Brasil Cup Results and Other Goings-On

With family visiting over the holiday weekend plus mega-work after said holiday, here's a brief catch-up summary of what I missed covering:

Meaghan Francella birdied the sixth playoff hole to defeat Mariajo Uribe and win the HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup.  Candie Kung finished alone in third place at -5, only one shot out of the playoff while Kristy McPherson and Maria Hjorth tied for fourth at -4.

Francella, whose only official career victory at the 2007 MasterCard Classic came via a four-hole playoff over Annika Sorenstam, led by two shots with four holes to go.  Uribe birdied 15 to draw within one and Francella bogeyed 16 to fall into a tie for the lead.  Kung birdied 17 to move within one shot and had an eagle opportunity at 18 but she did not convert.  Francella and Uribe both birdied the final hole to shut Candie out of the playoff.  Alternating between 18 and 17, both players registered birdie-par-par-par-birdie over the first five sudden-death holes.  Playing the par-3 17^th, Meaghan dropped a 10-foot birdie putt to seal the victory.

Francella wasn't the most likely player to win this week.  Although she had missed only one cut over her first seven events, Meaghan had only one Top 30 finish - a T26 at the Bell Micro.  She hadn't registered a Top 10 since last June's Wegmans and hadn't finished in the Top 5 since last year's Kraft Nabisco.  Francella was ranked #58 on my latest Top 70 list.  A win by the rookie Uribe would have been a surprise too - in three official starts, she finished T16 at Bell Micro but also T57 at Kia and MC at Tres Marias.

Next Thursday we begin a <gasp!> five-week run of tournaments at the State Farm Classic, followed by the return of the ShopRite Classic, the LPGA Championship, the Jamie Farr and the U.S. Open at Oakmont.  As I detailed two weeks ago, the lower regions of the Priority list will be reshuffled using the money list standings at the end of State Farm and the new list will be utilized beginning at the LPGA Championship.

Sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open concludes today in Sanford, North Carolina.  You can find who has already made it here.  These are the most notable who have attempted to qualify who are not in as yet:  Jimin Kang, Grace Park, Mariajo Uribe. Jane Park, Haeji Kang, Katie Futcher, Leta Lindley, Soo-Yun Kang, Karin Sjodin, Dorothy Delasin, Lorie Kane.

Lastly, the Tour announced yesterday that the Hana Bank Championship will return to Sky 72 Golf Club in Incheon this October.  The biggest news in the announcement was this:  Golf Channel will televise all three rounds (presumably tape-delayed) of the event, a first for any tournament held in Korea.