2003 Mobile Tournament of Champions:
So Close!

2003 has not been a great year for Mi Hyun Kim.

Ever since she burst onto the scene in America in 1999, Kimmie has been a top ten player. In her impressive rookie year, she managed two victories and the Rookie of the Year award. She was 8th on the money list that year, and maintained her top ten status the next two years. But in 2001, even though she was a top ten player, she could not manage a single win, and so rededicated herself to finding the winner's circle in 2002. The result was her best season to date: she had two wins that year, coupled with a dozen top tens and two other events that should probably have been wins but somehow weren't (can anyone forget how she had an eight shot lead over Karrie Webb with three holes to go in the third round of the Rochester tournament, only to lose by one shot in the end?). Despite a couple of near misses, though, she ended up fourth on the money list, broke $1 million in season earnings for the first time in her career, and was well on her way to establishing herself as one of the top golfers in the world.

Mi Hyun with one of her 2002 trophies

Hee-Won broke through in a big way in 2003

Coincidentally, the position Mi Hyun was in last year is the same as the one Hee-Won Han finds herself in this year. Han had her breakthrough at last, winning twice at events she had finished second at the year previous. Like Kimmie in 2002, she now sits in 4th place on the money list, having broken a million dollars in earnings for the first time in her career. And she, too, has had a few events where she might have won had things gone a little bit differently, most recently the Jamie Farr, where a couple of crucial mistakes late cost her the title.

This year, Mi Hyun has struggled. By this time most years she would have collected more than ten top tens, and probably a win or two. In 2003, however, she has barely even contended, and had only four top tens coming into this event. For the first time in her career, she will finish outside the top ten on the money list, and barring a great last few events, she might even finish outside the top twenty. But though this has been a great year for Han, and a not so great one for Kimmie, they did have one thing in common: neither had played particularly well in the last couple of months, though both were showing signs of coming back to form. And for both of them, the Mobile Tournament of Champions, 2003 edition, would be a chance to get back into the winner's circle again.

But things did not start out particularly great for Super Peanut Mi Hyun Kim. The weather on Thursday was treacherous, with winds likely to push a ball in almost any unpredictable way. Peanut was not able to get anything to go her way, but held onto par until the par 5 6th, where her struggles resulted in a double bogey. She followed that up with a bogey, and finished the front nine at 3 over par. Her only birdie of the day came at 10, but it was followed by two more bogeys to finish at 4 over par for the day. Under normal circumstances, this would have been enough to remove her from contention. But even the best player of the day had only managed a two under score, so she was still theoretically in things if she could pick up her game. But she would need to do better than Thursday, when she hit a distressing 7 greens in regulation.

Hee-Won had a much better start to her event. Going out early in the morning, she did have three bogeys, but matched that with three birdies for an even par 72. At the time, she probably thought that was not going to help her much, but by the time the day was through, it proved good enough for a tie for third place. The player she was tied with was Dorothy Delasin, so she played with her on Friday, while Mi Hyun would play with defending champion and Seoul Sister Supreme Se Ri Pak.

Peanut reads a putt during round 1
Reuters/Tami Chappell