Chie Arimura Wins 2012 JLPGA Championship Konica Minolta Cup; 13th JLPGA Win, 1st Major

Chie Arimura, 2012 JLPGA Konica Minolta Cup Winner

Last week, Chie Arimura wasn’t able to hold on to the lead at the 2012 Golf 5 Ladies. Fast forward one week and Chie made up for it big time by holding on to win her 3rd JLPGA event of the year, her 13th JLPGA event of her career and 1st career Major. And for her American fans, there is the news that she will try to qualify for the 2013 LPGA Tour. But that is a discussion for later. Chie shot 69-65-69 through the first 3 rounds to build a 3-shot lead at 13-under over Yumiko Yoshida. It wouldn’t be Yoshida that would nearly snatch victory away. Instead, similar to last week when 2-time defending JLPGA Player of the Year Sun-Ju Ahn came from behind to win, another South Korean star almost dashed to victory. While Chie shot a 2 birdie, 2 bogey even par round to stay at 13-under in the fourth round, LPGA Major winner Inbee Park sprinted from 5-under t0 12-under with a final round 7-under par 65. Inbee’s 8 birdie, 1 bogey scorcher included a sizzling 5 straight birdies to close the round. Ultimately, it was 1 shot too little as Chie emerged victorious. The JLPGA Player of the Year race now gets very interesting with Chie Arimura, Sun-Ju Ahn and Mi-Jeong Jeon all with 3 wins so far. There are still a lot of events left including 2 more Majors. Right now it looks like a 3-woman race, but a lot can still happen.

CHIE ARIMURA

with Yumiko Yoshida

JUNKO OMOTE

KAORI NAKAMURA

KAORI OHE

KUMIKO KANEDA

MAYUMI SHIMOMURA

MEGUMI KIDO

SAKURA YOKOMINE

SUN-JU AHN

YUMIKO YOSHIDA

Position	Player	ToPar	Thru	Today
1	Chie Arimura	-13	F	E
2	In-Bee Park	-12	F	-7
3	Yumiko Yoshida	-11	F	-1
4	Kumiko Kaneda	-8	F	-4
	Ritsuko Ryu	-8	F	-3
6	Saiki Fujita	-7	F	-3
7	Bo-Mee Lee	-6	F	-2
	Na-Ri Kim	-6	F	E
9	Esther Lee	-5	F	-4
	Junko Omote	-5	F	-4
11	So-Hee Kim	-4	F	-3
	Sun-Ju Ahn	-4	F	-2
	Megumi Kido	-4	F	-1
	Rui Kitada	-4	F	E
	Mayumi Shimomura	-4	F	+2
16	Nikki Campbell	-3	*F	-4
17	Yuri Fudoh	-2	F	-1
	Kaori Yamamoto	-2	F	+1
19	Yuki Ichinose	-1	F	-1
	Na-Ri Lee	-1	F	E
	Mihoko Iseri	-1	F	+1
	Kaori Ohe	-1	F	+5
23	Kotono Kozuma	E	F	+2
	Hsuan-Yu Yao	E	F	+5
25	Tomoko Kusakabe	+1	F	+1
	Mi-Jeong Jeon	+1	F	+2
	Ayako Uehara	+1	*F	E
	Asako Fujimoto	+1	*F	E
	Asuka Tsujimura	+1	*F	E
	Yeo-Jin Kang	+1	*F	-2
	Hyun-Ju Shin	+1	F	+2
	Akane Iijima	+1	*F	-2
	Ah-Reum Hwang	+1	F	+3
	Miki Sakai	+1	F	+5
35	Yukari Baba	+2	F	+2
	Natsu Nagai	+2	F	+2
	Shiho Oyama	+2	F	+3
38	Hiromi Mogi	+3	*F	+2
	Sakura Yokomine	+3	F	+4
	Teresa Lu	+3	F	+4
	Da-Ye Na	+3	*F	+2
	Yukari Nishiyama	+3	*F	-1
43	Ji-Woo Lee	+4	*F	+4
	Onnarin Sattayabanphot	+4	*F	+1
	Kaori Nakamura	+4	F	+6
	Akiko Fukushima	+4	*F	E
	Lala Anai	+4	*F	E
	Ikue Asama	+4	*F	E
49	Maiko Wakabayashi	+5	F	+6
	Toshimi Kimura	+5	*F	+2
	Miyari Honda	+5	*F	E
52	Hiromi Takesue	+6	F	+7
	Misuzu Narita	+6	*F	+3
54	Eun-Bi Jang	+7	*F	+5
	Hiroko Fukushima	+7	*F	+4
56	Sae Yamamura	+8	*F	E
57	Erina Yamato	+9	*F	+5
58	Ayako Okazaki	+10	*F	+5
59	Aiko Kaneda	+11	*F	+7
60	Tao-Li Yang	+13	*F	+5
61	Hanae Kobayashi	+16	*F	+8
	Mizuho Ozawa	+16	*F	+7