Basic Wrap

(Thanks again to Bob McIntosh, who supplied us with dozens of great photos from the Canadian Open this year. Enjoy them on the next few pages, with more to come next issue!)

This year's Canadian Women's Open was somewhat of a disappointment for fans of the Seoul Sisters. Although a number of players played well enough to cash decent checks, only one managed to get a top ten (though a second player came close), and even she was nowhere close to the eventual winner. Of course, just about no one was; Meg Mallon continued her torrid play from last week's US Women's Open, and it seemed like no one in the field had a chance of catching her. She won by four shots.

The player who seemed to have the best chance at pulling an upset was Gloria Park. Gloria has been doing well this year, and after three rounds, she sat at 9 under par and in the top five. But even so, this was 7 full shots behind Mallon. Gloria was certainly capable of final round heroics (for instance, in last year's CJ 9 Bridges Classic, she vaulted from 27th place to the top 5 thanks to a final round 62, which was three shots better than the course record at the time). But it didn't happen here. Indeed, she lost ground with her even par round, and barely managed to hold onto a top ten spot.

Gloria Park at the Canadian Open
Bob McIntosh for SeoulSisters.com

JJ climbed to 11th on the money list
Bob McIntosh for SeoulSisters.com

The other player that made noise on Sunday was Jeong Jang, who shot a respectable 4 under par 68 to move up to 11th on the leaderboard. Jang continues to climb the money list, and after this performance sat at 11th, her all time highest position.

The four top Seoul Sisters did not fare as well. Grace Park is still suffering from back issues, which had caused her to spiral to a terrible finish at the previous week's US Women's Open. She decided to skip this event, despite a top four finish last year. Se Ri Pak had moments when she tamed her driver, notably the middle two rounds, and her results were quite good then. After starting so poorly she put herself again in danger of missing the cut, she climbed from 72nd place to 19th to 13th by Saturday night. She was going along well on Sunday when disaster struck (see following story), and ended up finishing with yet another middling performance, a 31st place to match the 32nd she had had at the US Women's Open.

Hee-Won Han, meanwhile, missed the cut, and Mi Hyun Kim played four dependable, solid rounds, but with Mallon shooting two 65s, that was nowhere near enough to get the job done. She finished tied for 15th.

One other interesting note: this was only the second time that the two Song sisters played an LPGA event together as pros (not including the US Women's Open). Aree and Naree played a practice round with good friend and Canadian national hero Lorie Kane. But during the actual tournament, Naree struggled a bit and missed the cut. Naree may not quite be ready for the big leagues; perhaps she left school a tad early? Still, she's doing OK on the Futures Tour, and if it takes her a couple of years to get to the level of an LPGA pro, she nonetheless does seem to have the talent to get there in time. Meanwhile, Aree had another good event, finishing tied for 21st. She doesn't seem quite at the level she was at a few months ago, but will probably show us all a few more impressive results before the year is out.

Peanut at the Canadian Open
Bob McIntosh for SeoulSisters.com

Shi Hyun was clearly in pain during the
1st round of the Canadian Open

Shi Hyun Injures her Wrist
This week, there were two withdrawals from the tournament before the event finished. The more severe of the two came from leading Rookie of the Year candidate Shi Hyun Ahn. According to an article in a Korean magazine, Shi Hyun injured her wrist during the pro-am, but some stretching afterwards convinced her that the injury was not so bad and that she could play. However, during the first round of the Canadian Open, she started to have severe pain. The photos at left show her not enjoying herself putting on one hole; clearly the pain was becoming hard to take.

At the end of the round, she went to the medical trailer and got some X-Rays taken. It's a measure of how popular she is in Korea that this was covered by photographers on the scene (and is duly reproduced here for you!). The results were that she needed to drop out of the event, though I have yet to locate an exact medical description of what happened to her wrist. Hopefully it will only need a short convalescence, and she will soon be back slugging it out for top Rookie honors at full strength.

Shi Hyun's popularity has gotten to the point that even her medical
situation is covered by photographers. Here she gets the bad news
about her wrist...

Se Ri Pak continues her mighty struggles
It has been painful for fans of Se Ri to watch the troubles she has dealt with this past month and a half. In the last six events she has played, she has not managed a single top ten, has made only two top twenties, and has missed two cuts. No one is more frustrated or frantic about it than Se Ri herself. And the number one culprit is without a doubt her driver. Her accuracy off the tee has never been her strong suit, but two years ago, she was a respectable if unspectacular 35th in the league in driving accuracy. Last year that number took a nose dive, as her accuracy fell to 66%, which was only good for about 105th in the league.

Well, even that looks brilliant compared to the results of the past month. Her current annual average is a miserable 61.9%. She has struggled to even hit half her fairways the past month and a half. This currently places her in 152nd place on the driving list, below many a non-exempt player and well below virtually any name player you could mention.

Even when things start to go well for Se Ri, something happens that slaps her backwards. At the Canadian Open, she was paired with Jill McGill in the fourth round after she had moved herself up to 13th place in the standings. McGill is notorious as a slow player, and she managed to get the group put on the clock. But it was Se Ri who got penalized. She made a birdie on the par 5 5th hole, but a few holes later was given a two stroke penalty on that hole for slow play. An eyewitness tells me this completely discombobulated Se Ri, whose driver almost immediately went south on her. Colin spent several holes arguing with officials about the call to no avail. She ended up shooting another rotten score, a 75, and her already poor scoring average actually went up even more following the Canadian Open. After the event, she took a secret trip back to Korea to try to get her bearings (see Fairways and Greens for more details!). We here at Seoul Sisters.com, big Se Ri fans all, hope she can find what she needs back home and start back on the road to recovery.

Se Ri and Colin Cann confer about a club choice on the
range at this year's Canadian Open
Bob McIntosh for SeoulSisters.com

Se Ri ponders infinity at the Canadian Women's
Open
Bob McIntosh for SeoulSisters.com