Corning Classic – 1st Round

Erica Blasberg fired a 65 and leads by two shots at the LPGA Corning Classic. Na On Min and Karine Icher are tied for second after rounds of 67, while Na Yeon Choi, Sandra Gal and former tournament champions Sherri Turner and Jimin Kang are tied for fourth after their rounds of 68.

Check out The Constructivist’s semi-live-blogging at Mostly Harmless for a timeline of how the day progressed. It appears my prediction that the greens would be holding was a good one – despite the cold, damp and mildly windy conditions, the Thursday numbers are very impressive:

69 Dina Ammaccapane, Anna Rawson, Patricia Meunier-Lebouc
69 Wendy Ward, Sung Ah Yim, Kris Tamulis, Eva Dahllof
70 Paula Creamer, Laura Diaz, Becky Morgan, Beth Bader
70 Il Mi Chung, Mhairi McKay, Jamie Hullett, Lorie Kane
71 Mi Hyun Kim, Jeong Jang, Song-Hee Kim, H.J. Choi
71 Amy Hung, Kristy McPherson, Hee Young Park
72 Seon Hwa Lee, Hee-Won Han, Linda Wessberg
73 Diana D’Alessio, Meg Mallon, Meredith Duncan
74 Inbee Park, Young Kim, Sophie Giquel, Rosie Jones
75 Angela Stanford, Meena Lee, Taylor Leon, Candie Kung
76 Moira Dunn, Brandi Jackson, Gloria Park, Hana Kim

Mike Ritz and Beth Daniel are in the booth for GC this weekend (Brian Hammons is calling PGA and I don’t know where Dottie is). Daniel told us Jeong Jang hasn’t been playing well lately – I guess T3 and T2 in your last two events don’t mean much to Beth. Those of you who watched Golf Channel aren’t allowed to answer this trivia question – Which of the eight players who shot 69 today did GC choose to interview tonight? Look at the board, give it a few seconds thought, and I’ll bet you get it.

Coverage continues until 8:30pm and I’ll update with anything else that matters.

UPDATE: Just a couple of things. Rosie Jones insisted that she play on a sponsor's exemption this week so as not to take a spot away from a Tour pro. Good for her! Also, the caddies were all wearing Michelob Ultra bibs today. At first I thought that somebody had to break out the used ones from two weeks ago but being the official beer of the LPGA, they must be an associate sponsor here.

Aside from her JJ statement, Beth Daniel has made some improvement in her booth work. I still like Mike Ritz better as an interview guy, although he did fine too.