Onnarin Sattayabanphot Wins 2014 Daikin Orchid Ladies Golf Tournament (JLPGA)

Onnarin Sattayabanphot

The first tournament of the 2014 LPGA of Japan (JLPGA) season left me with joy in most respects, but tinged with a bit of blue. I’m very pleased to see Thailand’s Onnarin Sattayabanphot ride the low round of the day (5-under 67, tied for low round of the tournament with Bo-Mee Lee) to an 8-under overall first place finish at the 2014 Daikin Orchid Ladies Golf Tournament. Moo (her nickname) finished round 2 with an eagle and didn’t look back in round 3, firing 6 birdies (including 5 during an 8 hole stretch from 4 through 11) against a lone bogey en route to victory. So it’s great for me to see another Thai winner. Also, it’s great to see my favorite JLPGA players like Sakura Yokomine and Rikako Morita back in action. Sakura was in contention until a final round 4-over sunk her chances. Defending champion Rikako had the overnight lead at 5-under. She was respectable at 1-under, but too many other players near the top went lower and caught her.

Jiyai Shin

The slight melancholy I feel is seeing Jiyai Shin, one of my LPGA favorites, now on the JLPGA. She relinquished her membership for the American tour in January to turn her focus to Japan. If she can keep her world ranking high, we should see her in LPGA Majors, but as a member of the JLPGA she has to play at least 60% of their tournaments this year. More than likely, she will play more than that. So seeing her much in America is doubtful. I’ll miss the Final Round Queen. However, she stated she was mentally and physically fatigued playing in the States and travelling back and forth. It’s understandable that she needs to do what is in her best interests. She also recently graduated from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea and has spoken of interests outside of golf. That said, she also stated that she loves golf, wants to play as long as she can and that focusing on playing in Japan was a means to that end. I wish her all the best.

ONNARIN SATTAYABANPHOT

AIRI SAITOH

AYAKA WATANABE

BO-MEE LEE

 

JIYAI SHIN

KUMIKO KANEDA

MAMIKO HIGA

MIKA MIYAZATO

MOMOKO UEDA

NOZOMI INOUE

RIKAKO MORITA

RITSUKO RYU

SAKURA YOKOMINE

SUN-JU AHN

YUKO MITSUKA

 

Position	Player	ToPar	Thru	Today	1R	2R	3R
1	O.Sattaya	-8	F	-5	69	72	67
2T	Mamiko Higa	-6	F	-4	71	71	68
	Ji-Yai Shin	-6	F	-4	71	71	68
	Ayaka Watanabe	-6	F	-4	74	68	68
	Airi Saitoh	-6	F	-3	71	70	69
	Rikako Morita	-6	F	-1	70	69	71
7	Bo-Mee Lee	-5	F	-1	67	73	71
8T	Sun-Ju Ahn	-4	F	-4	73	71	68
	Ji-Hee Lee	-4	F	E	69	71	72
	Ritsuko Ryu	-4	F	+1	70	69	73
11	Mi-Jeong Jeon	-3	F	-1	72	70	71
12	Kumiko Kaneda	-2	F	-1	72	71	71
13T	Erina Hara	-1	F	-2	74	71	70
	Teresa Lu	-1	F	-1	71	73	71
15T	Miki Saiki	E	*F	-3	74	73	69
	Mayumi Shimomura	E	F	-1	69	76	71
	Yeon-Ju Jung	E	F	-1	72	73	71
	Nozomi Inoue	E	F	E	71	73	72
	Riho Fujisaki	E	F	E	72	72	72
	Mika Miyazato	E	F	E	72	72	72
21T	Saiki Fujita	+1	F	E	71	74	72
	Hina Arakaki	+1	F	+1	72	72	73
	Esther Lee	+1	F	+3	73	69	75
	Sakura Yokomine	+1	F	+4	73	68	76
	Yuko Mitsuka	+1	F	+5	71	69	77
26T	Hiroko Fukushima	+2	F	E	72	74	72
	Na-Ri Kim	+2	*F	E	77	69	72
	Natsuka Hori	+2	*F	-1	74	73	71
	Ayako Uehara	+2	F	+1	72	73	73
	Saki Okamura	+2	*F	-1	75	72	71
	Ji-Min Lee	+2	*F	-1	72	75	71
	Yayoi Arasaki	+2	F	+2	71	73	74
	Nobuko Kizawa	+2	*F	-2	76	72	70
	Asako Fujimoto	+2	F	+2	73	71	74
	Yumiko Yoshida	+2	*F	-2	71	77	70
	Momoko Ueda	+2	F	+3	71	72	75
37T	Mayu Hattori	+3	F	+1	73	73	73
	Eun-Bi Jang	+3	*F	+1	71	75	73
	Da-Ye Na	+3	*F	E	73	74	72
	Yuko Fukuda	+3	*F	-1	73	75	71
	Haruka Kudo	+3	*F	-1	74	74	71
	Mami Fukuda	+3	*F	-1	75	73	71
	So-Hee Kim	+3	*F	-1	75	73	71
	Lala Anai	+3	*F	-1	72	76	71
45T	Rumi Yoshiba	+4	F	+2	72	74	74
	Megumi Kido	+4	F	+2	74	72	74
	Rui Kitada	+4	F	+3	72	73	75
	Kaori Yamamoto	+4	*F	+1	75	72	73
	Yukari Baba	+4	*F	+1	72	75	73
	Natsu Nagai	+4	*F	E	73	75	72
	Shiho Oyama	+4	*F	E	74	74	72
52T	Risa Ogusu	+5	F	+4	75	70	76
	Ikue Asama	+5	*F	+2	76	71	74
	Misuzu Narita	+5	*F	+1	76	72	73
	Junko Omote	+5	*F	+1	79	69	73
56	Kaori Ohe	+6	*F	+3	78	69	75
57	Nana Yamashiro	+7	F	+5	74	72	77
58T	Satsuki Oshiro	+8	F	+6	74	72	78
	P.Chutichai	+8	*F	+4	74	74	76
60	Anri Iha	+9	*F	+6	73	74	78
61	Momoyo Kawakubo	+11	*F	+7	72	76	79