The bad mojo started in 2000. Se Ri had not yet won in 2000 when she reached this event, but things were looking mighty good for her. She had a lead going into the final round, and Se Ri had *never* lost when in that position in the past. Well, there's a first time for everything, and after holding onto her lead through nine holes, she had a disastrous back nine that knocked her clear down to 7th, allowing rookie Dorothy Delasin to claim her first victory. The next year, it was deja vu all over again. Amazingly, Se Ri again had the lead, this time outright, but once again was not able to hold on for the victory, finishing 3rd. And once again, it was Dorothy Delasin who won. These are still to date the only two times Se Ri has failed to hold onto a lead going into the final round. Last year, Se Ri came into this event never having finished outside the top 20 all year. That ended here, with her second worst finish of the year, one in the 30s. Mi Hyun Kim claimed the title, her first in nearly two years.

OK, so there were a lot of questions dogging Se Ri. Could she get back to her winning ways? Could she stem the tide of Annikamania and make a statement? Could she hit some fairways and make some putts?

Se Ri 'kept on trucking' at the Giant Eagle last
year, despite a weak performance

Se Ri drives during round 1
Reuters/Ron Kuntz

The weather did not exactly cooperate with her. The first day in particular, the conditions were atrocious, requiring yet again lift clean and place rules to be in effect. These rules do not help you if you don't hit your fairways; in fact, it gives the straight hitters that much more of an advantage. Well, round one was not exactly one of Se Ri's best. Again she did not hit a lot of fairways, barely half of them, meaning she missed out on the lift clean and place option an awful lot. Nonetheless, she hit 14 greens, a decent amount. But the real trouble came on the greens, which were so wet that some players were getting relief from casual water on them! Se Ri said that she had never seen such slow greens in her life (she should try playing in Seattle in the winter!). As a result, she only made one birdie all day, and offset that with a bogey for a 72. She ended with 32 putts on the day. Nothing about this round was particularly good, but then again, nobody was lighting it up out there; putting proved challenging for almost everyone. It was in fact Minny Yeo who had the lead after the first round, a 4 under 68. So Se Ri was not terribly far behind the leaders, and just needed to find her groove if the conditions improved.

Improve they did on Saturday, and Se Ri took advantage. She hit 10 fairways, still not fantastic, but definitely a step in the right direction. But missing the fairways did not hurt her terribly, as she hit 16 of 18 greens. But it was once she made it to the greens that things really improved. The greens must have been running at a speed more to her liking, for she managed 27 putts on the day, five better than Friday.

And her score bore that out. Starting on the tenth hole, she birdied 11 and the par 5 13th, then followed it up with another birdie at 14. She made her only mistake of the day on 18, a bogey. But on the front the putts kept dropping, with three straight birdies on 3, 4, and 5, and another one for good measure at the par 3 9th. A 6 under 66, her best score in quite a while. This vaulted her into the top ten (6th to be precise) from 40th, where she was at the start of the day. Best of all, she was only 3 shots out of the lead. This is a position that Se Ri has twice before this year capitalized on to claim a win. It didn't seem like her confidence was quite there for a win, but certainly her great play must have brought some of it back.