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Post by philknj on Jun 13, 2020 10:12:56 GMT
The Groundhog Tour will come out from under its beds for the week of June 25-28, then go back under the bed until the NEC Karuizawa 72 event (Aug. 14-16).  This idiocy persists, even though Japan has 42% fewer virus cases per capita than Korea (I just looked it up). Does this tour financially depend on spectators more than the KLPGA? The JLPGA Step Up tour won't even start until September. The big tour just announced the cancellation of the Samantha Thavasa (July 17-19) ... no point in having it if there are no spectators to gawp at the bikini girls.
Back to this tourney ... they'll be playing in front of no spectators at Camellia Hills CC, on the SE side of Tokyo Bay for a record ¥240,000,000. The field of 144 will have a cut at top-70 (tentatively, whatever that means) ... 123 players are listed for now, including defending champ JY Shin, SW Bae, Jae Eun Chung, Ah Reum Hwang, Hana Lee and The Leader of The Pack. No Sky Kim, no Sharon, no Mi Jeong Jeon, no Big Mama Ahn, no Smile Candy and no Chae Young Yoon. 
*** All four rounds will be on YouTube ***
Japan times:
Thu - 7 AM thru 6 PM
Fri - 7 AM thru 6 PM
Sat - 7 AM thru 5 PM
Sun - 7 AM thru 5 PM
Details are here:
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Post by jumpcut on Jun 13, 2020 13:29:20 GMT
What, no Shibuno Fever??
Holy sh!t, they're covering every second of this event with 4 simultaneous streams. I'm especially looking forward to the "ballistic display system," which should give "golf shot" a whole new meaning.
No word on English commentary. For all we know, this could be geoblocked in the US. They at least need to update their all-Nihongo graphics to show player names in English.
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Post by philknj on Jun 13, 2020 13:41:29 GMT
Fear not, Shibuno is playing ... all the Japanese players are desperate to play this one, plus the Thais and Taiwanese. I only mentioned the Koreans because I thought it was strange how light the field was for them. Is it a big hassle to get into Japan from Korea these days? If they're really planning to fill 144 spots, who will be picked for the 21 openings?
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Post by philknj on Jun 20, 2020 10:49:43 GMT
The field is up to 125 and they are having a Monday qualifier with 88 players (including Jennifer Hirano) going out in foursomes from #1 and #10.
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Post by philknj on Jun 22, 2020 10:53:16 GMT
They added 19 players from Monday's qualifier out of a field of 84. Past tour winner Yukari Nishiyama finished T-1 at -1. Other familiar names that passed include Mayu Hattori and Hiroko Fukushima.
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Post by jlpgafan on Jun 22, 2020 19:00:43 GMT
phil, thanks for the update, some favs that will tee up are ayaka matsumori, kotono kazuma, watanabe,
hikari fujita, s.rankon(thailand) all winners on the tour, missing is kotone hori. it will be fun to see shibuno again.
it looks like they published the qualifier list but its in japanese... i see jennifer hirano's name
listed at no.7 (+3); i hope she is in the field ??
apologize to non-horseracing people but nanako fujita has 5 wins since breaking her collarbone in feb. and is now ranked 35 in jockey ranking.
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Post by SoYeonFan on Jun 23, 2020 3:21:48 GMT
I guess Yui Kawamoto will get to see if all that practice will pay off.
Veteran 50 JLPGA wins, Yuri Fudoh is probably a life time member.
Teresa Lu made it over or maybe she stayed in Japan.
Ayaka Watanabe is in, but no Kotone Hori.
Ayaka Watanabe reminds me of A Lim Kim of the KLPGA.
Both are talented but don't use it enough on a consistent basis.
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Post by IceCat on Jun 23, 2020 14:23:36 GMT
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Post by philknj on Jun 23, 2020 22:43:18 GMT
After Google mushing the tee times, it appears that almost all of the few Koreans who had been in this field a few days ago have dropped out, including The Superstar.
Tuesday warmup:
One exception is Ji Hee Lee, who didn't leave Japan during the last three months.
Serena Aoki ... pass and play.
Sakura Koiwai
Shibuno leads, everyone else follows.
I assume Minami Katsu is wearing the latest designer mask from Samantha Thavasa.
Dumbo's secret twin, Miyu Shinkai
Admiral finally sees its apparel brand in action with NASA.
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Post by jumpcut on Jun 23, 2020 23:14:39 GMT
After Google mushing the tee times, it appears that almost all of the few Koreans who had been in this field a few days ago have dropped out, including The Superstar. Ack! I was afraid of this when I saw that the Leader of the Pack played in the latest Dream Tour event. Must have been some sort of last minute Japanese change with their quarantine. This event will be the poorer for it. And I was planning on one of the four simultaneous streams to be following Solar's group. |
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Post by philknj on Jun 23, 2020 23:35:43 GMT
The broadcast schedule has changed (Japan time):
THU 7 AM - 6 PM
FRI 7 AM - 6 PM
SAT 8 AM - 4 PM
SUN 8 AM - 4 PM
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Post by philknj on Jun 24, 2020 10:10:35 GMT
Wednesday prep:
Mr. Shimuzu lands another top player, Ai Suzuki
Haruka Morita no longer wearing a Yonex cap ... did she defect?
Yui doing a virtual interview
Yuka Yasuda
Sakura Yokomine and husband
Rei "The Ninja" Matsuda
Ting Ting
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Post by philknj on Jun 25, 2020 0:18:33 GMT
This is great, I have four videos running on separate tabs ... but which one should I focus on? The first one showed Shibuno complete the 1st hole with a par and Queen Shiho (wearing a mask, unfortunately) just made a par saver putt at #1. The 4th video shows various player interviews ... it's raining hard in the background, maybe this is from another day.
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Post by jumpcut on Jun 25, 2020 1:08:19 GMT
For awhile it looked like Stream #4 was going to be a 24/7 Shibuno-Cam -- covered from every angle on the practice green -- until she headed over to the first tee on Stream #1. Streams 1 & 2 are showing live coverage now while 3 & 4 seem to be showing prerecorded interviews interspersed with live static shots of puddles on some green.
It's pretty confusing.
EDIT: Play is stopped. There must be no electricity, since they're all huddled under big trees.
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Post by philknj on Jun 25, 2020 1:23:29 GMT
Kotono Kozuma is +3 thru ten holes ... holy crap, she must have spent the lockdown inside her refrigerator. It's raining in buckets now and they just blew the horn.  I guess there are no courtesy vehicles as Ting Ting and Yukari Nishiyama are standing under trees with umbrellas sprouted. One of the greens is completely flooded ... this gig won't restart for quite a while. Some things never change ... Hana Lee (ROK) is tied for the lead at -2 thru seven holes.  |
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This idiocy persists, even though Japan has 42% fewer virus cases per capita than Korea (I just looked it up). Does this tour financially depend on spectators more than the KLPGA? The JLPGA Step Up tour won't even start until September. The big tour just announced the cancellation of the Samantha Thavasa (July 17-19) ... no point in having it if there are no spectators to gawp at the bikini girls.
I guess there are no courtesy vehicles as Ting Ting and Yukari Nishiyama are standing under trees with umbrellas sprouted. One of the greens is completely flooded ... this gig won't restart for quite a while.