LONDON, Ky., August 8, 2009 -- She’s already won twice this season, but 19-year-old Mina Harigae looked like a win-hungry filly racing for her third finish line in today’s second round of the $100,000 Falls Auto Group Classic.

The Duramed FUTURES Tour rookie carded a 6-under-par 66 today to take a three-shot lead at 134 (-10). Just on her heels was former Duke University teammate Amanda Blumenherst (69) of Scottsdale, Ariz., and second-year pro Gerina Mendoza (70) of Roswell, N.M., tied for second at 137 (-7).

“My putting was better today because I haven’t been making anything lately outside of eight feet,” said Harigae, of Monterey, Calif., who needed only 26 putts in the second round. “I finally had a couple of longer ones.”

Harigae (pronounced HAR-uh-GUY) rolled in three birdies on her front nine holes at Crooked Creek Golf Community, two from 10 feet. She grabbed a share of the lead with Blumenherst and Sara Brown (70) with her birdie on No. 8, and then took the lead outright when she drained a 20-foot birdie on the 10^th hole.

But this round was destined to be a real horse race and everybody in the field knows there is no letting up for Blumenherst, the highly decorated former U.S. Women’s Amateur champion and four-time All-American at Duke. Sure enough, Blumenherst rolled in an eight-footer for birdie on the 11^th hole to draw even with Harigae.

“I tried not to look at the scoreboard, but someone drew my attention to it,” said Blumenherst, who also played the front nine at 3-under 33. “My feeling was that I was just going to go out and play and whatever happens, happens.”

Blumenherst held the lead until she bogeyed the 14^th and Harigae, playing in the last group, birdied the 13^th from 12 feet to regain the advantage. Harigae added some cushion to her lead with another birdie on the 14^th hole from four feet and seemed to have all the momentum going into the final stretch.

“I’m pretty confident,” said Harigae, who birdied the last hole from eight feet. “I’m hitting it well and the greens are very receptive with my irons. I can just go at the pins.”

Meanwhile, Blumenherst let another bogey creep onto her scorecard when she airmailed the 16^th green. But the rookie pro scrambled on the last hole from a bunker to eight feet, making a birdie on the 18^th.

Brown chased all day and had plenty of chances on the back nine to jump into the race, but she managed only two birdies and a bogey on the last hole, where she had to take off her shoes and stand in water to execute her shot. A few more putts and a little less mud and the four-time winner from Michigan State University could have pulled even for the lead.

“It excites me to have a chance to contend,” said Brown, who is in solo fourth place at 138 (-6). “Whether I’m in first place, second place or 10^th place, I’m playing well. I’m ready to show myself what I can do.”

So was Mendoza, the quietly focused big-hitter who tied for second two weeks ago at the Tour’s event in New Hampshire. Mendoza bogeyed the third and fourth holes, but countered with birdies from 10 feet and 35 feet on holes 5 and 8, respectively.

“I started off real rocky, but came back and calmed down,” said Mendoza, a second-year pro who was a contestant in the Golf Channel’s recent “Big Break Prince Edward Island” show. “I told my caddie that I needed to quit worrying about where I stood and what my score was and to just go play.”

Mendoza birdied the par-5 12^th hole, saved par on holes No. 14 and 15, and then reached the 514-yard par-5 final hole in two shots, converting a 35-footer to tap-in range for birdie to end the round.

“That lit a little fire under my butt,” said Mendoza, still looking for her first professional win. “I know I have something to shoot for on Sunday.”

Tied for fifth at 5-under 139 is Yoora Kim (67) of Seoul, South Korea and another recent Duke graduate, Jennie Lee (70) of Henderson, Nev.

Local favorite Whitney Wade (68) of Glasgow, Ky., and her former University of Georgia teammate Jean Reynolds (67) of Newnan, Ga., charged up the leaderboard from 33^rd and 45^th place, respectively, into a 10-way tie for seventh at 140 (-4). Wade won her first Duramed FUTURES Tour title in June, while Reynolds, the Tour’s top-ranked player, is a two-time season winner. That group also includes 2009 tournament winner Angela Buzminski (71) of Oshawa, Ontario.

A total of 32 players are under par after two rounds, while 38 players are at even-par 144 or better on the 6,360-yard, par-72 course.

Seventy-nine players made the 36-hole cut at 148 (+4).

Sunday’s final round of the Falls Auto Group Classic, presented by the law offices of Howard O. Mann, P.S.C., will begin at 7:50 a.m., off the first tee only. The leaders will tee off at 12:20 p.m.

For scores and more information, visit duramedfuturestour.com.

Weather: Partly sunny and humid with temperatures in the low 90s with a slight breeze.

Retamoza Scores First Career Hole-In-One In Second Round

Violeta Retamoza of Aguascalientes, Mexico, scored her first hole-in-one today in the second round of the Falls Auto Group Classic at Crooked Creek Golf Community. Retamoza used an 18-degree Callaway 2-hybrid club to ace the 175-yard 11^th hole.

“I was thinking, ‘Be the club! Be the club!” said Retamoza, who made the cut on the number (4-over 148). “I’ve had shots that were half in and half out, but never in the hole. It was awesome.”

“That ball was on a rope all the way to the hole,” said Jake Cantu, caddie for Aimee Cho, who was playing in Retamoza’s group. “The ball hit five inches in front of the cup and disappeared.”

Finlinson Vows To Get Back In The Saddle Again

The moment she set foot in the state of Kentucky earlier this week prior to the start of the Falls Auto Group Classic, Jeana Finlinson felt the same excited flutter in her gut that she used to feel as a champion rodeo star. She had arrived in Kentucky to play in a Duramed FUTURES Tour golf tournament, but she was, after all, now standing in the heart of America’s horse country.

This week was her first tournament back after her wrist had been reconstructed twice since last November. It was a leftover injury that happened years ago when she fell off a horse as a world-ranked professional equestrian in the sports of barrel racing and pole bending – both high-energy timed events when the rider on a 1,500-pound horse gallops 40 mph around 50-gallon metal drums or slaloms through pole gates. Sometimes these events are held in the mud and rain. Sometimes they are held in a 50,000-seat arena in world championships. And always, they pose a risk of injury.

“They say you’re not a real cowgirl until you’ve hit the dirt at least five times,” laughed Finlinson of Bloomington, Ind. “If I had a dollar for every time I’ve fallen off a horse, I’d be able to pay my [Duramed FUTURES Tour] tournament entry fees for a year.”

Finlinson started barrel racing at age 11 and competed for 10 years, turning professional as a high school senior. During that time, she won the Quarter Horse Congress in barrel racing and pole bending for three straight years, was the national high point earner while in high school in her sports (similar to winning the money list in professional golf), finished in the top five for two years in the American Quarter Horse Association’s World Barrel Racing Championship and Pole Bending Championship, was a two-time winner of the North American Championship in both events (as both an amateur and a pro), and was ranked No. 4 in the world in the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association.

But throughout her equestrian career, she endured five knee surgeries, a total of three wrist surgeries, had horses fall on her and step on her hands and feet. She experienced bumps and bruises and more bells ringing in her ears than a Sunday mass at the Vatican.

“When you’re immersed in it, you don’t think about how dangerous this sport is until you get out of it,” Finlinson said. “It’s just what you do.”

Sometime around age 19, she was rehabbing another rodeo injury and went with some cowboys to a golf course. Finlinson had never played golf, but her athleticism took over. On a 100-yard, par-3 hole, somebody handed her a 5-iron and she blew the ball over the green. So then they handed her a sand wedge for the same shot again and this time, the ball took one hop and dropped into the hole. That was the beginning of a whole new trail for the Indiana cowgirl.

She reasoned that when she competed on horses, her competitions lasted from 14 to 17 seconds. In golf, she would have 18 holes or even multiple rounds to perform. In theory, she should be able to play this game.

“Out here on Tour, if you don’t perform, you just move on to the next rodeo [tournament] or the next hole,” she said. “You get back on the horse. And it doesn’t hurt as much, either.”

Finlinson was a walk-on member of the University of Indiana’s women’s golf team. She practiced hard and worked to catch up with the other more experienced team members, opting to give up equestrian sports to pursue golf. By 2007, she had turned professional in golf.

And in 2008, she had earned playing status on the Duramed FUTURES Tour and was the guest of PGA player Fuzzy Zoeller at the 2008 Masters, where she hit a shot during the early-week events on one of the par-3 holes. The photo of a woman – Finlinson -- hitting a golf shot at Augusta National during Masters week ran in the New York Times.

All of the injuries and rehabs from her days on horses made moving to golf a lot easier. Still, when you have horse-loving parents who grew up in Louisville, or had family members who worked at Churchill Downs, or your family’s idea of a perfect Mother’s Day is spent at the Kentucky Derby, the “horse thing” runs deep.

Finlinson’s parents still have 25 horses and the barn-inspired home where she grew up even has a window in her bedroom that looks down into a stall where she could see her horse as a child. Her mother still shows horses in competitions. And the family makes regular trips to Keeneland Race Track and Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky. For the golfer to be in Kentucky is to go home to a deep, deep familiar pounding of hooves and hearts.

“It’s still a huge part of my life, but my wrist has become so dang expensive because of my rodeo injuries,” she said.

Halfway through Friday’s first round of the Falls Auto Group Classic this week in London, Ky., Finlinson was forced to withdraw due to injury. Her wrist, its red scar bulging with inflammation, was forced to retire onto a Ziploc pillow of ice. With tears in her eyes, the former rodeo star packed up her car to leave.

“I guess my wrist wasn’t ready, but I had to try,” she said. “I’ll just saddle up again and wait for the next time.”

Contact: Lisa D. Mickey, Duramed FUTURES Tour at (386) 214-9726 and at lisa@duramedfuturestour.com.