Fairways and Greens

Jimin Kang wins second Futures Tour event of the year
Jimin Kang started the season with a bang with an early win on the Futures Tour, and for much of the year, she was at or near the top of the money list. But recently she had slumped a little more, and had dropped to 3rd on the list. The top five players on the Futures Tour at the end of the season gain automatic exemptions onto the LPGA tour in 2005.

Well, she turned things around in a big way last weekend at the Betty Puskar FUTURES Golf Classic. Not that there weren't a few roadblocks on the way. For instance, during Saturday's second round, she discovered that her driver's head was loose. Rather than panic, she played with her 3 wood all day, and still set herself up nicely with a 2 under par 70 to move into a tie for 6th going into the final day.

That's when she really let loose, showing signs of the awesome talent we at SeoulSisters.com have been touting all this time. On Sunday, she simply dominated the field, shooting a 6 under par 66 that was the lowest of the day. For a brief while, it looked like she would have company, though, in the form of the powerful Virada Nirapathpongporn, former NCAA champion. But Kang, who was smiling and joking around with her playing partners all day, yet was still intensely focused, proved too much, and Virada faded while Kang piled on even more birdies. Her final victory margin was five shots, and her win was good enough to move her back to the top of the tour money list again.

Check out this nice article about Jimin featured on the Futures Tour's website (scroll past the article about the tournament to read it - it's a PDF which requires Adobe Acrobat to read).

Jimin Kang: Both Sides Now

Jimin Kang holds her third career
Futures Tour trophy and
second this season

Money List
Se Ri finally broke out of her long slump with a near win at the Jamie Farr tournament. That allowed her to move slightly up the money list to 8th place; she had fallen as far as 10th previously. Grace dropped another spot to 4th after a so so couple of finishes at the Evian and British Opens. In general, the Korean players have been collectively slumping in the past few weeks, with the exception of Jeong Jang, who continues her strong play of this year and her bid for most improved player among the Koreans.

Hee-Won Han has also made a bit of a positive move lately, although she still has not lived up to her 2003 or 2002 seasons yet this year.