Saturday, May 05, 2007

SemGroup Championship – 2nd Round

Nicole Castrale, Karin Sjodin, Stephanie Louden and Reilley Rankin share the second round lead at -4 at the SemGroup Championship. Mi Hyun Kim and Angela Stanford are tied for fifth at -3 with Se Ri Pak, Katherine Hull and Virada Nirapathpongporn at -2.

Both Castrale and Louden got as low as -6 on the back nine, but Nicole bogeyed 15 and 16 while Stephanie bogeyed 13 and 16. Rankin played bogey-less golf to post a 68. None of the lead foursome has ever won on the LPGA Tour. Kim and Pak are the only two of the top nine to have ever won previously. Early on the back nine, Lorena Ochoa was tied for the lead at -4 but a bogey at 13 and a double at 15 put her at -1 going to Sunday. The cut fell to +5 and claimed Brittany Lang (again), Pat Hurst (Ms. Hyde this week), Brittany Lincicome and defending champion Cristie Kerr. That noise you folks in Tulsa might be hearing tonight isn’t thunder, it’s the sounds of fist pounding and teeth gnashing in the Kerr hotel room.

ESPN2 got the chance for redemption in my eyes today, and did not falter. A softball game in Knoxville, Tennessee got rained out, so the network elected to start LPGA coverage 90 minutes early at 1:30 EDT and continued until their scheduled endtime of 5:00. Fortunately I stumbled upon it about fifteen minutes in, and thoroughly enjoyed the extra coverage. There was a lot of talk about storms coming into the area tonight so weather permitting, they will be on-air at 3pm EDT Sunday. Not that I have anything against college softball, but I find myself rooting for another rainstorm in Knoxville since that is the lead-in event tomorrow as well.

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