Profile: Sunny Oh

This week, I and other fans of the LPGA were introduced to a new player, who managed to qualify for her first LPGA event: Sunny Oh. Sunny, born Sun Hyo Oh, is a sophomore at the University of Nevada - Las Vegas, and it was quite a thrill for her to be able to play with the pros in her adopted American hometown.

But you know, this is not the first time I have heard of Sunny. A few months ago, a friend of hers sent me an e-mail, asking me to put up a profile for her on this site. Well, I replied that I couldn't do it because I couldn't find any decent photos of her on the web. Well, thanks to the magic of the internet, that's now changed. So let's make up for lost time and get the profile started right away!

Sunny during round 1

Sunny was born March 20, 1983. She grew up in Seoul, where she attended high school at Sea Hwa Girls Senior High School. Like a lot of other girls these days, she also took up golf, and became quite good at it. Apparently she commuted back and forth between Korea and the States, because she also excelled as a junior golfer here, earning AJGA Honorable Mention All American honors after notching five top tens in just ten starts. She also won the Independent Insurance Agents Junior Classic in 2001.

After graduation, Sunny attended UNLV, where she quickly became the most decorated women's golfer in the school's history. Among her many achievements was an 11th place finish at the NCAA Championship, a victory at the NCAA West Regional, top tens in half her events played in 2002, and a second place finish at the Mountain West Conference Championship. She has ranked as high as 16th nationally.

One thing Sunny had not been able to do was qualify for an LPGA event. She gave it her first try when the tour came to town in 2003 for the Takefuji Classic. In fact, at the end of the Monday qualifier, Sunny was tied for the final spot. But she lost in a playoff and missed her chance to play in the event.

In 2004, Sunny has been even more impressive than she had been before. She was named Mountain West Conference Women's Golfer of the Month for April after winning the BYU Dixie Classic and leading her team to the largest win in school history. Several more records were broken that day thanks to Sunny. She had also won the conference's Player of the Month award in March. Clearly, she was ready for another shot at the Takefuji Classic.