Sakura Yokomine bogeyed the final hole for a five-under 67 and a one-stroke lead over Brooke Henderson, Paula Creamer and Amy Yang in the LPGA Taiwan Championship yesterday.
Yokomine eagled the par-five 12th and had three back-nine birdies at windy Miramar before dropping the stroke on the par-five 18th in the second of six events on the tour’s Asian Swing. The 30-year-old Japanese player is winless in two seasons on the LPGA Tour after winning 23 times on the Japan LPGA Tour.
Henderson birdied three of the final four holes, playing in the last group of the day. The 19-year-old Canadian has two victories this year, winning the major KPMG Women’s PGA in June.
Photo: Chao Hsin-tien, Taipei Times
Creamer had a bogey-free round. Yang was six-under through 13 holes, then bogeyed the next two.
Jang Ha-na, Ai Miyazato, Lee-Anne Pace, Beatriz Recari and Park Hee-young shot 69s.
Defending champion Lydia Ko had a double bogey on the par-four fifth in a 70. The top-ranked New Zealander won by nine strokes at Miramar last year. She has four LPGA Tour victories this season.
Photo: Chao Hsin-tien, Taipei Times
Leading among Taiwanese were Tsai Pei-ying and amateur Chang Ya-chun, who shot one-under 71s for a share of 14th.
Home favorite Yani Tseng closed with a quadruple-bogey nine on 18 for a 79. Playing on a sponsor exemption, she also had a double-bogey on the 12th.
Tseng won the inaugural event in 2011 at Sunrise and took the previous of her 15 LPGA Tour titles in March 2012.
Tseng was among a bevy of Taiwanese in a share of 73rd, with Chang Hsuan-ping, Liang Yi-ling, Hanna Chen, Yeh Hsin-ning and Yu Pei-lin all on seven-over.
Hsieh Yu-ling and Kaohsiung native Candie Kung were even-par 72 for a share of 24th, while Doris Chen (73), Cheng Ssu-chia (73), amateur Hou Yu-chiang (73), Phoebe Yao (74), Hsu Wei-ling (75), Chen I-wen (75), Chen Meng-chu (77), Lin Tzu-chi (78), Chen Yu-ju (78) and Kuo Ai-chen (82) made up the rest of the home field.
Yokomine and Henderson are making their 26th starts of the year, tied with Kim Kaufman for the tour lead. Henderson plans to play all six weeks in Asia, a journey that started last week in China, will take her to South Korea, back to China and then to Malaysia and Japan.
Kaufman had a 73.
Additional reporting by staff writer
A seven-year-old horse had to be euthanized on Friday after breaking its back on the final fence of a Grand National steeplechase race that it won despite sustaining the serious injury. It follows the death of four horses at the Cheltenham Festival last month — including one after the prestigious Gold Cup. Gold Dancer was competing in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase during Ladies Day at Aintree’s Grand National Festival. The horse managed to cross the finish line approximately four lengths ahead of runner-up Regent’s Stroll. “The winner of our second race of the day, Gold Dancer, was pulled up after
Taiwanese gymnast Tang Chia-hung on Sunday topped the men’s horizontal bar event at the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) World Cup in Osijek, Croatia, scoring 15.233 to take his third title this season. Tang delivered an outstanding performance in the final, earning a difficulty score of 6.500 and an execution score of 8.633 with a 0.1 stick bonus. His closest competitor was Milad Karimi of Kazakhstan, who finished second with 14.933 points. It was Tang’s third gold medal in the FIG World Cup series this year, following his horizontal bar wins in Azerbaijan on March 8, and in Turkey on March
The Daredevils yesterday took eight catches in the final as they eked out a victory in the Taiwan Cricket Triangular Tournament against PCCT at Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District. PCCT’s batting lineup collapsed after they asked the Daredevils to bowl in the T20 decider of the weekend tournament that also involved the Formosa Cricket Club. PCCT were bundled out for 76 in 16.2 overs against a disciplined Daredevils attack. Ninad Malwade was the top scorer in the innings with 21, but he was among those who offered chances to the fielders. Shane Ferreira and Jason Cameron took three wickets each, with
This year’s Taiwan Athletics Open, which offers Taiwanese athletes an opportunity to compete against their international peers, would be held under a new name after its organizers had earlier announced the event’s cancelation. In a statement issued yesterday, the Chinese Taipei Athletics Association said the competition would still take place on June 6-7 at Banciao Stadium, but under the name “New Taipei City Athletics Open 2026.” The event was given a new name to emphasize its local identity and conform with the international practice of naming World Athletics Tour events after cities, the association said. It said it would soon
RSS