Asia leads Int’l Team in Lexus Cup

The Philippines’ Jennifer Rosales and Korea’s Candie Kung, fighting their rival pair to a draw in best-ball foursomes Friday, produced a full point in four-ball matches versus Nikki Campbell and Brittany Lincicome yesterday, helping Team Asia gain crucial headway versus Team International in Day Two of the 2006 Lexus Cup in Singapore.

Rosales and Kung whipped Campbell and Lincicome, 3 & 1, as the Asians humbled their International counterparts, 4-2, in the second round at the Tanah Merah Country Club’s Garden Course, putting them in a good position to avenge their defeat in the inaugural staging of the event last year.

The Hee-Won Han-Grace Park, Young Jim-Sakura Yokomine and Se Ri Pak-Seon Hwa Lee tandems also won their matches as the Asians took a 7-5 lead in the $960,000 event going into the final day where format shifts to singles.

Han and Park topped Julieta Granada and Morgan Pressel, 1 up, Young and Yokomine tripped Laura Davies and Carin Koch, 2 up, while Pak and Lee clobbered Sherri Steinhauer and Angela Stanford, 4 and 2.

The International team avoided a more severe beating with Annika Sorenstam and Natalie Gulbis beating Meena Lee and Jee Young Lee, 2 up, and Paula Creamer and Stacy Prammanasudh defeating Shi Hyun Ahn and Joo Mi Kim, 3 & 2.

The Asians need to score only 5.5 points in the 12 single matches to win the Lexus Cup. The winning team will have each member earning $50,000 while the losers get $30,000 each.

Picking up where they left off in the first round, Rosales and Kung took the first hole and went two up on No. 9 for a solid front nine.

Lincicome and Campbell narrowed the gap after a birdie on No. 10 but the Asians regained a two-hole lead on the 13th and finished it on the 17th both on birdies by Kung.

Rosales scored on the fifth hole and evened up with their rivals on Nos. 6, 8, 12th, 15th and 16th. She picked up the ball on the second and 11th holes. — Nelson Beltran