Friday, August 03, 2007

Women’s British Open – 2nd Round

With a round of even-par 73 on Friday, Lorena Ochoa remains the leader after two rounds at the Ricoh Women’s British Open. Ochoa (-6) is one shot ahead of Wendy Ward and Catriona Matthew. Defending champion Sherri Steinhauer, former champion Annika Sorenstam, Yuri Fudoh, Karine Icher and Rebecca Hudson are tied for fourth at -3. Play was suspended once again at 9:20pm with three players still on the course.

The lead would have been two had Ochoa not bogeyed 18, but conversely the lead would have been zero had Ward not done the same thing. Wendy hasn’t had the best of years but she has finished in the Top 10 in two of her last three events. The players making the biggest moves Friday were the home-girl Matthew (68 -5 overall), Juli Inkster (68 +1) and the much-maligned Fudoh (69 -3). Yuri is currently ranked #21 in the Rolex Rankings which (after looking at her record in LPGA-sanctioned events over the last few years) is certainly more reasonable than the Top 10 ranking she held during 2006. I look forward to actually seeing her play this weekend.

Players moving in the wrong direction included Louise Friberg (something about her last name makes me think of Lynyrd Skynyrd), who fell back to -1 with a 76 and In-Bee Park, whose 79 dropped her to +2. Ai Miyazato posted 80 to almost give herself the weekend off. The cut was +5 and the list of players who will have extra time to get over their jet lag returning to the States include:
Laura Davies +6
Angela Park +6
Angela Stanford +7 thru 16
Michelle Wie +7
Jeong Jang +7
Seon Hwa Lee +8
Shi Hyun Ahn +9
Morgan Pressel +10
Mi Hyun Kim +11
Laura Diaz +11
Meaghan Francella +12
Pat Hurst +14

If Stanford can gain two strokes first thing in the morning, she would be able to continue. Much rejoicing! Grace Park (+3) made the cut. Oh yeah - Karrie Webb, Natalie Gulbis and Christina Kim made it, too. I regret to inform you that Moira Dunn bogeyed 17 and missed it by one shot. I’ll have to conduct some research to find the last time my pick to win didn’t even make the cut. That’s one area where I’m pretty sure my record is a good one. It wouldn’t surprise me if I found it was last year’s British Open (I picked Peanut and she missed it by two shots).

3 comments:

The Constructivist said...

I thought the cut was top 70 and ties--why aren't those T69 at +6 in?

Bill Roberts said...

Hi Hound Dog
It looks like Lorena is running away to her firt major. I will be cheering for her unless Natalie shoot a 65 on Sunday.
Good news regarding Ashley Hoagland.. check out http://www.bradenton.com/217

Hound Dog said...

WBO does only Top 65 and ties. I was surprised too.

Getting married is good news, and if Ashley gets a medical exemption (which I see no reason why not) that's good too. Sorry to see she's had such physical problems.