The Pinx Cup

The best women golfers from Korea take on the best from Japan in a team competition

Every year (except for 2001) since 1999, there has been a team competition which pits the top professional lady golfers from Japan against those of Korea. Most years it has been known as the Pinx Cup, although last year it was sponsored by a company called Maruhan and thus was called the Maruhan Cup. Japan won the first two competitions, back in the days when there were a few great Korean players, but not a lot of depth.

Oh, how things have changed! Last year, the Koreans were determined to finally win this title, and sent a 'Dream Team' (that was the term they used to refer to their team) to Japan to get it. Almost every Korean golfer of note was on that team, and the result was a massacre; the Koreans easily took the Cup for the first time.

This year, the competition switched to Korea, Cheju Island to be specific, at the Pinx Golf Course there. Now, even though Cheju Island is about as south as you can get in South Korea, it's still not exactly Miami Beach. Like everywhere else in that country, it is a four season island, and when you play an event there in December, it is going to be cold. Unfortunately, this is pretty much the only option for this event, as playing it at any other time would interfere with LPGA, KLPGA or JLPGA events scheduled at the same time. This year's event was much like last year's in terms of weather. Cold winds and even snow (!) caused them to bundle up like arctic explorers when not hitting shots. But still, a team of all the top Korean players showed up on Cheju Island to defend the crown. And this time, the Japanese responded by sending all their top players, including Yuri Fudoh, the leader on the JLPGA money list for the last few years, who had missed the previous year's event.

(Top) Hee-Won Han, Shi Hyun Ahn, Soo Yun Kang and
Grace Park arrive at Cheju Island for this
year's Pinx Cup competition

Han, Kang, Grace and Ahn wave 'hello' to the fans
as they arrive to do battle

Se Ri Pak practices at this year's Pinx Cup

A who's who of Korean golf joined the Korean effort that week. From the LPGA were the top six Koreans on that tour: Se Ri Pak, Grace Park, Hee-Won Han, Mi Hyun Kim, Jeong Jang and Soo Yun Kang. Added to that were the top three players on the KLPGA tour: Ju Mi Kim, Chon Mi Jung and Son Hwa Lee. From the JLPGA were the top three Korean players on that tour, all (like on the LPGA) among the top 4 players in the league: #2 ranked Jee Hee Lee, #3 ranked Ok Hee Ku, and #4 ranked Woon Soo Ko. Two additional players were added as wild cards: Young Kim and Gloria Park, but Gloria had to bow out due to an injury, and was replaced by Shi Hyun Ahn.

This competition is a two day one. On the first day, each team send out 12 of its fourteen members to play in match play matches against 12 of the other team's players. Each team submits a list of their players in the order they want them to play, and blind match-ups occur that way. A win is worth two points, a tie one point for each team. On the second day, 12 players from each team are again matched, but this time they play a stroke play match; the player with the lower score at the end of 18 holes wins. First team to 25 points takes the cup

The Korean team was stacked, it's true, but there were a few questions. For one, the KLPGA players were all very young. Son Hwa Lee is only 17 years old, and Ju Mi Kim and Shi Hyun Ahn both 19. None of them had ever played an event like this before; would their greenness prove a problem? Also, Gloria Park may not be super consistent, but she still has more wins than Shi Hyun Ahn, and is a more proven commodity. Would that change be a problem?

How would newcomers like Shi Hyun Ahn perform?

Grace played well to defeat the top Japanese player on Saturday

On Day one, the Korean team got out to a great lead that essentially made it very tough for the Japanese team to compete. And some of the big wins were contributed by the KLPGA players, those young players who had never before been in such a position. Son Hwa Lee, who led off, decimated her opponent Shiho Oyama 5 and 4, and Chon Mi Jung and Ju Mi Kim both won their matches 4 and 3. The LPGA players had more difficult matches, but also tended to play the tougher players. Grace Park had the pleasure of playing the top Japanese player, Yuri Fudoh, and it was a tight match the whole way. Still, Grace pulled it out, 2 & 1. Mi Hyun Kim played Toshima Kimura, and eked out the win 1 up. But Hee-Won Han lost her match to Junko Omote 2 & 1.