Retamoza, Lee Tied For Lead In Ohio

BATAVIA, Ohio, June 23, 2007 – Mexico’s Violeta Retamoza and Korea’s Seo-Jae Lee are tied for the lead after two rounds of the $100,000 Duramed Championship. Both players have posted identical rounds of 66-66 to deadlock at 132 (-12) for a three-shot lead on the field at The Golf Club at Stonelick Hills.

“I love the golf course because it’s a risk-reward style of course,” said rookie Retamoza of Aguascalientes, Mexico. “I’m just going to go out there tomorrow and do my thing and see what happens.”

Both players were “doing their thing” pretty convincingly for most of the day. Retamoza birdied the first hole with an 18-foot bomb to tie for the lead and then took the lead alone with a six-footer on the fourth hole. The Mexican extended her lead by two shots with another birdie at No. 6 from 15 feet.

“My short game was awesome today,” said Retamoza, who played collegiately at the University of Tennessee. “I’m hitting the ball good and putting good, so when that happens, your confidence goes up and you know you can do it.”

First-round leader Eunjung Yi of Murrieta, Calif., bogeyed her second hole to fall behind as Retamoza kept rolling in birdies, but she chased the Mexican, rolling in birdies on holes eight and nine to finally move into a share of the lead. Retamoza took off again on the back nine with birdies on holes 12 and 15 to build a two-shot lead over Yi with three holes to play.

Yi played the back nine at even par, but it was Lee, playing in the same final pairing, who made the big move on the final stretch of holes. Lee’s momentum shifted when she holed out a sand wedge on the eighth hole, birdied the par-five 13th hole to move within two shots of Retamoza, then blistered the last three holes with a flurry of activity, recording birdie-birdie-eagle on her scorecard.

“My dad is my caddie, so today on the last three holes, he said I was not finished yet,” said rookie Lee, 19, of Seoul, Korea, a non-exempt LPGA Tour member. “I tried to really concentrate.”

Concentrate she did. Finished, she wasn’t.

Lee rolled in a birdie on the 16th hole from three feet, and a birdie on the 17th hole from 18 feet to move within one shot of Retamoza. On the par-five 18th hole, she hit her 5-wood from 200 yards in a crosswind and landed her second shot within 21 feet of the flagstick. And then Lee’s putt found the bottom of the hole for eagle.

“I wanted to two-putt there,” she said. “Just lucky it went in.”

That eagle on the last hole moved her into a tie for the second-round lead with Retamoza, who also reached the 18th in two shots and two-putted for birdie from 55 feet.

“She finished really strong,” said the Mexican. “You can’t do anything about that.”

Yi carded a two-under-par score of 70 today to move into second place at 135 (-9).
The trio of Janell Howland (67) of Boise, Idaho, Cortney Reno (68) of Grosse Ile, Mich., and Emily Bastel (70) of Upper Sandusky, Ohio, are tied for third at 138 (-6).

“I started out really slow, but my wedge game saved me,” said Bastel, who three-putted for bogey on the first hole and double-bogeyed the second.

But the 2007 top-ranked player on the Duramed FUTURES Tour fought back, scrambling with seven birdies and two more bogeys. She used 29 putts and hit 14 greens in regulation to inch closer to winning her third tournament of the season – and in her home state.

“I’m proud of the way I came back after being three over through two holes,” she said. “When you’re making that many birdies and seeing them go in, that’s positive.”

Howland, who won earlier this spring in Lafayette, La., said she benefited from a telephone pep talk this morning with good friend and 2007 LPGA Tour card winner Kristy McPherson. The 2006 two-time winner on the Duramed FUTURES Tour told Howland to stay patient and “to go make some birdies.”

“It’s nice to know that she’s still watching and I did make a lot of birdies today,” said Howland, who tallied 25 putts for her bogey-free, five-birdie round.

Reno, whose last win was in 2005, said she likes the nature of this week’s venue, which requires players to use just about every club in the bag. With the risk/reward course design, Reno says course management is essential.

“You have to place everything and to really focus out there,” said Reno, who hit 13 greens today. “And when it’s a tight course, I like it a lot.”

Perhaps the player who liked Stonelick Hills the most was Vikki Laing of Musselburgh, Scotland, who turned in a sparkling nine-under-par 63 in today’s second round. Laing’s performance shot her up the leaderboard from 120th into a tie for fifth at 140 (-4) and allowed her to rebound from Friday’s opening score of 77.

“I would have been happy with a 68, but I’ll take this,” said Laing, a former collegian at the University of California-Berkeley. “I was just trying to be around here on Sunday to play.”

Laing’s bogey-free round included eight birdies and an eagle-2 on the par-four eighth hole, where she holed out an 8-iron from 148 yards. The Scot hit 17 greens, every fairway and rolled in 28 putts for her career-low round.

“I guess you just hole putts,” said Laing. “I felt really good on the greens and today I could see the lines. I haven’t felt that comfortable in a long time.”

Presented by the Cincinnati USA Regional Tourism Network, this is the inaugural Duramed Championship. The tournament field was cut to the low 70 players and ties after the completion of two rounds. Seventy-one players made the 36-hole cut at 146 (+2).

Sunday’s final round will begin at 8 a.m., off the first tee only. The leaders will tee off at 11:27 a.m., Eastern Daylight Time.

For scores and more information, visit www.duramedfuturestour.com.

Weather: Mostly cloudy with a high temperature of 78 degrees with wind at 9 mph.

Contact: Lisa D. Mickey, Duramed FUTURES Tour at (513) 732-2614 and at lisa@duramedfuturestour.com.