Fairways and Greens

Grace Park at the Kraft Shoot-out
Grace Park took place in an unusual exhibition on Monday, September 20th. She and Annika Sorenstam teamed up to take on Craig and Kevin Stadler in a nine hole Skins Game called the Kraft/Nabisco Shootout. The money the ladies won was earmarked for Breast Cancer research, while the men's earnings went to ALS research.

Unfortunately, Grace did not play very well in the exhibition, but the ladies hung in there for a little while thanks to Annika. Annika managed to drain a lengthy birdie try on the first hole to halve the hole, then followed that up with another birdie on two to win two skins for the ladies. And that was about it for their highlights. Grace spent much of the rest of the nine holes in the trees, and suddenly the usually robotically consistent Annika did likewise. The Stadlers won the next 6 holes, and probably would have halved the final hole, but Stadler pere was nice enough to purposely miss the putt to give the ladies one more skin.

One highlight came when Grace had a putt and asked Craig for advice on the line. He gave it to her, and she proceeded to miss the putt by a good margin. Annika sarcastically thanked him for the advice.

Despite not giving her fans a lot of shots to cheer about, Grace clearly had fun, and a good time was had by all. She may have a chance to get revenge in a few months: she is going to participate in the Wendy's Three Tour Challenge, representing the LPGA, and Stadler, who is the top player on the Champions Tour, may well be there representing that tour. Get him next time, Grace!

Grace at the Safeway tournament
SeoulSisters.com Exclusive Photo

Grace and Dave at the Safeway
SeoulSisters.com Exclusive Photo
(Click to enlarge)

SeoulSisters.com Exclusive Photo

SeoulSisters.com Exclusive Photo

Other Scoops from Safeway
At the Safeway Classic, I had a chance to talk to Grace Park's caddie, Dave Brooker. Dave gave me a few tidbits about Grace and Se Ri Pak that I found interesting.

Se Ri, it seems, has decided to take a bit of time off to sort out her game. No one seems to be too clear on what's going on with her; there is no injury or personal issue going on that anyone knows about (I also overheard Colin Cann, Se Ri's caddie, talking about this to someone; he was in Portland caddying for Riko Higashio this week). Everyone seems to think it's just a mental thing. For whatever reason, she got really rattled by missing those two straight cuts after she qualified for the Hall of Fame, and has not been able to get her confidence back. She finally decided she needed an extended break to get back on track. Thus, she is not planning to return to the tour until the Samsung Championship, and will miss the Asahi Ryokuken and Longs Drugs Challenge this year. Hopefully she will come back strong and will yet be able to notch some good finishes, and maybe even a win or two, in 2004.

Grace is also skipping the Longs, but will be in South Carolina for the Asahi. She will attend all the remaining events on the schedule after that. She is also planning on appearing at a special Skins Game in Beijing, China. Dave says the country club is supposedly amazing, a complex with eight different courses on it. The Skins Game will pit Grace against Annika Sorenstam and two male golfers: the Chinese fellow who played in the Masters this year, and another golfer whom Dave believes is Mike Weir. Dave isn't sure what the teams, if any, will be. After this event, she will travel to the CJ 9 Bridges Classic. And Dave also confirmed that Grace will represent the LPGA in the Wendy's Three Tour Challenge again this year (yay!). They are taping the event earlier this year to avoid weather problems, he said.

As for Grace's condition, he said that she's in pretty good shape right now. The problem is not like it was in her rookie year, when she kept coming back from an injury too soon, and thus was never able to properly heal. She is healthy now, he said, but she has a sensitive lower back, and it sometimes flares up again if she sleeps on a mattress that's too soft in her hotel bed. Grace certainly looked sharp this week, and her 3rd place finish proved it. Dave said that in some ways, Grace is happier with this season than last. Even though she still has only one win, and not as many top tens as 2003, she is contending more often: every top ten she has this year, eight of them, has been a top three.

Lastly, Dave confirmed that there had been, in fact, plans for a Korea vs. the World team event (as reported in this column a few issues ago), but they fell through. The event was planned by a Korean concern (naturally), on the condition that Se Ri Pak, Annika Sorenstam and Grace Park all play. In fact, a lot of the other Korean ladies were already prepared to play, but there was no way to organize Grace's schedule (and presumably the other two ladies' schedules) on such short notice. It's possible that it will occur next year. Personally, I'm not sure the Koreans are ready to take on the rest of the world; I would prefer a Korea vs. US or Korea vs. Europe tiff first.

Thanks to Dave Brooker for the info, and congratulations to him: his wife has had their first child, right after the Safeway Classic!

Aree Song - Supermodel!
Time Asia is doing a cover story on Asian 'heroes' for the October 11th issue. One of the segments will be on the Korean women golfers. This website, in fact, helped with this issue when the reporter in charge of this story called me up and asked me a bunch of questions about why the ladies are so good. Anyway, they also want to do a sidebar on the Rookie of the Year race between Shi Hyun Ahn and Aree Song. To that end, they arranged a photo shoot for Aree during last week's Safeway Classic. She got a chance to pose in several fetching outfits, and had a bit of fun, even if the weather was not quite cooperating. Check out some of the photos!!

Money List
Se Ri, as mentioned above, is taking a good long break to try and get herself together for the last part of the season. As a result, she has slipped somewhat on the money list to 9th place. Hee-Won Han, meanwhile, continues her great play, chalking up her first win of 2004 to vault into the top ten for the first time this year (and ahead of Se Ri!). This is the first time in history that I can recall where all four Seoul Sisters were in the top ten simultaneously. Grace also has eclipsed the million dollar mark in earnings for the third year in a row. Congratulations to her and her accountant!
Meanwhile, Shi Hyun Ahn solidified her Rookie of the Year prospects with a second place finish at the Hammons. She moved from 20th to 14th as a result.