Asian ladies on a roll in the World Women Amateur Championship
South Korea is leading the World Women Amateur Championship taking place in Argentina. The team will go into the final round with a thirteen stroke lead over the other teams. Playing well on Thursday as well, the Koreans carded a score of 10-under 134 to
be at 25-under for the tournament. The star of the Korean team was Hyun-Soo Kim, who shot a 6 under 66. Kim was also the low amateur at the 2010 Australian Women’s Open at Commonwealth in February. The other players, Ji-Hee Kim and Jung-Eun Han both shot 4-under
par 68. The Koreans played at the Buenos Aires Golf Club. The Korean captain Hyung-Mo Kang said that they (the Koreans) love this course and the greens.
The first round leader, United States, is still at second place with a 12-under. They couldn’t keep up with the good start that Korea had. All three players of the American team, Cydney Clanton, Jessica Korda and Danielle Kang, shot a 73. The 54 hole total
that the Americans achieved was 420. The United States team captain Roberta Bolduc was really impressed by the way the Koreans performed. "The Korean team started out sinking putt after putt early in the round,” said Bolduc. “It is difficult to see that when
yours are going around the edges. It can become frustrating.”
The Americans are followed by Germany and South Africa at 9-under and 8-under respectively. Spaniards, French and the host Argentinean team are sharing the fifth position at 7-under.
With all the competition, the Canadian ladies have dropped down to number eleven. They were in the ninth position at the end of round one and two. Canada tied with China at 1-under. Canada is a three-time runner up at this event and finished fourth when
it took place in 2008 last. The three player team of Sara-Maude Juneau of Quebec, Jennifer Kirby of Ontario and Christine Wong of British Columbia really struggled during the third round and at a five-over 149.
As for the individual performances, Wong’s third round 76 brought her down from a second place tie to eighth place position. Juneau shares the 85th position with 11-over whereas Kirby is at 77th place with a 10-over.
The Koreans really set the golf course on fire after continuing their second round record score. The team had a score of 16-under which crumbled the previous record of 134 that was established in 1998. South Korea’s Jung-Eun Han leads the competition for
individuals. She is ahead by one stroke over her own team mate Ji-Hee Kim. Both of them shot 68 on Friday.
The Australian team improved their position a slight bit during the third round. The team consisting of Julia Boland, Alison Whitaker and Stacey Keating moved from the 41st position to the top 20. Carding a 3-over par total, the Australians ended
at 3-over par total and are 28 strokes behind Korea. Alison Whitaker played the best throughout the whole championship as she posted 75-73-69 and is tied for the thirtieth position at plus-1 in the individual rankings. She’s the only Australian who has achieved
to break par in a round so far in these championships.
Alison is a recent graduate from Duke University in South Carolina. Last year, she led her University to triumph at the NCAA Fall Preview Championship. Whitaker was awarded 2010 Atlantic Coast Conference Women’s Golf Scholar-Athlete of the year in July.
The talented Australian also won the Victorian Women’s Amateur Championship last year.
From the looks of it, it seems as if the Espirito Santo Trophy will be availed by the Koreans. If they did win, this would be their second World Amateur title. After the first round, it appeared the American’s would be victorious, but the Asian ladies have
surely shown who the best is. Still, with the Americans being right next to number one, it could be a close call. The winner of the Championship will be known when the final round tees off tomorrow.
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