Hiroko Fukushima (click to enlarge)
It’s rare that I wouldn’t feel terribly bad for Ha-Neul Kim lipping out a short par putt on a playoff hole to lose a tournament, but perhaps this is one of those times. Hiroko Fukushima won her first ever JLPGA event, the 2016 CyberAgent Ladies Golf Tournament. I have to applaud her determination, earning her breakthrough victory at 39 years old. The younger sister of JLPGA legend Akiko Fukushima, Hiroko’s best year end money list finish was 68th in 2012. So while I would have loved to see Ha-Neul win again, it was fantastic to see the raw emotions come out for a player who has waited a long time for this moment. Fukushima almost gave this one away. She had a 2 shot lead over the field at 8-under going into the final round. At one point early in the round, she was at 10-under. But over the final 12 holes of regulation play, Hiroko fell apart with 1 birdie, 4 bogeys and 1 double bogey, allowing Kim to chase her down and force a playoff at 5-under. Maybe it’s more accurate to say Fukushima backed up to the field. In the end, she survived on a missed putt that Ha-Neul would normally make. Just this once, I’ll let it go.
ALL PICS CLICK TO ENLARGE
1 HIROKO FUKUSHIMA (-5)
with sister, Akiko Fukushima and nephew Kazuki Fukushima
2 HA-NEUL KIM (-5)
3 BO-MEE LEE (-4)
T4 RITSUKO RYU (-3)
T4 RIE TSUJI (-3)
LEADERBOARD
| RANK | PLAYER | SCORE | 1R | 2R | 3R | TOTAL | PRIZE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 優勝 | Hiroko Fukushima | -5 | 67 | 69 | 75 | 211 | ¥12,600,000 | |
| 2 | Ha-Neul Kim | -5 | 72 | 70 | 69 | 211 | ¥6,160,000 | |
| 3 | Bo-Mee Lee | -4 | 73 | 68 | 71 | 212 | ¥4,900,000 | |
| 4T | Ritsuko Ryu | -3 | 73 | 71 | 69 | 213 | ¥3,850,000 | |
| 4T | Rie Tsuji | -3 | 73 | 71 | 69 | 213 | ¥3,850,000 | |
| 6T | Erina Hara | -2 | 72 | 71 | 71 | 214 | ¥2,625,000 | |
| 6T | Ai Suzuki | -2 | 68 | 70 | 76 | 214 | ¥2,625,000 | |
| 8T | Eri Okayama | -1 | 76 | 67 | 72 | 215 | ¥1,925,000 | |
| 8T | Hikari Kawamitsu | -1 | 70 | 72 | 73 | 215 | ¥1,925,000 | |
| 10T | Serena Aoki | 0 | 72 | 73 | 71 | 216 | ¥1,358,000 | |
| 10T | Yumiko Yoshida | 0 | 73 | 75 | 68 | 216 | ¥1,358,000 | |
| 12T | Kyoko Furuya | +1 | 72 | 74 | 71 | 217 | ¥1,176,000 | |
| 12T | Momoko Ueda | +1 | 74 | 71 | 72 | 217 | ¥1,176,000 | |
| 12T | Rui Kitada | +1 | 72 | 70 | 75 | 217 | ¥1,176,000 | |
| 15T | Hiromi Mogi | +2 | 75 | 71 | 72 | 218 | ¥834,000 | |
| 15T | Hiroko Azuma | +2 | 71 | 74 | 73 | 218 | ¥834,000 | |
| 15T | Yasuko Satoh | +2 | 72 | 73 | 73 | 218 | ¥834,000 | |
| 15T | Megumi Shimokawa | +2 | 72 | 74 | 72 | 218 | ¥834,000 | |
| 15T | Miki Sakai | +2 | 73 | 72 | 73 | 218 | ¥834,000 | |
| 15T | Mi-Jeong Jeon | +2 | 77 | 70 | 71 | 218 | ¥834,000 | |
| 15T | Asako Fujimoto | +2 | 79 | 69 | 70 | 218 | ¥834,000 | |
| 22T | Rumi Yoshiba | +3 | 74 | 72 | 73 | 219 | ¥630,000 | |
| 22T | Yukari Nishiyama | +3 | 73 | 72 | 74 | 219 | ¥630,000 | |
| 22T | Miyari Honda | +3 | 74 | 70 | 75 | 219 | ¥630,000 | |
| 22T | Shoko Sasaki | +3 | 75 | 69 | 75 | 219 | ¥630,000 | |
| 22T | @Suzuka Yamaguchi | +3 | 74 | 70 | 75 | 219 | ¥0 | |
| 22T | Nobuko Kizawa | +3 | 73 | 70 | 76 | 219 | ¥630,000 | |
| 28T | Ayaka Watanabe | +4 | 73 | 73 | 74 | 220 | ¥567,000 | |
| 28T | Nachiyo Ohtani | +4 | 71 | 75 | 74 | 220 | ¥567,000 | |
| 28T | Erika Kikuchi | +4 | 74 | 70 | 76 | 220 | ¥567,000 | |
| 28T | Hee-Kyung Bae | +4 | 72 | 76 | 72 | 220 | ¥567,000 | |
| 32T | Saki Nagamine | +5 | 73 | 72 | 76 | 221 | ¥497,000 | |
| 32T | Saki Takeo | +5 | 76 | 69 | 76 | 221 | ¥497,000 | |
| 32T | Yoko Maeda | +5 | 70 | 74 | 77 | 221 | ¥497,000 | |
| 32T | Soo-Yun Kang | +5 | 74 | 74 | 73 | 221 | ¥497,000 | |
| 32T | Yukari Baba | +5 | 74 | 74 | 73 | 221 | ¥497,000 | |
| 32T | P Chutichai | +5 | 73 | 69 | 79 | 221 | ¥497,000 | |
| 38T | Yuko Fukuda | +6 | 74 | 72 | 76 | 222 | ¥427,000 | |
| 38T | Kana Mikashima | +6 | 74 | 73 | 75 | 222 | ¥427,000 | |
| 38T | Saiki Fujita | +6 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 222 | ¥427,000 | |
| 38T | Na-Ri Lee | +6 | 72 | 76 | 74 | 222 | ¥427,000 | |
| 42T | Kotone Hori | +7 | 71 | 75 | 77 | 223 | ¥371,000 | |
| 42T | Mei Takagi | +7 | 74 | 74 | 75 | 223 | ¥371,000 | |
| 42T | Akiho Sato | +7 | 72 | 76 | 75 | 223 | ¥371,000 | |
| 42T | Tomoko Kanai | +7 | 72 | 76 | 75 | 223 | ¥371,000 | |
| 46T | Maiko Wakabayashi | +8 | 76 | 70 | 78 | 224 | ¥315,000 | |
| 46T | Airi Saitoh | +8 | 73 | 73 | 78 | 224 | ¥315,000 | |
| 46T | Eimi Koga | +8 | 74 | 70 | 80 | 224 | ¥315,000 | |
| 46T | Haruka Morita | +8 | 71 | 72 | 81 | 224 | ¥315,000 | |
| 50 | Mami Fukuda | +9 | 71 | 74 | 80 | 225 | ¥287,000 | |
| 51 | Misae Yanagisawa | +10 | 75 | 73 | 78 | 226 | ¥280,000 | |
| 52 | Kaori Yamamoto | +11 | 72 | 75 | 80 | 227 | ¥273,000 | |
| 53 | Ai Yamazato | +13 | 75 | 71 | 83 | 229 | ¥266,000 |
Fairways and Forehands 
Great to see Ladies Golf Tournament evolving. Happy to see such tournaments taking place.
I went to my first LPGA event, the Texas Shootout, and was quite impressed with the ladies. On the first day, I followed Lexi Thompson, Brittany Lang, and In Gee Chun. Really impressed by Chun’s routine and swing..Lexi was all over the place and missed the cut. Hometown girl Gerina Piller crashed bigtime on Sunday as the steadier Jenny Shin won for the first time. BTW there were a few Thai players, including the Jutanugarn sisters, and one with 17 letters in her last name. I saw where the #4 player on the Sumetra tour is Thai, Sherman Santiwiwatthanaphong. Wow! 20 letters..I thought just the Russian women tennis players like Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova had long names!
With apologies to Barbora..she is of course from the Czech Republic..my bad.