Ji-Hee Lee (click to enlarge)
It took nearly 3 years and some jaw-dropping putting, but Ji-Hee Lee is once again in a JLPGA winner’s circle, taking the 2015 Yokohama Tire PRGR Ladies Cup. A few years ago…I don’t remember exactly how long I’ve been following the JLPGA…Ji-Hee Lee was one of the top players, finding her way to victory 17 times. From 2008 to 2012, she was out of the top 10 on the year-end money list only once, in 2010, and that was still a very impressive 14th. In two of those years, 2008 and 2011, she was 2nd on the year-end money list. But over the past two seasons, Ji-Hee has fallen out of the top 20. Maybe this win will be the catalyst that ignites another great year for Lee. Only two events in, she has nearly 35% of what she earned last year. Getting there wasn’t easy as she had to drop a Paula Creamer-esque HSBC bomb of a putt on the final hole of regulation play to force a playoff with Ai Suzuki. Lee finished the 2nd round at 8-under, 2 shots clear of Erina Hara, Soo Yun Kang and 1st round leader Mi-Jeong Jeon. Unfortunately, Hara and Kang took themselves out of contention, shooting 78 and 76 respectively. MJJ shot had a decent 1-under 71, especially considering the rainy conditions, but that was not enough to make up ground on Lee, who also shot 1-under 71. Instead it was a 4-under 68 from Suzuki that put the pressure on, forcing a miracle 18th hole putt from the overnight leader to reach 9-under overall. Although I am happy for Ji-Hee Lee, I do feel a bit for Ai Suzuki. Not only did Lee drain a bomb to force a playoff, she again went long with a 24 foot birdie putt to win the title. I mentioned Paula Creamer at HSBC 2014. Ai Suzuki had to feel a bit like Azahara Munoz watching victory taken from her in such dramatic, low percentage fashion. But that’s golf. That’s sports. In the end, Ji-Hee Lee made the shots she needed, when she needed, for her 18th JLPGA victory.
1 JI-HEE LEE (-9)
2 AI SUZUKI (-9)
T3 ERIKA KIKUCHI (-8)
T3 RUI KITADA (-8)
T5 MI-JEONG JEON (-7)
T5 YURI FUDOH (-7)
| RANK | PLAYER | SCORE | 1R | 2R | 3R | 4R | PRIZE | TOTAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 優勝 | Ji-Hee Lee | -9 | 67 | 69 | 71 | ¥14,400,000 | 207 | ||
| 2 | Ai Suzuki | -9 | 70 | 69 | 68 | ¥7,040,000 | 207 | ||
| 3T | Erika Kikuchi | -8 | 67 | 74 | 67 | ¥5,200,000 | 208 | ||
| 3T | Rui Kitada | -8 | 71 | 68 | 69 | ¥5,200,000 | 208 | ||
| 5T | Yuri Fudoh | -7 | 71 | 69 | 69 | ¥3,600,000 | 209 | ||
| 5T | Mi-Jeong Jeon | -7 | 64 | 74 | 71 | ¥3,600,000 | 209 | ||
| 7 | Teresa Lu | -6 | 73 | 70 | 67 | ¥2,800,000 | 210 | ||
| 8T | Momoko Ueda | -5 | 67 | 74 | 70 | ¥1,866,000 | 211 | ||
| 8T | Ritsuko Ryu | -5 | 70 | 71 | 70 | ¥1,866,000 | 211 | ||
| 8T | Saiki Fujita | -5 | 68 | 72 | 71 | ¥1,866,000 | 211 | ||
| 8T | Junko Omote | -5 | 70 | 69 | 72 | ¥1,866,000 | 211 | ||
| 12T | Asako Fujimoto | -4 | 71 | 71 | 70 | ¥1,264,000 | 212 | ||
| 12T | Shiho Oyama | -4 | 70 | 70 | 72 | ¥1,264,000 | 212 | ||
| 12T | Ha-Neul Kim | -4 | 69 | 70 | 73 | ¥1,264,000 | 212 | ||
| 12T | Hee-Kyung Bae | -4 | 70 | 69 | 73 | ¥1,264,000 | 212 | ||
| 16T | Shan-Shan Feng | -3 | 70 | 72 | 71 | ¥1,024,000 | 213 | ||
| 16T | Akane Iijima | -3 | 71 | 69 | 73 | ¥1,024,000 | 213 | ||
| 18T | Bo-Mee Lee | -2 | 73 | 71 | 70 | ¥782,400 | 214 | ||
| 18T | Megumi Kido | -2 | 68 | 75 | 71 | ¥782,400 | 214 | ||
| 18T | Hiroko Fukushima | -2 | 71 | 71 | 72 | ¥782,400 | 214 | ||
| 18T | Hikari Fujita | -2 | 72 | 74 | 68 | ¥782,400 | 214 | ||
| 18T | Soo-Yun Kang | -2 | 69 | 69 | 76 | ¥782,400 | 214 | ||
| 23T | Ayaka Matsumori | -1 | 71 | 72 | 72 | ¥688,000 | 215 | ||
| 23T | Natsuka Hori | -1 | 71 | 72 | 72 | ¥688,000 | 215 | ||
| 25T | Da-Ye Na | 0 | 73 | 71 | 72 | ¥616,000 | 216 | ||
| 25T | Yeon-Ju Jung | 0 | 68 | 75 | 73 | ¥616,000 | 216 | ||
| 25T | Yuki Ichinose | 0 | 73 | 71 | 72 | ¥616,000 | 216 | ||
| 25T | Asuka Kashiwabara | 0 | 69 | 73 | 74 | ¥616,000 | 216 | ||
| 25T | Misuzu Narita | 0 | 70 | 72 | 74 | ¥616,000 | 216 | ||
| 25T | O Sattaya | 0 | 70 | 75 | 71 | ¥616,000 | 216 | ||
| 25T | Erina Hara | 0 | 73 | 65 | 78 | ¥616,000 | 216 | ||
| 32T | Yuko Fukuda | +1 | 70 | 73 | 74 | ¥496,000 | 217 | ||
| 32T | Saki Takeo | +1 | 71 | 73 | 73 | ¥496,000 | 217 | ||
| 32T | Tomoko Kanai | +1 | 71 | 72 | 74 | ¥496,000 | 217 | ||
| 32T | Rikako Morita | +1 | 73 | 72 | 72 | ¥496,000 | 217 | ||
| 32T | Ji-Min Lee | +1 | 71 | 71 | 75 | ¥496,000 | 217 | ||
| 32T | Mamiko Higa | +1 | 71 | 74 | 72 | ¥496,000 | 217 | ||
| 32T | Kaori Ohe | +1 | 73 | 73 | 71 | ¥496,000 | 217 | ||
| 32T | Miki Sakai | +1 | 74 | 73 | 70 | ¥496,000 | 217 | ||
| 40T | Shiho Toyonaga | +2 | 69 | 74 | 75 | ¥393,600 | 218 | ||
| 40T | Hiromi Mogi | +2 | 69 | 74 | 75 | ¥393,600 | 218 | ||
| 40T | Jae-Eun Chung | +2 | 71 | 72 | 75 | ¥393,600 | 218 | ||
| 40T | Nachiyo Ohtani | +2 | 71 | 70 | 77 | ¥393,600 | 218 | ||
| 40T | Ah-Reum Hwang | +2 | 77 | 70 | 71 | ¥393,600 | 218 | ||
| 45T | Maiko Wakabayashi | +3 | 69 | 75 | 75 | ¥352,000 | 219 | ||
| 45T | Aiko Ueno | +3 | 71 | 76 | 72 | ¥352,000 | 219 | ||
| 45T | Yuko Mitsuka | +3 | 69 | 78 | 72 | ¥352,000 | 219 | ||
| 48T | Mami Fukuda | +4 | 72 | 72 | 76 | ¥328,000 | 220 | ||
| 48T | Megumi Shimokawa | +4 | 75 | 71 | 74 | ¥328,000 | 220 | ||
| 48T | Young Kim | +4 | 72 | 75 | 73 | ¥328,000 | 220 | ||
| 51T | Jia-Yun Li | +5 | 73 | 73 | 75 | ¥308,000 | 221 | ||
| 51T | Yumiko Yoshida | +5 | 75 | 72 | 74 | ¥308,000 | 221 | ||
| 53 | Yukari Baba | +6 | 72 | 75 | 75 | ¥296,000 | 222 | ||
| 54T | Haruka Kudo | +7 | 75 | 69 | 79 | ¥284,000 | 223 | ||
| 54T | Phoebe Yao | +7 | 70 | 77 | 76 | ¥284,000 | 223 | ||
| 56T | @Momoko Oosato | +8 | 73 | 71 | 80 | ¥0 | 224 | ||
| 56T | Erimo Ikeuchi | +8 | 73 | 74 | 77 | ¥272,000 | 224 | ||
| 56T | @Minami Katsu | +8 | 74 | 73 | 77 | ¥0 | 224 | ||
| 59 | Kurumi Dohi | +9 | 75 | 72 | 78 | ¥264,000 | 225 | ||
| 以上、予選通過 | |||||||||
| Kaori Yamamoto | +4 | 75 | 73 | ¥0 | 148 | ||||
| Mayu Hattori | +4 | 74 | 74 | ¥0 | 148 | ||||
| Yoko Maeda | +4 | 74 | 74 | ¥0 | 148 | ||||
| Hikari Kawamitsu | +4 | 73 | 75 | ¥0 | 148 | ||||
| Kumiko Kaneda | +4 | 71 | 77 | ¥0 | 148 | ||||
| Eri Joma | +4 | 71 | 77 | ¥0 | 148 | ||||
| Ji-Woo Lee | +4 | 71 | 77 | ¥0 | 148 | ||||
| Na-Ri Lee | +4 | 77 | 71 | ¥0 | 148 | ||||
| @Yui Kawamoto | +4 | 73 | 75 | ¥0 | 148 | ||||
| Saya Manabe | +5 | 75 | 74 | ¥0 | 149 | ||||
| Shinobu Moromizato | +5 | 75 | 74 | ¥0 | 149 | ||||
| Miki Saiki | +5 | 75 | 74 | ¥0 | 149 | ||||
| Lala Anai | +5 | 74 | 75 | ¥0 | 149 | ||||
| Yukari Nishiyama | +5 | 74 | 75 | ¥0 | 149 | ||||
| Sakurako Mori | +5 | 75 | 74 | ¥0 | 149 | ||||
| Mihoko Iseri | +5 | 72 | 77 | ¥0 | 149 | ||||
| Yoko Ishikawa | +5 | 75 | 74 | ¥0 | 149 | ||||
| Ayaka Watanabe | +5 | 73 | 76 | ¥0 | 149 | ||||
| Na-Ri Kim | +5 | 74 | 75 | ¥0 | 149 | ||||
| Esther Lee | +5 | 70 | 79 | ¥0 | 149 | ||||
| Kotone Hori | +5 | 74 | 75 | ¥0 | 149 | ||||
| Kana Taneda | +5 | 74 | 75 | ¥0 | 149 | ||||
| Mika Nakazono | +6 | 77 | 73 | ¥0 | 150 | ||||
| Miyako Tanaka | +6 | 75 | 75 | ¥0 | 150 | ||||
| Asami Kikuchi | +6 | 75 | 75 | ¥0 | 150 | ||||
| Serena Aoki | +6 | 74 | 76 | ¥0 | 150 | ||||
| Yun-Jye Wei | +6 | 74 | 76 | ¥0 | 150 | ||||
| Saki Nagamine | +6 | 76 | 74 | ¥0 | 150 | ||||
| Eun-Bi Jang | +6 | 76 | 74 | ¥0 | 150 | ||||
| Nobuko Kizawa | +7 | 75 | 76 | ¥0 | 151 | ||||
| Airi Saitoh | +7 | 76 | 75 | ¥0 | 151 | ||||
| Hiroko Azuma | +7 | 77 | 74 | ¥0 | 151 | ||||
| Misaki Hama | +7 | 75 | 76 | ¥0 | 151 | ||||
| Ji-Yai Shin | +7 | 75 | 76 | ¥0 | 151 | ||||
| Rie Tsuji | +7 | 76 | 75 | ¥0 | 151 | ||||
| Yayoi Arasaki | +8 | 78 | 74 | ¥0 | 152 | ||||
| Xin Wang | +8 | 74 | 78 | ¥0 | 152 | ||||
| Mihoko Takahashi | +9 | 75 | 78 | ¥0 | 153 | ||||
| Aya Ezawa | +9 | 78 | 75 | ¥0 | 153 | ||||
| @Megumi Takahashi | +12 | 84 | 72 | ¥0 | 156 | ||||
| Aoi Ohnishi | +12 | 81 | 75 | ¥0 | 156 | ||||
| Megumi Ochiai | +13 | 76 | 81 | ¥0 | 157 | ||||
| Motomi Aoki | +14 | 77 | 81 | ¥0 | 158 | ||||
| Saki Okamura | +15 | 78 | 81 | ¥0 | 159 | ||||
| Rumi Yoshiba | +16 | 78 | 82 | ¥0 | 160 | ||||
| Noriko Yamashita | +17 | 77 | 84 | ¥0 | 161 | ||||
| Kurumi Ohtsu | +23 | 89 | 78 | ¥0 | 167 | ||||
| Sun-Ju Ahn | +2 | 74 | ¥0 | 74 | |||||
| Erina Yamato | +3 | 75 | ¥0 | 75 | |||||
Fairways and Forehands 