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Fairways and Greens
This year's final issue of Seoul Sisters Magazine
With this issue, I present a wrap-up of the year 2003 for the Korean
golfers. After that, we will be taking a several month hiatus from publication
because, quite frankly, not a lot will be happening for the ladies
until March (although if anything does happen, I will feature it in the
News section accessible from the main site, so check back from time to
time!). I want to thank everyone who has contributed to making the magazine
all it could be. In particular, thanks to 'lovegiants', who translated
all the Se Ri Pak Diaries that we have been featuring on the site all
year (the final entries are in this issue). Thanks to everyone who provided
me photos from their encounters with the Sisters this year! Special thanks
to HappyFanRooter, who sent me the Maruhan Cup video and 9 Bridges video
I used on this site, and introduced me to Hee-Won Han's friend at the
Safeway tournament. Thanks to the LPGA for being helpful in arranging
contact with the ladies at the Safeway Classic, and thanks to Grace Park,
Minny Yeo and Christina Kim for sitting down with me for those marathon
interviews we did in September. Extra special thanks to my wife for putting
up with all this all these months! Lastly, I wish to extend my appreciation
to everyone who has contacted me this year: the folks who wrote articles
about the site and who used the info I provide her in their articles,
and the readers who enjoy coming here and let me know it! It's been a
lot of fun. Have a Happy New Year and see you in a few months!
Grace when I interviewed her this year at
the Safeway Classic in Portland
SeoulSisters.com photo
Mi Hyun donates to a good cause
Mi Hyun Kim has donated 1,000,000 won (about $840) to a charity that
provides computers and other equipment to underprivileged kids in Korea.
Her donation is earmarked to set-up a computer/internet study room for
students in Seoul who otherwise would not be able to access that equipment.
Mi Hyun not only gave the money, she helped move the new equipment into
the study room, then served lunch to the volunteers who worked there,
giving autographs and friendly attention to them all as well.
Mi Hyun also participated in a clinic to teach little kids golf, as you can see in some of the other pictures. She probably enjoyed working with someone even smaller than she is, although judging by how young some of these Korean stars are lately, she's probably teaching the LPGA 2006 Rookie of the Year a few tricks in these pictures!
Click the thumbnails at right to see the full photos!
Remember Se Ri's golf lesson from
last April?
Se Ri video clips
While surfing around the internet, I sometimes find some interesting stuff
I never knew about before. My latest explorations yielded a couple of
interesting video clips featuring Se Ri Pak. Both were shot in 2003 on
her trip to Korea to play in the X-Canvas tournament on the KLPGA (an
event she won, by the way). In the first clip, Se Ri does a promotional
appearance with noted Korean film star Dong-Kun Jang, where she gives
him a golf lesson. You may recall the photos I presented of this appearance
in an earlier issue of Seoul Sisters Magazine. Well, now look at the video
of this event (note that the narration is in Korean, but you can still
enjoy the images!).
In the second clip, Se Ri is conducting a meeting of her fan club in Korea. This turns into quite a gala. Again, I presented some photos of this earlier, but here is the entire hoopla surrounding the event. Watch out for a guest appearance by fashion designer Andre Kim (elsewhere in this issue, there is an article about Se Ri appearing in a charity fashion show of Kim's. Kim is the big guy with the white outfit and pale skin standing near Se Ri on the stage). Then Se Ri's parents get interviewed. One of the questions her dad is asked about has to do with when Se Ri is thinking about getting married. No, I don't understand enough Korean to tell you what he said! Lastly, don't miss Se Ri *singing*! OK, it's only a couple of seconds, and then she cracks up, but it's still a first on this site! Lastly, she meets with some sick kids and makes their day, and says a special greeting to her fans to finish the clip.
The complete story of Se Ri's trip home last year can be found here.
Se Ri also took some time to meet
with sick kids on that trip
Kangsy in ESPN the Magazine
Hope you all had a chance to read the December 22nd issues of ESPN the
Magazine. Every year, this magazine puts out an issue where they focus
on the athletes they think will become the stars of the future. This year,
they focused in particular on Asian athletes, since they have made inroads
into so many sports. Eric Adelson, one of the writers there, wrote an
article about the Korean golfers on the LPGA tour, and how they are doing
so well. He wanted an up and coming Korean lady to call the 'Next' golfer,
and I suggested a few. From my short list, he chose to focus on Soo Yun
Kang, and the magazine has two nice photos of Kangsy! The article talks
about the controversy that Korean players are not accessible to American
fans, then presents Soo Yun as an example of a new breed of Korean player
who knows how to play the media game, adding that "her English is
nearly as flawless as her smile". I would argue that some of the
Korean players already know how to play the media game, but it's still
nice to see Soo Yun (or any of the Korean ladies) get some attention in
a mainstream magazine.
Soo Yun Kang at the Safeway Classic this year
SeoulSisters.com photo
Grace at the Wendy's Three Tour Challenge
Grace Park recently participated in the Wendy's Three Tour Challenge.
This is an event in which each of the three major tours (The PGA, LPGA
and 'Champions' tour) sends a team of three players to compete against
the others. The players play from the appropriate tees so that they all
have about the same clubs coming into the green. They play a total of
18 holes, divided into three matches of 6 holes each. The LPGA team this
year consisted of Grace, Rachel Teske and Juli Inkster.
The ladies did pretty well! In the first match, the PGA ran away with the thing, even though Grace birdied her first two holes, including a chip-in. But in the second match, it was the LPGA's turn to dominate. Grace managed birdies on 8 and 9 in that win. For the third match, all three teams were in it until the end. Grace did miss one pretty makeable short birdie putt, but otherwise played well yet again. It all came down to the final group; each player from each team had a birdie putt to win. Mark Calchevecchia, for the PGA team, went first and drained his. Then Hale Irwin went and missed his. So it was up to Juli Inkster, who had a ten footer to tie. But she missed, and the PGA won the third match and the overall title.
Still, Grace, who was paired against Tom Kite and John Daly, more than held her own, even outdriving the two men (from her adjusted tees) a few times. She was even invited to appear on Peter Jacobson's show 'Peter and Friends' as a guest panelist, the first time she's ever been on a Golf Channel program. For a half an hour, she, Rachel Teske, John Daly, Calchevecchia and Jacobson bantered about whatever came into their heads. My only regret was that Grace didn't mention Se Ri making the cut in the Korean men's event when they started to talk about Annika and Colonial. Oh well!
Se Ri responds to Jan Stephenson
If you've been waiting for a Korean American response to the Jan Stephenson
anti-Asian player interview in Golf Magazine, your wait is now over. Korean
American Journal, a magazine that focuses on Korean American issues, will
publish just such an article in its next issue. A copy of it can be found
here.
Most interesting is that they went back and asked Se Ri Pak if, in the intervening months since her initial comments on Stephenson, she had anything else to say. Boy, did she! Her responses are much more critical than they were initially. When asked if she took the comments personally, she responded, 'Yes. I took them very personally'.
Check the link out or pick up the magazine to see what else she had to say!
