2003 Longs Drugs Challenge: Jung Yeon Wheee!

I had the privilege of watching Jung Yeon Lee play a few holes at the 2002 Safeway Classic. Before this, I had little sense of what her game was like. She had had a solid rookie campaign on the LPGA tour to that point (having qualified by just a few dollars for the tour in 2001 when she finished barely ahead of countrywoman Ju Kim for the third and final exempt card on the Futures Tour). But she had definitely been lost in the hoopla surrounding Natalie Gulbis, Beth Bauer and Candie Kung. It was the first time since 1997 that there really wasn't a top Korean player vying for Rookie of the Year.

My conclusion about her game was that she had a ton of length, but also was rough around the edges. In the holes I saw, she never hit a drive less than about 265 yards. It was a most impressive display. But not really surprising, for Lee is a big woman, at least 5 foot 10 and clearly in good shape. Among the players from Korea currently on tour, she is the tallest. But after those great drives, she would never get herself into good position with her approaches, and her putting and short game definitely needed tuning. So she was a work in progress, and I anticipated that perhaps 2003 would be a breakout year for her.

But up to the Longs Drugs Challenge, one of the final events of the year, she still had not done all that much in 2003. But there were rumblings that things might be ready to improve, including a decent performance at the 2003 version of the Safeway that saw her flirt with a top ten before finishing 13th. Finally at the Longs, that improvement came, and it saw her not only get her first top five of the season, but also threaten to get her debut win as well.

Jung Yeon Lee and her mom
Courtesy: Jim Wintch

Jung Yeon hits a tee shot at the 2003
Asahi Ryokuken tournament

What had happened to Jung Yeon a few times in the past was that, she would have a reasonably decent start, but would fall by the wayside on the weekend and finish somewhere in the 20s or 30s. She got the reasonable start part out of the way nicely with an opening round 71 and a second round 69. This left her in a tie for 7th at 4 under par, five shots behind Se Ri Pak. But it was on Saturday where she really made her move, the exact time that she usually falters. By this point she had definitely gotten noticed by the announce crew, thanks to her booming drives that left her with the top driving distance average of anyone in the field to that point, 283 yards. If she had been long before, she had, thanks to an off season regimen of working out, become positively unearthly now. Along with Se Ri and Grace, she is now one of the very longest drivers of all the Seoul Sisters. And on a course that favored bombers, this meant that all three ladies would have a chance to shine on the weekend.

Jung Yeon had a typically booming drive of 300 yards on the par 5 15th, easily reaching the green in two and two putting for birdie. But as awesome as that was, it was on 16 where she demonstrated the difference between the Lee of old and the new Lee. Left with a dicey 5 foot par saver, she dunked it to preserve the momentum on her round, breathing a very visible sigh of relief in the process and clutching her heart. She followed that up with a wonderful approach on 18 to 8 feet and a birdie for a 66 on the day. This had moved her all the way to 10 under par, and suddenly, Lee was only one shot out of the lead and had qualified to play in the final group on Sunday.

She did not start well, with a bogey on the first hole, but immediately snapped out of that funk with a string of birdies starting at the fourth, where she dunked a 15 footer. She continued with a 10 foot birdie on 5 and a 30 footer on 6, and moved to 12 under par. This is where she stayed until the par 5 11th. But a good chance to use her length went awry when her second shot flew well left of the green. Though she hit a heroic pitch from there, the ball still rolled off the green; it was a practically impossible shot from there, and she did the best she could under the circumstances. She parred 11, and again on 12.

Jung Yeon putts at this year's Jamie Farr
Kroger Classic