Royal Audience

As you know by now, South Korea is a golf mad country. The most visible sign of that in the West is the preponderance of talented lady golfers that have taken all levels of women's golf by storm in the last few years. There are also a few top men starting to make their impact felt. But all that is only the tip of the iceberg. One of the keenest results of the success of Se Ri Pak has been felt at the grass roots level: Koreans now love golf more than ever, and even the ones who don't want to become professionals still want to play. Driving ranges are popping up all over the place, but it is still very expensive to play an actual round of golf in Korea.

Surprisingly, during all this time, with the sale of golf equipment fast on the rise in Korea, and interest at an all time high, the world's most famous golfer had never come to visit the country. Tiger Woods didn't have any reason to, really; there were no PGA events there, and not any other events that would be willing to pony up a huge appearance fee to get arguably the most famous athlete on Earth to show up.

Se Ri at the 1998 US Women's Open

Se Ri always attracts a crowd in Korea, like
here at last year's X-Canvas event

Se Ri prepares for the Skins Game

That all changed this year, when some investors in a Cheju Island golf resort lured Tiger to the island to help promote their property. They came up with the idea of him playing in a Skins Game. For the uninitiated, a Skins Game is a special type of golf tournament. Each hole has a money value. Four golfers are playing against each other. If one of the golfers gets the lowest score on the hole, he wins the 'skin' and gets the money value for the hole. However, if there is a tie, the skin is passed to the next hole, along with the money. If someone wins the next hole, he wins two skins and the total of the money for the two holes, otherwise the skin gets passed again. Eventually, a lot of money can be on the line with a single putt.

Having decided to invite Tiger to the Skins Game, they next needed to line up some competitors for him. KJ Choi, the top Korean on the PGA tour, was an obvious choice. But the next choice was truly an inspired one: the most popular athlete in Korea, and the female version of Tiger Woods, Se Ri Pak. Se Ri had never played a Skins game against men before (though she had won one back in 2000 against several women golfers, including Annika Sorenstam); it would be a tough test for her, as she would be playing from the same tees as the men. However, there was no doubt that her appearance there would raise the profile of the event even more. It would be the first time that Tiger and Se Ri appeared together at the same event, and in South Korea yet! She agreed to do it, and the date was set for November 13 - 14, 2004. Eventually they secured Colin Montgomery for the fourth spot; he had designed the course on which the Skins Game would be held, so it was a natural way to fill out the roster. And thus, the game was on!

Alas, in the time since the Skins Game was arranged, Se Ri fell into the worst slump of her short career. At one point she was playing so poorly, you had to worry what was going to happen to her on a lengthy course playing against some of the top male golfers on Earth. Fortunately, in the weeks leading up to the event, her game started to come around, and though she was still not at the level she had been at when she last teed it up against the men (at the SBS Championship, where she finished 10th), she still looked to be able to make a decent showing.

Se Ri got to the course on Wednesday, and played a couple of practice rounds to get used to what she would be facing. The press, as they always do, covered her practice, and mused about how she would do on the course.

The Raon Golf Course was 6974 yards long, a little shorter than the one she had played the men's event on in 2003. It had generous fairways, but if you missed them, you would be in trouble. The press believed that the par 5s would be particularly daunting for Se Ri. All 4 were between 510 and 550 yards in length, short enough for the men to reach them in two, but a bit long for Se Ri. Se Ri figured to be playing them as three shot holes, unless she got a good drive. The par 3s were all over 200 yards except for one, which was 190 yards. These might also prove quiet challenging for her, went the theory, as she would be hitting woods on all four of them in all likelihood.

As for the par 4's, holes 1, 2, 11, 12, and 14 were par 4s less than 400 yards in length, while the rest were over 440 yards long. The second hole in particular, at only 314 yards, could prove interesting, since several of the men had a chance to drive the hole with a good tee shot.

A hole in one on the par 3 7th or 13th holes would win the golfer a new Volvo. Otherwise, the prize money went like this:

Holes 1 - 6: $7,000 / hole
Holes 7 - 12: $10,000 / hole
Holes 13 - 17: $12,000 / hole
Hole 18: $15,000

Se Ri practices at the Raon Golf course
before the Skins Game

Se Ri and Tiger get hand prints or something
before the Skins Games

Tiger wishes Se Ri luck before the pro-am

Tiger Woods flew into Korea towards the end of the week. After being greeted in Seoul by the usual bouquet of flowers sports stars get when arriving in country, he flew down to Cheju Island to where the Skins Game would be held. On Friday afternoon, the four competitors got together for a news conference. As generally happens in these things, not much of substance was said, but Tiger and the rest were clearly in good spirits, and were looking forward to the weekend. After being presented with plaques consisting of their handprints, and posing for some more photos, they departed to prepare for the weekend.

On Saturday, the action consisted largely of several skills challenges, a clinic hosted by the four stars, and a pro-am tournament. The event was such big news that the pro-am was televised on TV, something you don't see too often with golf tournaments. After a brief introduction and highlight package of Mr. Woods, the coverage cut out to the course. Se Ri and Tiger's groups were both waiting on the first tee to start. While they waited, Tiger and Se Ri chatted amiably. It was clear that they already liked each other a lot. They are both similar in age, became big at roughly the same time, and have had to live under a microscope ever since. Doubtless they felt a certain kinship with each other. Tiger wished Se Ri luck, putting his arm around her shoulder as he did so, then went over to tee off. After Tiger's group went, Se Ri's followed.

There were a couple of interesting moments during the pro-am. On the 314 yard second hole, Tiger managed to drive the green (actually, his drive landed about twenty yards short of the green, but bounced up onto it). He proceeded to make the eagle putt, announcing that this might be an advantageous hole for him during the Skins game. Minutes later, Se Ri played the hole. Her drive went a more human 255 yards, but her approach flew the green and she ended up with a par.

Se Ri did have one highlight later. On the 441 yard 8th hole, she hit a rather short drive. But her second shot, with a fairway wood, was just about perfect, ending up only a few feet from the hole for an easy birdie.

Tiger was lucky to have some really good amateurs in his group. On the par 5 3rd, Tiger hit a bad drive right, then a not so great rescue shot left. His third shot flew the green. But in his group, one of the amateurs got on in two and made the eagle putt. If only Tiger could have that guy during tournaments!