Inside the Ropes

Lorena Ochoa held onto her lead at the Navistar LPGA Classic after the third round and with an impressive three stroke lead between her and current second place Sandra Gal. Ochoa was 6-under-par 66 for a total 16-under-par . Sandra Gal is 13-under-par. She hit an eagle on her sixth hole. Janice Moodie and Brittany Lang is tied for 3rd with 12-under-par 204. 

Cristie Kerr clocked in 8-under-par today to move up from T68 to tie for 13th at 8-under-par 208. While amateur wunderkid Alexis Thompson carded a 2-over-par to drop from the top ten to tie for 13th alongside Kerr and Michelle Wie. 

Team VTech’s Alena Sharp finished 1-over-par to finish 5-under-par 211 while Diana D’Alessio and Becky Morgan tied for 60 with 2-under-par 214. 

On Sunday, the final round, with the threat of rain, defending champion Lorena Ochoa continued as she had all week/weekend and stayed in the lead and…. won!! She successfully repeated her win and cashed in on the $1.3 million purse by walking away with $195,000. She increased her lead today by 2 strokes and finished 18-under-par 270. Finishing four strokes behind Ochoa were Brittany Lang and Michelle Wie at 14-under-par 274. Wie hit an impressive 6-under-par to clench her second place finish. 

A big surprise in the top ten was our good friend Beth Bader, who finished tied for 6th at 12-under-par 276, and recording a second best.  Another surprise this tournament was junior Alexis Thompson finished T27 with 6-under-par 282. Team VTech’s Alena Sharp also finished T27. Diana D’Alessio finished T61 at even-par 288 and Becky Morgan had a little trouble and dropped to finish at 80 with 5-over-par 293. 

Team VTech continues to do a great job! Congratulations Girls.

With the first and second round complete of the Navistar LPGA Classic, we find Lorena Ochoa, Laura Davies, Yani Tseng, Giulia Sergas and 14-year-old Alexis Thompson in a five way tie for 1st place. All are 10-under-par 134. The young rookie Thompson started the competition off in the lead mostly throughout the competition and finished in second place behind Janice Moodie on day one with 7-under-par and made three birdies today to put her in fighting position as we move into the weekend and the final round on Sunday. Yani Tseng bounded up the leaderboard today by shooting an amazing 9-under-par today. But last year’s winner Lorena Ochoa is making a run to defend her title, we’ll see if she can keep it up tomorrow. 

Today was cut day and though two of our players didn’t make it, 3 did. And right in the thick of things is Team VTech member Alena Sharp who’s currently tied for 16th at 6-under-par 138. Our good friend Beth Bader is one stroke behind at 5-under-par 139. Diana D’Alessio and Becky Morgan both made it with 2-under-par 142 and the latter with at even par 144. Eighty-three players advance to weekend play and we’ll check back to see how girls and everyone fairs on the greens.

Hi-ya! The chop has come down and the field has been cut from 145 to 75 for tomorrow’s final round.

Today we were promised thundershowers, and those with an afternoon tee time dreaded the idea of playing in mucky conditions. But thank goodness their prayers were answered and not a drop was seen. Though the winds grew stronger as the day progressed.

It was another great day out on the course, especially for the South Koreans. At one point, they were in a five way tie for the lead! But one broke away from the pack to claim the title of #1 after round two, three year LPGA tour member, Song-Hee Kim. She shot a 9-under-par 133 and is holding Angela Stanford at bay by two strokes. Stanford is at 7-under-par 135. Out of the top ten positions, 7 out of 1o are currently being held by South Koreans. Out of those 7 is recent Safeway Champion M.J. Hur who had a solid round of golf and maybe hungry for another title. 

Team VTech also had a great day with four of our players moving into the final round.  Karen Stupples was 1-over-par today to fall back just one stroke, but good enough to remain tied for 15th at 3-under-par 139. Amy Hung shot 3-under-par to move her into a tie for 24th, Becky Morgan shot 2-under-par today for a total of 1-under-par 141, and Alena Sharp shot 2-over-par to finish 1-over-par 143, beating the cut score of 2-over-par. Yesterday’s leader, Sandra Gal was 5-over-par and fell to 2-under-par 140. Maybe it was all the media attention and the sizable crowd that distracted her?

We’ll see what happens tomorrow at the Pinnacle Country Club Golf Course for the final round of the P&G NW Arkansas Championship as the weather channel still insists that rain is in our forecast. Let’s hope they’re wrong again the the storm stays south and the golf stays hot!

Though the weather said “sunny”, the skies opened up once more today on Ghost Creek to give attendees and players a little added bonus and rain play made things more interesting today for some.

After the end of the second round, the field has been cut today for the Safeway Classic Presented by Coca-Cola at the Pumpkin Ridge Golf Course in North Plains, Oregon. 70 of the world’s best players will advance to tomorrow’s final round of play and compete for $1.7 million purse.

The leader board finds fresh blood as Anna Nordqvist takes over the lead from yesterday’s leader, Beth Bader by 3 strokes. Anna currently leads with a score of 10-under-par 134. Right behind her is recent British Open Ai Miyazato at 9-under-par 135. The Japanese were out in full force cheering on there country’s top female golfer. It’s true what they say, “Wherever Ai goes, businesses benefit from the media frenzy who follow her every move.” South Korean Seon Hwa Lee is tied with Ai for 2nd. And never too far behind from the lead is Suzann Pettersen at 8-under-par 136. 18 year veteran Michelle Redman is tied with Pettersen. Both are just two strokes from striking distance. 

Yesterday’s leader Beth Bader is still in the running at 7-under-par, picking up a bogey today. 

Cristie Kerr is five strokes back from the top of the leaderboard. After hitting a few trees on hole 15 and then overshooting past the on-looking crowd on 16, it didn’t look like the defending champion would be making much progress up in the ranks. 

Team VTech has four players in the finals tomorrow. Karen Stupples, Becky Morgan, Amy Hung and Alena Sharp. They ended on a positive note, all carding under par to perform tomorrow.

*World Golf Halls of Famer Se Ri Pak withdrew prior to the start of the second round today. (Maybe she knew about the rain..?)

Today was a good day at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Course for golf as the crowds were out in full force as early as 7am this morning for the first tee time. And though people were anticipating some exciting golf with Michelle Wie fresh off Solheim Cup and paired with Lorena Ochoa and defending 2008 champion, Cristie Kerr, the real action was with group 11: Anna Grzebien, Erica Blasberg, and Beth “Betty” Bader. Betty is in the lead after shooting an impressive 8-under-par 64 today with a birdie on the 18th hole. Right behind her is Anna Norqvist and Seon Hwa Lee at 7-under-par 65.

Team VTech did well on the course despite the sudden downpour late in the afternoon. Recent winner of the Wales Open, Karen Stupples is tied for 25th and 2-under-par 70 with Becky Morgan. And Diana D’Alessio and Alena Sharp are both tied for 39th at 1-under-par 71. 

We’ll check back tomorrow and see how the ladies fair as the skies clear and round two begins.