- Six Strokes of Separation:  If Lorena Ochoa manages to make history by tying Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam’s record of five consecutive LPGA Tour victories at this weekend’s SemGroup Championship, it will certainly be no cakewalk.  Through 36 holes, Ochoa has posted rounds of 73-74 over the tough, par-71 Cedar Ridge Country Club course, her five-over-par total of 147 leaving her tied for 21st, some six shots back of halfway leader Paula Creamer.  In Ochoa’s favor, a six-shot margin is hardly overwhelming, particularly on so difficult a golf course where, say, a 67 might leapfrog most of the field.  Further, the absence of players like Sorenstam and Suzann Pettersen leaves a somewhat more direct path to the top – though world top 10s Jee Young Lee and Jeong Jang, and top 20s Juli Inkster and Angela Stanford potentially represent significant bumps in the road.  But Ochoa’s biggest problem might well be the 21-year-old Creamer, a winner at February’s Fields Open in Hawaii and a disappointing playoff loser (to Sorenstam) at last week’s Stanford International Pro-Am.  Following a post-round pep talk from her Hall-of-Fame mentor Nancy Lopez, Creamer is surely loaded for bear this week…meaning that world number one Ochoa might just need a two 67s – a very tall order – to catch her.

- Youth Might Be Served:  The Asian Tour’s GS Caltex Maekyung Open may lack a significant dose of star power, but it will still write one heck of a story if 16-year-old Korean Seung-yul Noh plays as well on Sunday as he did on Saturday.  Noh, who despite his tender age has already logged two 2008 runner-ups in Asia, carded a four-under-par 68 over the Nam Seoul Country Club course to take a two-shot lead over fellow Koreans Kyung-tae Kim and Do-hoon Kim III, and would become the youngest winner in Asian Tour history should he hold on tomorrow.  As a curious sidebar, former U.S. Ryder Cup player Chris Riley, lacking status on the PGA Tour, currently sits tied for 9th, some five behind the talented Noh.

- Youth Might Be Served II:  Five weeks ago at the European Tour’s Open de Andalucia, the world’s number one ranked amateur, 20-year-old Englishman Danny Willett, surprised observers with an opening-round 66, before tailing quietly off to a tie for 19th.  Returning to E Tour action at this week’s Spanish Open, Willett barely made the cut with rounds of 73-70, leaving him tied for 59th at the halfway mark.  But on Saturday, Willett got of to a blazing start, eventually standing nine under par through 14 holes before bogeying the 15th, then parring in for an attention-getting 64.  This splendid round moved him up 56 places up the leaderboard, all the way to 3rd, but his end-of-day position may not look so sweet; as he finished his Moving Day round, none of the top 12 names on the leaderboard had even teed off yet.