(27 September 2010 – Rifu, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan)
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For the second week in a row, three South Korean golfers filled the podium at the Miyagi TV Cup Dunlop Ladies Open on Sunday. In the end, it was Eun-A Lim who came out on top after a final round of 2-under par 70 saw her finish at 5-under par total 211 for the tournament. Lim finished one shot in front of compatriots Inbee Park and Na-Ri Lee after a tense final round at the Rifu Golf Club.
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Lim began the final round tied with Lee in second place, one shot behind Japan’s Rui Kitada, and one shot in front of a group of three players including US LPGA player, Mika Miyazato. Also in the hunt was Park at 1-under par, and she like Lim, made the best possible start with both players making birdies at their opening two holes. On the other hand, Kitada played herself out of the tournament early on with a bogey-par-triple bogey start. She dropped another shot at the 9th hole and by that stage was 5-over for the day and five shots behind joint leaders, Lim and Lee.
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Heading to the back nine, Park had moved to 3-under par, one shot behind the joint leaders while Miyazato, having dropped a shot at the 9th, now just two shots back. On what was proving a typically difficult Japanese course, birdies were hard to come by, however Lim and Lee both picked up shots at the 11th hole to move to 5-under and forge a 2-shot buffer.
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Two groups in front, Park picked up a birdie at the 14th to be just one behind, while Miyazato could find no more birdies and ended up finishing with three straight bogeys to slip to 1-over and a tie for 6th. Lim took the advantage with a birdie of her own at the 14th with four holes to play. Shortly thereafter Park birdied the 17th hole to move to 5-under, and just one shot off the pace. However, a bogey at the 18th left her one shot out of a playoff and consigned her to her 5th runner-up finish in 9 starts on the LPGA of Japan in 2010.
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Down the stretch, Lim and Lee matched cards finishing par-par-bogey-par, leaving Lim the victor at 5-under par and Lee tied with Park. It was Lim’s third career title, now having picked up one title in each of her three years on tour. After being in contention at the Golf5 Ladies two weeks ago and finishing with a final round of 78, she said, “I have a tendency to come apart on the final day of a tournament so I tried to stay calm and play my game. I’ve achieved the goal I set of winning one title this season and my next target is to get another victory and finish in the Top-10 on the money list.”
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Australia’s Nikki Campbell (T24) and Tamie Durdin (T28) both made the cut and finished with impressive final rounds of 70 and 71 respectively to finish in the Top-30. With the Japan Open this coming week both players should be happy with their form heading into arguably the most sought-after prize on the tour.
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Photo courtesy of LPGA of Japan.
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