Jiyai Shin is 37 years old and was born in South Korea. She won her first professional tournament in 2005, claimed her first Major in 2008, and was World Number One in 2010. Today, she has 66 victories worldwide, two of them at the British Open. Twenty years after that first triumph on the Korean circuit, she is leading a tournament on the LPGA Tour, the same one where she was Rookie of the Year and winner of the money list in 2009. It is longevity, love for golf, the satisfaction of having made good decisions in her life. The always cheerful Jiyai shares the lead at the TOTO Japan Classic with Nasa Hataoka after the second round. It is the hour of vintage golf, following the recent victory of Yani Tseng on the Ladies European Tour.
At the same time she became World Number One, Shin released her first music album. She sang contemporary gospel. Today she continues to sing – she has revealed that she is preparing a song for So Yeon Ryu‘s wedding – and continues making birdies. Specifically, this Friday she made six and a solitary bogey at the Seta Golf course in Otsu. A scorecard of 67 strokes for a total of -11. One stroke behind Jiyai and Hataoka is Miyu Yamashita. Two strokes further back are Shuti Sakuma, Ai Suzuki, and Takahashi. Japan remains in command of operations. 25 of the top 33 are Japanese. The only European in that same stretch is the Russian Nataliya Guseva.
Julia López (-1), the only Spanish player this week in Japan, has not managed to advance in the standings in the second round. She scored 72 strokes, with a very typical round for the player from Málaga, with a lot of movement. She made four birdies and an eagle, but also had two bogeys and two double bogeys. She is struggling to adapt to the Japanese greens. She has 63 putts in two days. Jiyai Shin, for example, has 57, putting with an old Scotty Cameron she found at home.
