Michelle Wie fired a 65 to join Shiho Oyama at -10 and atop the leaderboard at the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament.  Stacy Lewis is in third place at -9 while Mollie Fankhauser and Amy Yang are tied for fourth place at -6.

I could point out that four of those five players were my top four choices to succeed this week but since Wie, Yang, Lewis and Oyama were on almost everyone else's short list of Top 20 contenders, that isn't such a unique accomplishment.  Others of note:

-5  Janell Howland, Lisa Strom

-4  Carolina Llano, Mika Miyazato, Sophie Giquel

-3  Paige Mackenzie, Anja Monke, Jeehae Lee, Audra Burks

-3  Kim Welch, Anna Grzebien, Vikki Laing, Lisa Ferrero

-2  Charlotte Mayorkas, Samantha Richdale

-2  Emily Bastel, Anna Rawson, Ashleigh Simon

----------20----------

-1  Chella Choi, Ashli Bunch, Louise Stahle, Garrett Phillips

----------30----------

----------40----------

E   Onnarin Sattayabanphot, Hannah Jun, Sunny Oh

E   Eunjung Yi, Na Ri Kim, Angela Buzminski

+1 Anna Nordqvist, Leah Wigger, Patricia Meunier-Lebouc, Tani Elosegui

+2 Miki Saiki, Liz Janangelo, Beatriz Recari, Kristina Tucker

+2 Paola Moreno, Jaclyn Sweeney, Sun Ju Ahn

----------70----------

+3 Taylor Leon, Jenny Suh, Naree Song, Ashley Prange

+4 Song Yi Choi, Sarah Kemp, Kelly Lagedrost, Martina Eberl

+5 Sophia Sheridan, Jessica Shepley, Nontaya Srisawang

+6 Young-A Yang, Hanna Kang, Briana Vega

+7 Alison Walshe

+8 Jimin Jeong

+9 Melissa Reid, Lisa Meldrum

+10 Michelle Ellis

I labeled the various boundary lines to hopefully make it easier to comprehend where each player stands.  The 30 and 40 lines are at the same place because there is a 14-way tie for 30^th place - anyone who currently is in the Top 30 is also in the Top 40.  UPDATE:  That statement came out backwards - I meant that anyone who is in the Top 40 is also in the Top 30.  What I first wrote is ALWAYS true.  In case you missed it - a Top 20 finish gets Category 11 status for 2009, 21-30 gets Category 16 and 31-40 gets Category 20.

The ladies who really helped their cause today include Howland (67 T6, up from T33), Monke, Ferrero (both with 66 T11, up from T87), Mayorkas (67 T19, up from T87), Buzminski (68 T44, up from T101), Elosegui (66 T58, up from T124) and Ahn (68 T68, up from T120).  Young-A Yang took the biggest hit - an 80 dropped her from T9 to T106.

Wie, Oyama and Lewis are certainly sitting pretty but still have two rounds left to make the 70-plus-ties cut (they have 12, 12 and 11 shots to play with on that front) and one more round on Sunday to make the Top 20.  Wie and Oyama currently have eight-shot cushions on that barrier.