressel are 2 after them--I'm wondering how much we'll see of the struggling stars and how much we'll see of the actual leaders! While you wait, here's the AP story from the New York Times, which has details on how Se Ri Pak got DQed for turning herself in after realizing she turned in the wrong score Friday.
Sankyo Ladies Open Friday and Saturday: Sun-Ju Ahn Powers Past Harukyo Nomura
The LPGA's (and now JLPGA's) Harukyo Nomura, who won her 1st JLPGA event as a professional this May and was in position to win her 2nd before fading in the heat of a July Sunday, jumped out to the 1st-round lead in the Sankyo Ladies Open yesterday on the strength of a 5-birdie 68, but was passed today by 2011 money-list leader Sun-Ju Ahn, who dropped a bogey-free 66 on the field to tie 22-year-old Satsuki Oshiro for the lead at -7.
Ahn, who's won 3 times on tour already this year and just missed taking the Japan Women's Open last week, is the heavy favorite to pick up her 8th career JLPGA victory in less than 2 full seasons on tour. But she's going to have to contend with the likes of Nomura and Hyun-Ju Shin 3 shot behind her, Yuri Fudoh, Mi-Jeong Jeon, and Mayu Hattori 4 back, and Akiko Fukushima, Shiho Oyama, and JWO winner Yukari Baba 5 off the pace.
Here's how the leaders and notables look after 36 holes in Gunma prefecture:
T1/-7 Sun-Ju Ahn (71-66), Satsuki Oshiro (71-66)
T3/-4 Hyun-Ju Shin (69-71), Harukyo Nomura (68-72)
T5/-3 Yuri Fudoh (72-69), Mi-Jeong Jeon (71-70), Erika Kikuchi (71-70), Mayu Hattori (70-71)
T9/-2 Ji-Woo Lee (73-69), Akiko Fukushima (72-70), Yukari Baba (72-70), Maiko Wakabayashi (72-70), Kuniko Maeda (72-70), Onnarin Sattayabanphot (70-72), Mihoko Iseri (70-72), Shiho Oyama (69-73)
T17/-1 Rikako Morita (74-69), Chie Arimura (73-70), Na-Ri Kim (73-70), Junko Omote (73-70), Kaori Ohe (73-70), Young Kim (72-71)
T26/E Rui Kitada (76-68), Miho Koga (75-69), Sakura Yokomine (74-70), Aiko Ueno (74-70), Ah-Reum Hwang (73-71), Akane Iijima (73-71), Megumi Kido (72-72), Ji-Hee Lee (70-74), Mika Takushima (70-74)
T37/+1 Yuki Ichinose (76-69), Kaori Aoyama (75-70), Ayako Uehara (74-71), Kumiko Kaneda (74-71), Hiromi Mogi (73-72), Esther Lee (71-74)
T45/+2 Tamie Durdin (75-71), Tao-Li Yang (75-71), Yumiko Yoshida (74-72), Rui Yokomine (73-73)
MC: Asako Fujimoto (77-70), Na-Ri Lee (77-70), Miki Saiki (76-71), Julie Lu (75-72), Ritsuko Ryu (77-71), Nikki Campbell (76-72), Shinobu Moromizato (75-73), Lala Anai (75-73), Ji-Na Lim (78-72), Erina Hara (74-76), Pei-Ying Tsai (78-73), Soo-Yun Kang (76-75), Miki Sakai (81-74), Erina Yamato (82-74), Li-Ying Ye (79-77), Miki Uehara (78-78)
I'm wondering if Nomura, who got it to -7 early in her round today but played her last 13 holes in birdieless +3, can make a move on Ahn, whom she defeated in the final round of the Chukyo TV Bridgestone Ladies Open (thanks in part to an early and uncharacteristic quad from the South Korean sensation). Nomura gets to try to put some pressure on Ahn from the next-to-last pairing in tomorrow's final round. Meanwhile, Oyama, who made 5 birdies in a row on the back to start her Friday round (and ended up with 7 in her 1st 8 holes) but stumbled over her last 10 holes with 3 bogeys and a walkoff double, started fast Saturday on the front, getting back to -5 overall through 5 holes, but finished exactly as weakly as Nomura did. I wonder if she has another early run in her arsenal tomorrow--and a stronger finish. Despite all her troubles, there are still only 4 pairings between her and Ahn's. I'd love to see Nomura or Oyama make a statement tomorrow as the only dual LPGA-JLPGA members in the field!
Ahn, who's won 3 times on tour already this year and just missed taking the Japan Women's Open last week, is the heavy favorite to pick up her 8th career JLPGA victory in less than 2 full seasons on tour. But she's going to have to contend with the likes of Nomura and Hyun-Ju Shin 3 shot behind her, Yuri Fudoh, Mi-Jeong Jeon, and Mayu Hattori 4 back, and Akiko Fukushima, Shiho Oyama, and JWO winner Yukari Baba 5 off the pace.
Here's how the leaders and notables look after 36 holes in Gunma prefecture:
T1/-7 Sun-Ju Ahn (71-66), Satsuki Oshiro (71-66)
T3/-4 Hyun-Ju Shin (69-71), Harukyo Nomura (68-72)
T5/-3 Yuri Fudoh (72-69), Mi-Jeong Jeon (71-70), Erika Kikuchi (71-70), Mayu Hattori (70-71)
T9/-2 Ji-Woo Lee (73-69), Akiko Fukushima (72-70), Yukari Baba (72-70), Maiko Wakabayashi (72-70), Kuniko Maeda (72-70), Onnarin Sattayabanphot (70-72), Mihoko Iseri (70-72), Shiho Oyama (69-73)
T17/-1 Rikako Morita (74-69), Chie Arimura (73-70), Na-Ri Kim (73-70), Junko Omote (73-70), Kaori Ohe (73-70), Young Kim (72-71)
T26/E Rui Kitada (76-68), Miho Koga (75-69), Sakura Yokomine (74-70), Aiko Ueno (74-70), Ah-Reum Hwang (73-71), Akane Iijima (73-71), Megumi Kido (72-72), Ji-Hee Lee (70-74), Mika Takushima (70-74)
T37/+1 Yuki Ichinose (76-69), Kaori Aoyama (75-70), Ayako Uehara (74-71), Kumiko Kaneda (74-71), Hiromi Mogi (73-72), Esther Lee (71-74)
T45/+2 Tamie Durdin (75-71), Tao-Li Yang (75-71), Yumiko Yoshida (74-72), Rui Yokomine (73-73)
MC: Asako Fujimoto (77-70), Na-Ri Lee (77-70), Miki Saiki (76-71), Julie Lu (75-72), Ritsuko Ryu (77-71), Nikki Campbell (76-72), Shinobu Moromizato (75-73), Lala Anai (75-73), Ji-Na Lim (78-72), Erina Hara (74-76), Pei-Ying Tsai (78-73), Soo-Yun Kang (76-75), Miki Sakai (81-74), Erina Yamato (82-74), Li-Ying Ye (79-77), Miki Uehara (78-78)
I'm wondering if Nomura, who got it to -7 early in her round today but played her last 13 holes in birdieless +3, can make a move on Ahn, whom she defeated in the final round of the Chukyo TV Bridgestone Ladies Open (thanks in part to an early and uncharacteristic quad from the South Korean sensation). Nomura gets to try to put some pressure on Ahn from the next-to-last pairing in tomorrow's final round. Meanwhile, Oyama, who made 5 birdies in a row on the back to start her Friday round (and ended up with 7 in her 1st 8 holes) but stumbled over her last 10 holes with 3 bogeys and a walkoff double, started fast Saturday on the front, getting back to -5 overall through 5 holes, but finished exactly as weakly as Nomura did. I wonder if she has another early run in her arsenal tomorrow--and a stronger finish. Despite all her troubles, there are still only 4 pairings between her and Ahn's. I'd love to see Nomura or Oyama make a statement tomorrow as the only dual LPGA-JLPGA members in the field!
Hana Bank Championship Friday: Ya Ni Tseng Drops 10 Birdies on the Field
Ya Ni Tseng was a birdie machine during yesterday's 1st round of the Hana Bank Championship, torching the Sky 72 Ocean course with 10 of them on her way to a 7-under-par 65 that gave her a 1-shot lead on the unheralded Chella Choi and a 2-shot lead on Sandra Gal and 2-time defending champion Na Yeon Choi. Tseng birdied 3 holes in a row on each side and bounced back from a missed tap-in on the tough par-4 16th for her 3rd bogey of the day with back-to-back birdies to close out her round and eclipse the mark set earlier in the day by Chella Choi, who started on the 10th, eagled the par-5 13th, and followed it up with 5 birdies over her last 10 holes. Chella's better-known namesake, playing alongside Tseng, chugged along with 5 birdies and no bogeys to catch Gal, who made 1 more birdie and 1 more bogey than she did from a back-9 start.
A host of golfers broke 70 in near-perfect conditions, most notably rival Solheim Cuppers Paula Creamer and Sophie Gustafson at -4 (alongside Hee Young Park and LPGA veterans Mi Hyun Kim, Jimin Kang, and Meena Lee) and Grace Park and Beatriz Recari at -3 (alongside KLPGA stars Bo-Mee Lee, Shin-Ae Ahn, and Soo-Jin Yang). With the likes of In-Kyung Kim, Angela Stanford, Catriona Matthew, Azahara Munoz, Juli Inkster, He Yong Choi, Ha Neul Kim, and Hyun-Hwa Sim only 5 off the pace, Tseng can't breathe all that easy heading into the weekend.
However, given how flat many big names started--Karrie Webb, Amy Yang, Brittany Lincicome, Karen Stupples, and Katherine Hull could only manage 71s, Suzann Pettersen, Cristie Kerr, Ji-Yai Shin, Stacy Lewis, Michelle Wie, Anna Nordqvist, Song-Hee Kim, and Hee Kyung Seo 72s, Morgan Pressel, Brittany Lang, So Yeon Ryu, and Shanshan Feng 73s, Inbee Park and Maria Hjorth 74s, Vicky Hurst a 75, and Ryann O'Toole a 77--I would say that both Tseng and Choi have a huge advantage heading into today's play.
(Of course I'm being coy--if you actually clicked on the few scorecards I linked to above, you'll see how those golfers did today. I'm queuing up today's post but will hold off on actually posting it until Golf Channel coverage starts at 1 pm. Although the coverage is so bad it's making me nostalgic for even the B-minus-game GC usually devotes to the 1st round of an LPGA event. I blame the editing and announcing by what seems to be an Australian team taking the Korean feed and putting it into English....)
A host of golfers broke 70 in near-perfect conditions, most notably rival Solheim Cuppers Paula Creamer and Sophie Gustafson at -4 (alongside Hee Young Park and LPGA veterans Mi Hyun Kim, Jimin Kang, and Meena Lee) and Grace Park and Beatriz Recari at -3 (alongside KLPGA stars Bo-Mee Lee, Shin-Ae Ahn, and Soo-Jin Yang). With the likes of In-Kyung Kim, Angela Stanford, Catriona Matthew, Azahara Munoz, Juli Inkster, He Yong Choi, Ha Neul Kim, and Hyun-Hwa Sim only 5 off the pace, Tseng can't breathe all that easy heading into the weekend.
However, given how flat many big names started--Karrie Webb, Amy Yang, Brittany Lincicome, Karen Stupples, and Katherine Hull could only manage 71s, Suzann Pettersen, Cristie Kerr, Ji-Yai Shin, Stacy Lewis, Michelle Wie, Anna Nordqvist, Song-Hee Kim, and Hee Kyung Seo 72s, Morgan Pressel, Brittany Lang, So Yeon Ryu, and Shanshan Feng 73s, Inbee Park and Maria Hjorth 74s, Vicky Hurst a 75, and Ryann O'Toole a 77--I would say that both Tseng and Choi have a huge advantage heading into today's play.
(Of course I'm being coy--if you actually clicked on the few scorecards I linked to above, you'll see how those golfers did today. I'm queuing up today's post but will hold off on actually posting it until Golf Channel coverage starts at 1 pm. Although the coverage is so bad it's making me nostalgic for even the B-minus-game GC usually devotes to the 1st round of an LPGA event. I blame the editing and announcing by what seems to be an Australian team taking the Korean feed and putting it into English....)
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Hana Bank Championship Preview, Predictions, Pairings
With Tony Jesselli, Hound Dog, and Ward Clayton already providing their previews for the Hana Bank Championship, and LPGA.com's pre-tournament notes and interviews providing further context, it's pretty easy for me to summarize the week's big questions (and add a few of my own):
1. Creamer
2. Choi Na Yeon
3. Pettersen
4. Pressel
5. Lewis
6. Tseng
7. Ryu
8. Yang, Amy
9. Park Inbee
10. Seo
11. Nordqvist
12. Kim In-Kyung
Alts: Kim Song-Hee; Feng; Stanford
Pretty much all the pairings are interesting for one reason or another, but here are the ones that are most interesting to me. I'll leave it to you to guess why!
1st tee, 10:40 am: Na Yeon Choi, Ya Ni Tseng, Cristie Kerr
1st tee, 10:18 am: Paula Creamer, Stacy Lewis, In-Kyung Kim
1st tee, 9:56 am: Se Ri Pak, Mi Hyun Kim, Grace Park
1st tee, 10:29 am: Suzann Pettersen, Ji-Yai Shin, Michelle Wie
1st tee, 9:34 am: Inbee Park, Hee Young Park, Juli Inkster
1st tee, 10:07 am: So Yeon Ryu, Angela Stanford, Brittany Lincicome
10th tee, 10:07 am: Anna Nordqvist, Maria Hjorth, Eun-Hee Ji
10th tee, 8:50 am: Song-Hee Kim, Shanshan Feng, Chella Choi
1st tee, 8:39 am: Morgan Pressel, He Yong Choi, Hyun-Hwa Sim
1st tee, 8:50 am: Ha Neul Kim, Candie Kung, Vicky Hurst
10th tee, 9:56 am: Hee Kyung Seo, Hyun-Hee Moon, Wendy Ward
10th tee, 9:01 am: Momoko Ueda, Bo-Mee Lee, Mindy Kim
With the Miyazatos taking the week off and some of my favorite young golfers the 1st through 4th alternates, I'm not as pumped for this week as I could be, but that could just be the combination of lots of grading and unexpectedly good weather forecast for the next few days talking. I expect that to change once I catch up with the Golf Channel coverage!
- can Na Yeon Choi pull off a 3-peat on her home soil?
- can Ya Ni Tseng continue her domination over the world of women's golf?
- can Suzann Pettersen, Se Ri Pak, Grace Park, or Candie Kung win this event for the 2nd time?
- can So Yeon Ryu beat the top LPGAers once again?
- can the Solheim Cuppers in the field turn the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat into extra motivation this week?
- can the injured Cristie Kerr and Ji-Yai Shin finish this 54-hole tournament, much less be a factor in it?
- can Ryann O'Toole make up any ground in the Rookie of the Year race on Hee Kyung Seo?
- will this be the week a Korean member of the LPGA finally breaks through into the winner's circle in 2011?
- will another KLPGA member join Ryu in qualifying for the LPGA's rookie class of 2012 via a non-member win in an LPGA event and follow in the footsteps of Shi Hyun Ahn, Jee Young Lee, and Jin Joo Hong, who have all done it here?
1. Creamer
2. Choi Na Yeon
3. Pettersen
4. Pressel
5. Lewis
6. Tseng
7. Ryu
8. Yang, Amy
9. Park Inbee
10. Seo
11. Nordqvist
12. Kim In-Kyung
Alts: Kim Song-Hee; Feng; Stanford
Pretty much all the pairings are interesting for one reason or another, but here are the ones that are most interesting to me. I'll leave it to you to guess why!
1st tee, 10:40 am: Na Yeon Choi, Ya Ni Tseng, Cristie Kerr
1st tee, 10:18 am: Paula Creamer, Stacy Lewis, In-Kyung Kim
1st tee, 9:56 am: Se Ri Pak, Mi Hyun Kim, Grace Park
1st tee, 10:29 am: Suzann Pettersen, Ji-Yai Shin, Michelle Wie
1st tee, 9:34 am: Inbee Park, Hee Young Park, Juli Inkster
1st tee, 10:07 am: So Yeon Ryu, Angela Stanford, Brittany Lincicome
10th tee, 10:07 am: Anna Nordqvist, Maria Hjorth, Eun-Hee Ji
10th tee, 8:50 am: Song-Hee Kim, Shanshan Feng, Chella Choi
1st tee, 8:39 am: Morgan Pressel, He Yong Choi, Hyun-Hwa Sim
1st tee, 8:50 am: Ha Neul Kim, Candie Kung, Vicky Hurst
10th tee, 9:56 am: Hee Kyung Seo, Hyun-Hee Moon, Wendy Ward
10th tee, 9:01 am: Momoko Ueda, Bo-Mee Lee, Mindy Kim
With the Miyazatos taking the week off and some of my favorite young golfers the 1st through 4th alternates, I'm not as pumped for this week as I could be, but that could just be the combination of lots of grading and unexpectedly good weather forecast for the next few days talking. I expect that to change once I catch up with the Golf Channel coverage!
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