Christina Kim got around in 68 Friday (-13 overall) to remain one shot in front at the State Farm Classic. Sherri Turner, Yani Tseng, Michelle Wie and Ji Young Oh are tied for second at -12. Sun Young Yoo is alone in sixth place at -11.
X-Tina birdied the last two holes to catch and then pass the leaders in the house. Turner dropped her second eagle in as many days and bogeyed nary a one. Wie holed out for eagle on a par-4 for the second day in a row (this time at her first hole, #10) and avoided the bogey man. Oh hasn’t bogeyed at Panther Creek yet this week. Tseng dropped a shot at 18 or she would be sharing the overnight lead.
The cut was the lowest we’ve seen all year, -3. Vicky Hurst, Irene Cho, Liz Janangelo and Patricia Meunier-Lebouc can all bemoan the fact that -2 wasn’t good enough to warrant a paycheck this week. Making it through are Anna Rawson, Leta Lindley, Jennifer Rosales, Soo-Yun Kang and Brittany Lang. I mentioned Sherri Turner and Michelle McGann yesterday – unfortunately their paths diverged today. Turner I covered in detail above and earlier today, while McGann posted 75 to fall to -1 and miss the cut. Defending champ Sherri Steinhauer also finished up early at +2.
I’m going to declare this week’s Big Disappointment early. I didn’t exactly expect her to contend this week but...what’s going on with Shi Hyun Ahn? She should have walked into the weekend with her normal game on this course against this field but instead she posted 73-76 +5 and missed the cut by eight shots.
I’ve held back for a long time without ranting on the TV coverage, so forgive me if I seem nitpicky. With the men’s Open Championship apparently requiring every regular ESPN booth member to be on-site, the WWL had the proverbial “B-Team” calling and producing. As Charlie Rymer put it, “the adults are away so the children are taking over”. Rymer shared the booth with Jane Crafter while Suzy Whaley and Donna Andrews walked the course. Both booth members seemed out of their element (especially “Chollie”) and they weren’t helped by the curious decision to spend the first seven minutes of the telecast talking over the pictures of Michelle Wie waiting to begin her round. Only one time during that span did they cut to actual live action and give the announcers a fighting chance. Also, during the two hours of coverage Every.Single.Shot by Wie was aired. Michelle was playing well but it was not the most thorough of production jobs. I won’t completely let the announcers off the hook, though. Johanna Head finished up on one hole and her caddy walked up (with H.E.A.D. across his back) and handed her an umbrella, and all the while Rymer and Crafter were telling us this lady was Brittany Lang and continued on about Lang’s career and potential. A few minutes later we actually saw Lang attempt an eagle putt but no mention was made of the earlier Head-Lang confusion.
UPDATE: The post-round interviews at lpga.com are particularly entertaining today. Christina Kim and Sherri Turner steal the show.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Great round by Turner and I'm so pleased to see her doing so well at this tournament. Her average drive is listed at 280; that's gotta be the best average of the show. Would have liked McGann's accommodations to have been for the weekend. She's played her last five rounds with a 71 average and had momentum.
This should be an interesting weekend. Thanks for your superb commentary! Also got my eye on Greg Norman over there.
HD
As you mentioned in your blog, we fortunate LPGA golf fans that do not live in the USA do not have to contend with the poor coverage provided by ESPN. Because we don’t get any F--- coverage at all. I just wonder if the brass at the LPGA realize the damage they have inflicted on Women’s golf with their decision to allow ESPN the rights to most of the LPGA scheduled tournaments.
ESPN generally does a good job covering the LPGA. They obviously didn't have their primary pieces in place for Friday's coverage.
I sometimes lose sight that many of my readers don't live in the U.S. and I apologize for that. I did not realize that ESPN owning the rights to an event was preventing those events from being telecast outside the States. Bill - if that is indeed the case, I hope the WWL doesn't get the big LPGA contract we've heard rumors about. Unless of course that exclusivity isn't written into this new contract.
Post a Comment