Author: jeremy2878

By Jeremy Harness

AP photo: Haru Nomura holds up the LPGA Swinging Skirts 2016 Trophy at the 18th hole at Lake Merced Golf Club after winning the tournament

DALY CITY, Calif. – Haru Nomura spoke through an interpreter for a good deal of her post-tournament interview, but in describing the reaction that she got when draining a crucial 75-foot birdie putt, she did not need one.

“My caddie said, ‘Holy (expletive)!’”

The putt could not have come at a better time, as she had seen her five-shot lead dwindle to a single stroke after a string of three bogeys in a four-hole span. Sensing that she really needed to find a way to shut the faucet off somehow, her caddie gave her a hearty pep talk immediately following the last bogey at the 11^th.

It seemed to work beautifully. She hit her tee shot at the par-three 12^th to the back of the green and then drained the monster downhill putt and pushed her lead out to two shots. She then added another birdie two holes later to give herself just enough cushion to win the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic at a very cold and windy Lake Merced Golf Club.

“I like windy situations,” Nomura said. “I like tough situations, so when I spoke to the caddie, even before the championship last week in Hawaii, I told him, ‘I’m going to come here and win this tournament because I really like this course.’”

“I’m glad that I was able to deliver on what I told my caddie.”

Strong winds engulfed the entire course this weekend, and Sunday presented the toughest conditions and wreaked havoc on scorecards all the way up and down the field. In fact, there were only 10 players who shot under par in the final round. 

“I said, ‘Hey, if I was half my weight, I’d probably already be flying away like a balloon,” said Lydia Ko, who celebrated her 19^th birthday Sunday.

South Africa’s Lee-Anne Pace had built some momentum going into Sunday’s final round, but that all went up in smoke as her round got under way, as she bogeyed each of the first five holes. However, she managed to right the ship rather nicely following the setback, birdieing two of the next four holes and then playing the back nine at one-under to post a two-over 74, good enough for a second-place finish.

“I think I just didn’t trust it on the first five holes,” Pace said. “I didn’t realize the putting was going to be that difficult. The ball was moving a little bit, so it was difficult to just try and make a good stroke on it.

“I missed a couple of short ones quickly, so that set me back a little bit. But after we started making the putts and getting a few back on the back nine, everything was fine.”

Ko stayed in contention until the final round, but she just did not have enough to make up the ground that she needed to in order to defend her title. As was the case with Pace, Ko stumbled out of the gate on Sunday. She bogeyed four of the first seven holes, and even though she played the remaining 11 holes at one-under, the damage had been done.

“I don’t know if any players could get anything going (Sunday),” Ko said. “Sometimes you’re struggling and you need to (just) make bogey. (Sunday was ) not the day where you think you’re going to get really hot. If you do, that’s great.

“I see there were a couple under-par scores, and I think that’s almost like a 65 or a 63.”

At one point, Na Yeon Choi, who started her final round at seven-under, was only one stroke behind Nomura after making a birdie at the par-five 14^th to draw even in her round, but that hope vanished when she bogeyed the 15^th just as Nomura birdied the 14^th right behind her, and then a double-bogey on the very next hole sealed her fate. She finished the tournament tied for third at four-under.

By Jeremy Harness

AP photo: Haru Nomura follows her drive from the second tee in the third round of the Swinging Skirts on Saturday at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City

DALY CITY – Haru Nomura extended her lead on Saturday, but there are some familiar faces still hanging around just enough to make things interesting.

Since taking over the lead on Friday, Nomura has seemed to have a stranglehold on this edition of the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic. She has stayed away from the big mistake, and when faced with trouble, she has found a way to get past it and keep moving forward.

In Saturday’s third-round action, for example, she looked to be stymied by a low-hanging tree for her third shot at the par-five ninth. However, she hit a very nice low-flying shot that made its way onto the green and was then able to make the ensuing birdie putt.

She used shots like that, including a sand save on the back nine despite a very-awkward stance, to tack on a stroke to her lead, using three birdies to overcome a pair of bogeys and enter the final round with a three-stroke advantage.

One of her closest chasers is South Africa’s Lee-Anne Pace, who fired a three-under 69 to move into a tie for second. She herself had to fight off a pair of bogeys on the front nine by recording a trio of birdies. She then proceeded to play a bogey-free back nine, which was highlighted by two more birdies.

Her round was almost derailed from the beginning, however. As the story goes, Pace’s caddie lost one of his contacts Saturday morning, and despite having to jump through some hoops in the process, he was able to get a new pair just in time.

“In America, apparently you can’t just get it over-the-counter,” Pace said. “So he has a prescription from South Africa, but they didn’t accept it. So he had to go to the doctor and get the contacts.

“It’s quite a big deal, especially on the greens.”

As she did in last year’s tournament, 18-year-old Canadian Brooke Henderson has continued to charge her way up the leaderboard. She chipped in for birdie at the 18^th hole on Saturday to finish with a three-under 69 to head into Sunday’s final round (tied for fourth and five strokes back).

Another thing that Henderson has going for her these days is a solid playing status. At this point last year, the only two ways that she could play was to either get a sponsor’s exemption or to get in via Monday qualifier.

That has since changed, as her victory in last season’s Cambia Portland Classic – she won by eight strokes – landed her full playing status on the LPGA Tour.

“I’m really close, and my game is close to being really good,” Henderson said. “I just have to stay patient and keep doing what I’m doing.

“I made some really good up-and-downs to kind of save my round and keep me going, which I think was really important. My short game was really good all day, and even on 18, chipping in was really helpful.”

So Yeon Ryu, on the other hand, is going the other way. After taking the initial lead in this tournament after posting an opening-round score of 63, which set the tournament course record, the South Korea native has slightly retreated since then. She followed a three-over 75 on Friday and then dropping a shot on Saturday, and she, like Henderson, is currently tied for fourth.

Also as the case with Henderson, Ryu finished her round on a high note. Ryu did not chip in, but she did hit a very nice approach shot to about three feet, a putt that she made for birdie for a one-over 73.

In a similar predicament is defending champ Lydia Ko, who turns 19 Sunday. She finds herself six strokes off of the lead after shooting a one-over 73 on Saturday, making a pair of birdies but was hampered by three bogeys.

“My game wasn’t really up to it today,” Ko said. “It was pretty average. But I felt like chipping, short game-wise, it was good, but I wasn’t making the putts the needed to go in for birdie or those crucial par saves, so I think that was the difference.”

By Jeremy Harness

AFP photo: Haru Nomura tees off at the 10th hole in the second round of the LPGA Swinging Skirts at Lake Merced in San Francisco on Friday

DALY CITY–Based on what we have seen thus far, this tournament is shaping up to have an exciting finish.

Japan native Haru Nomura continued her steady pace in the second round, shooting a two-under 70 in the second round Friday in the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic at Lake Merced Golf Club. In the process, she grabbed the lead with a nine-under overall score.

The low round of the day belonged to Minjee Lee, who shot a seven-under 65 to surge into a tie for second place as the weekend rolls around.

So Yeon Ryu, who torched Lake Merced Golf Club Thursday with a nine-under 63, took a bit of a backward step during Friday’s second round, going three over par by shooting a 75. However, she remains in the hunt, as she is also tied for second and very much within striking distance.

To no one’s surprise, defending champion Lydia Ko remained within a shout of the lead on Friday. She shot a one-under 71 to move to five under par for the tournament and within four shots of the lead.

This tournament will have a pair of Bay Area representative this weekend, as San Jose native Christina Kim, who has endured a long road to get back to the LPGA Tour in battling personal issues as well as working out problems in her game, fired a one-under 71 to go into the weekend tied for 23^rd.

Meanwhile, Juli Inkster shot a pair of 74’s to finish the second round with an overall score of four over par to make the cut by a single stroke and hang around for the weekend.

However, there was one Bay Area native who will not be sticking around for the weekend. Paula Creamer, who is originally from Pleasanton, had the wheels fall off with a six-over 78 to miss the cut after shooting even par the day before.

 

 

 

By Jeremy Harness

AP photo: So Yeon Ryu holds the ball after making a birdie on the sixth green at Lake Merced in San Francisco at the LPGA Swinging Skirts on Thursday

DALY CITY–So Yeon Ryu has been on a bit of a downward trend lately, but she showed a huge signs of coming out of that Thursday morning.

Ryu, who was in contention in the final round of this tournament last year, made a big statement early on. The Korean set a new tournament course record by firing a 63 to take a two-stroke lead in Thursday’s opening-round action of the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic at Lake Merced Golf Club.

Ryu, who last won in 2014 at the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open and had fallen out of the top-10 in the Rolex rankings recently, really got things going from the get-go.

After a par at the 10^th, where she began her round on Thursday, she birdied seven of the next eight holes. Ryu then added two more birdies on the second nine and did not record a single bogey.

However, as well as she played, Ryu did not exactly run away with the lead. That’s because Japan’s Haru Nomura, who won the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open in February and finished tied for fifth in the Honda LPGA Thailand the next week, shot a 65 to find herself only two strokes behind Ryu.

Candie Kung is in the same spot as Noimura. The Chinese Taipei native, whose best finish this season is a tie for fourth in the HSBC Women’s Champions in early March, also fired a seven-under 65.

Lydia Ko, who has won each of the two previous tournaments here (the Swinging Skirts began play in 2014), is within striking distance, as she shot a four-under 68 to go into Friday trailing by five shots.

Meanwhile, Pleasanton native Paula Creamer will need a big second round, as she shot an even-par 72 and is currently nine strokes shy of the lead. San Jose native Christina Kim finds herself in a similar position, as she also finished the first round even-par.