Ha-Neul Kim (click to enlarge)
For the third straight tournament, South Korea’s Ha-Neul Kim was either alone or had a share of first place after rounds 1 and 2. Unfortunately for her, she was unable to finish the job at Yokohama or T-Point. But at the 2016 AXA Ladies Golf Tournament, she left the field in her wake with a 9-under 5 shot victory. Kim’s 5 birdie, 2 bogey 3-under 69 final round was enough to leave international star Jiyai Shin settling for second. It’s her second JLPGA tournament title, following the 2015 Munsingwear Ladies Tokai Classic. It might be a bit premature to say this, but maybe Ha-Neul is the one to challenge Bo-Mee Lee for JLPGA Player of the Year honors in 2016. Through 4 events, she has finished no worse than T7, with 3 top 5s and a win. An argument could be made that two shaky finishing rounds are all that stand between her having 3 wins in 4 events. With her style and charisma, the 27-year old Kim, an 8-time winner and 2-time Money List leader on the LPGA of Korea (KLPGA), could be an enormous star on the JLPGA if she keeps playing like this. Besides Shin being 5 shots back in second, nobody else was closer than 7 shots off the winning score. That’s a very impressive win for Ha-Neul Kim.
ALL PICS CLICK TO ENLARGE
1 HA-NEUL KIM (-9)
with Yumiko Yoshida
with low amateur Minami Katsu
2 JIYAI SHIN (-4)
T3 MAMI FUKUDA (-2)
T3 ERIKA KIKUCHI (-2)
T3 RITSUKO RYU (-2)
T3 YUMIKO YOSHIDA (-2)
T3 AOI NAGATA (-2)
T3 KOTONE HORI (-2)
T3 SUN-JU AHN (-2)
LEADERBOARD
| RANK | PLAYER | SCORE | 1R | 2R | 3R | TOTAL | PRIZE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 優勝 | Ha-Neul Kim | -9 | 67 | 71 | 69 | 207 | ¥14,400,000 | |
| 2 | Jiyai Shin | -4 | 67 | 72 | 73 | 212 | ¥7,040,000 | |
| 3T | Aoi Nagata | -2 | 69 | 75 | 70 | 214 | ¥3,300,000 | |
| 3T | Teresa Lu | -2 | 70 | 74 | 70 | 214 | ¥3,300,000 | |
| 3T | Mami Fukuda | -2 | 72 | 71 | 71 | 214 | ¥3,300,000 | |
| 3T | Sun-Ju Ahn | -2 | 72 | 71 | 71 | 214 | ¥3,300,000 | |
| 3T | Ritsuko Ryu | -2 | 72 | 70 | 72 | 214 | ¥3,300,000 | |
| 3T | Kotone Hori | -2 | 71 | 70 | 73 | 214 | ¥3,300,000 | |
| 3T | Erika Kikuchi | -2 | 73 | 68 | 73 | 214 | ¥3,300,000 | |
| 3T | Yumiko Yoshida | -2 | 69 | 70 | 75 | 214 | ¥3,300,000 | |
| 11T | Momoko Ueda | -1 | 73 | 72 | 70 | 215 | ¥1,376,000 | |
| 11T | @Minami Katsu | -1 | 70 | 74 | 71 | 215 | ¥0 | |
| 11T | Esther Lee | -1 | 72 | 71 | 72 | 215 | ¥1,376,000 | |
| 11T | Mayu Hosaka | -1 | 69 | 73 | 73 | 215 | ¥1,376,000 | |
| 11T | Mi-Jeong Jeon | -1 | 72 | 68 | 75 | 215 | ¥1,376,000 | |
| 16T | Yukari Nishiyama | 0 | 75 | 71 | 70 | 216 | ¥1,056,000 | |
| 16T | Saiki Fujita | 0 | 71 | 74 | 71 | 216 | ¥1,056,000 | |
| 16T | Lala Anai | 0 | 72 | 72 | 72 | 216 | ¥1,056,000 | |
| 16T | Megumi Shimokawa | 0 | 72 | 72 | 72 | 216 | ¥1,056,000 | |
| 20T | Ayaka Matsumori | +1 | 75 | 72 | 70 | 217 | ¥726,400 | |
| 20T | Ai Suzuki | +1 | 74 | 73 | 70 | 217 | ¥726,400 | |
| 20T | Shiho Oyama | +1 | 72 | 74 | 71 | 217 | ¥726,400 | |
| 20T | Airi Saitoh | +1 | 72 | 73 | 72 | 217 | ¥726,400 | |
| 20T | Nachiyo Ohtani | +1 | 75 | 70 | 72 | 217 | ¥726,400 | |
| 20T | Ayaka Watanabe | +1 | 68 | 76 | 73 | 217 | ¥726,400 | |
| 20T | Saki Nagamine | +1 | 72 | 72 | 73 | 217 | ¥726,400 | |
| 20T | Yoko Maeda | +1 | 74 | 70 | 73 | 217 | ¥726,400 | |
| 20T | Haruka Morita | +1 | 72 | 71 | 74 | 217 | ¥726,400 | |
| 20T | Hiroko Fukushima | +1 | 72 | 71 | 74 | 217 | ¥726,400 | |
| 30T | Hikari Fujita | +2 | 76 | 70 | 72 | 218 | ¥584,000 | |
| 30T | Megumi Kido | +2 | 74 | 72 | 72 | 218 | ¥584,000 | |
| 30T | O Sattaya | +2 | 75 | 70 | 73 | 218 | ¥584,000 | |
| 30T | Misuzu Narita | +2 | 69 | 75 | 74 | 218 | ¥584,000 | |
| 30T | Asuka Kashiwabara | +2 | 73 | 71 | 74 | 218 | ¥584,000 | |
| 30T | Eri Okayama | +2 | 74 | 70 | 74 | 218 | ¥584,000 | |
| 30T | Hiromi Mogi | +2 | 69 | 74 | 75 | 218 | ¥584,000 | |
| 37T | Da-Ye Na | +3 | 76 | 71 | 72 | 219 | ¥504,000 | |
| 37T | Yuki Ichinose | +3 | 72 | 74 | 73 | 219 | ¥504,000 | |
| 37T | Erina Hara | +3 | 76 | 70 | 73 | 219 | ¥504,000 | |
| 40T | Babe Liu | +4 | 74 | 72 | 74 | 220 | ¥448,000 | |
| 40T | Miyu Shinkai | +4 | 71 | 74 | 75 | 220 | ¥448,000 | |
| 40T | Akane Yoshino | +4 | 72 | 72 | 76 | 220 | ¥448,000 | |
| 40T | Yukari Baba | +4 | 71 | 72 | 77 | 220 | ¥448,000 | |
| 44T | Ah-Reum Hwang | +5 | 70 | 77 | 74 | 221 | ¥369,333 | |
| 44T | Kyoko Furuya | +5 | 71 | 76 | 74 | 221 | ¥369,333 | |
| 44T | Ayame Morii | +5 | 71 | 76 | 74 | 221 | ¥369,333 | |
| 44T | Mio Kono | +5 | 73 | 74 | 74 | 221 | ¥369,333 | |
| 44T | Saki Takeo | +5 | 70 | 73 | 78 | 221 | ¥369,333 | |
| 44T | Soo-Yun Kang | +5 | 70 | 72 | 79 | 221 | ¥369,333 | |
| 50T | Miyari Honda | +6 | 76 | 71 | 75 | 222 | ¥320,000 | |
| 50T | Kana Nagai | +6 | 76 | 71 | 75 | 222 | ¥320,000 | |
| 50T | Pei-Ying Tsai | +6 | 70 | 76 | 76 | 222 | ¥320,000 | |
| 53 | Saki Inoue | +7 | 73 | 72 | 78 | 223 | ¥304,000 | |
| 54 | Akane Iijima | +8 | 74 | 73 | 77 | 224 | ¥296,000 |
Fairways and Forehands 