2003 Safeway Classic: Friday

Minny Yeo during round 1
SeoulSisters.com photos

You guessed it, Friday was another gorgeous, calm day in the Portland area, ideal golf watching weather (if perhaps just a bit too hot). My plan today was to watch Minny Yeo, Mi Hyun Kim, Christina Kim and Soo-Yun Kang in the morning, then following Grace and Se Ri in the afternoon. Since none of them were playing in the same group, this entailed some pretty involved logistical planning, but I am good at that sort of thing, and managed to see a little of each of those ladies, plus some bonus Jeong Jang (she was playing with Christina on Friday)!

I got there bright and early at 7:45 to watch Minny Yeo, my interviewee from the other day. By and large she played pretty solidly tee to green, but her putting and short game let her down a little. She made a simple putt on 1, and followed that up with a tee shot to the middle of the green on the par 3 2nd. This left her with a 25 footer for birdie, which she hit far too hard. She ended up with a three putt, but that was the only one I saw in 8 holes of play. She played the third hole well, giving herself an 8 footer for birdie she just missed. On hole 4 she had to get up and down, but did so nicely. On the fifth hole, a par 5, she got close in two, hit a decent pitch to 6 feet, but again just missed the birdie. Easy par. She had two more pars on 6 and 7. The par 5 7th saw her hitting her drive slightly into the rough, but she still gave herself a decent chance at birdie. On the deadly 8th hole (a par 3 over water), she hit a shot a bit left, but it rolled right towards the cup, maybe 4 feet away. She made that birdie, and that was the last I saw of her that day. Even par through 8 is pretty good; she would go on to shoot one over par on the day.

Soo Yun Kang on Friday
SeoulSisters.com photo

Hole 11: Great drive, but so so approach. She had a tricky uphill putt, and left it beautifully next to the hole for a par.

Hole 12 (par 5): This was an odd hole. Davies drove her tee shot way left, so she waited on the tee while her caddie went to see if he could find it (I guess she didn't want to have to walk back if she needed to hit a second tee shot). He found it in a barren area, sitting on some loose dirt lying on a fallen twig. Somehow Laura got it about 100 yards from there to some heavy rough behind some trees, then carved a wedge around the trees onto the green. She made par I think. Meanwhile, Patricia hit a worm burner; I've never seen one like that from a pro! At least it went straight. Patricia is starting to show from her pregnancy, by the way. Kangsy played the hole well, but ended up with only a par.

Hole 13: par 3 over water. Kangsy's tee shot went to ten feet right over the flag; she just missed the birdie.

Hole 14: She hit a great drive here, too, the longest of her group (although Laura hit an iron). At this point I realized that there was no sign carrier for this group. In fact, it seemed like they were really lacking in volunteers this year, for a lot of the fairway pedestrian crossings were unmanned. Soo Yun's second shot was gah-geous, two feet from the hole, for a kick in birdie. Now she was at 2 under par.

Hole 15: On this hole, Soo Yun's drive ended up in a spot where she had to do a drop (probably a sprinkler I couldn't see). Here's what was weird: she chose to do her drop using an iron. In fact, she pulled a driver at first, then put it back and used an iron instead after talking to Patricia about it. If she had used the wood, the ball would have landed outside the rough. Why would she do that? Anyway, her second shot got to 12 feet, and she dropped another birdie on this flat green to move to 3 under par. So it didn't really make much difference, did it?

Soo Yun and her caddie
SeoulSisters.com photo