Volume 2, Number 23, December 8, 2004
 

Seoul Sisters Back In Korea

 Pages 1, Gallery
A little update on what the Korean players have been doing since the season ended

Now that the 2004 LPGA season is history, many of the Korean players have headed back home to Korea for the winter. What have they been up to in the weeks since? Let's take a little look see and find out!

Some of the golfers, such as Se Ri Pak and Mi Hyun Kim, were already in Korea when the final putt fell at the ADT Championship on November 14th. Grace Park and Shi Hyun Ahn, however, were there competing. Grace in particular had a lot at stake. She had managed, in the previous few weeks, to catch Lorena Ochoa in scoring average. Since Annika Sorenstam no longer had the ability to play enough rounds to qualify for the Vare Trophy, the award given each year for lowest scoring average, that meant that the second place finisher on that list would win this prestigious award. Both Ochoa and Park were very close to each other, even going into the final round. But both were running out of steam, having played a lot of weeks in a row, both in Asia and America. Would Grace have enough left in the tank to hold Lorena off?

After winning the Vare
Trophy, Grace comes home

Shi Hyun Ahn holds her Rolex
Rookie of the Year award

Even at the party held for the Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year winners on Saturday night, the outcome was still in doubt, so Grace could not participate in the festivities. She did get to watch her good friend Shi Hyun Ahn get presented the Louise Suggs Rookie of the Year trophy by none other than Louise Suggs herself (for those who don't know, Suggs was one of the founders of the LPGA, more than 50 years ago!). Fortunately for Grace, despite another trying day on the course on Sunday, she managed to just hang on to the scoring lead, ending up with a 69.99 average. The Vare Trophy was hers; a great ending to a great year (for more details on this race, check out the article on the Vare Trophy win elsewhere in this issue!).

Following the event, both Shi Hyun and Grace hopped planes for Korea, and arrived the following day. As usual, they were greeted in the airport by the waiting press.

 

 
It didn't take Grace too long to get into the news again. A few days later, she was given another honor when she became one of the Koreans awarded this year's "Proud Korean" Grand Prize. This was announced in the newspapers November 25th. The newspaper account explained that this award is given to a number of Koreans each year who have distinguished themselves in various fields of endeavor. Sports stars, scientists, business people and University professors were among those who won the award in 2004. In all, 12 different people were honored this year. The award was presented in a ceremony on December 1st at the Lexington Hotel in Seoul.

Grace receives the 'Proud Korean' Grand Prize on December 1st.
Of course you see her in the lower left corner, right?
Meanwhile, other Korean players were making news as well. Young Kim gave a golf swing clinic in Seoul at the Shinsegae Department store. This is not so much of a surprise, as Shinsegae is Young Kim's primary sponsor. It looks like the people in attendance had some fun!

Meanwhile, on November 27th, Se Ri Pak and Soo Yun Kang made an appearance in Pusan at the Asiade Country Club. The event was the christening of a new golf school there called something like the "Asiade and Im Chin Han Golf Academy". Kang and Pak met with fans, signed autographs, and generally supported the school, along with two male golf pros from Korea. The guy on the far right, by the way, is Im Chin Han, presumably the founder or main teacher at the new academy (or else he gave a lot of money to get his name on top!).

 

Se Ri and Soo Yun Kang at the opening of a new
Golf Academy in Korea
On the 27th of November, Shi Hyun Ahn went to a photo session with Kevin Na of the PGA tour. They posed for a bunch of photos in traditional Korean clothing (known as hanbok), and you can see that they were having a good time while they were doing it. The photos will apparently appear in a calendar of some sort, although it is not clear if this will be a calendar of just the two of them, or part of a larger calendar. The photos may also appear in a New Year's card. Doesn't Shi Hyun just look great in that outfit? Maybe it's a preview for her successful return to the winner's platform at next year's CJ 9 Bridges Classic? (for those who don't know, that tournament awards the winner with a hanbok).

Shi Hyun Ahn poses in traditional Korean clothing
This time of year is not just about getting awards and goofing off, however. It's also the time of year when the ladies give back, and several of them did just that in a very public way. First off was Se Ri Pak. On the morning of the 29th, Se Ri presented the total winnings from the Tiger Skins Game to a charity for young Korean Foster Mothers. She met with the president of this association at MBC's headquarters (MBC was the network which aired the Skins Game). The total amounted to 182,310,000 won. Se Ri also mentioned that she would be giving her winnings from the ADT-CAPS Invitational, the KLPGA event she participated in the week before the Skins Game, to another charity in December (and she did - see below!).

Later that same day, Christina Kim gave an 8 million won donation (about $7,500) to an organization involved with Social Welfare. Next month they are starting a drive called the 2005 Hope Neighborhood Love Campaign. Her mom said Christina decided to give the money after winning the Longs Drugs Challenge, her first win. Christina wanted to encourage people from difficult environments to try and reach for their dreams.

Se Ri and Christina give back

Another day, another award for Sister Grace

 Grace Park was not done collecting hardware, either. On December 1st, she stopped off at the Lexington Hotel in Seoul to pick up the Proud Korean award we mentioned earlier. On December 2nd, she threw on a new nice outfit and went to another award show. This time, it was the Physical Training Award, awarded by a union of Sports Writers in Korea to notable athletes. A lot of Olympic athletes dominated the awards this year, but of course they couldn't ignore Grace and the great year she had! She appeared at the Seoul Olympic Park to pick up this latest trophy and have a laugh with the reporters present. She had to hurry up and pick up all this hardware before the Pinx Cup started!!

Grace at a fashion show for Nike on December 7th

After the Pinx Cup was over, Grace still had more stuff to do (her work is never done!). On December 7th, she had a fashion show to attend. The show was in Seoul at the Han Hotel, and was dedicated to introducing the new Spring and Summer fashion line for 2005 for Nike, Grace's sponsor. Grace got a chance to do a little runway modeling, as well as talk to some fans from the stage. As you can tell, she had her typical good time.

 
On December 8th, the KLPGA held its annual award show. Several awards were given out during the festivities. Ok Hee Ku won the first ever Hall of Fame award. Much like the LPGA Hall of Fame, the KLPGA has instituted its own point based Hall. The requirements are that you accumulate 100 points through post season awards and wins on the KLPGA, JLPGA and LPGA tours. And like the LPGA's Hall, you have to be a pro ten years to qualify. Majors are worth more points. Exactly how these points are tallied is not clear, but Ku had amassed 112 points during her long career. In second place currently is none other than Se Ri Pak, who has 92 points in nine years on tour. She should break through sometime in the next year or two (with any luck!).

The other big awards were presented to Grace Park, who won best Korean golfer playing on international tours, and Bo Bae Song, who won Best Korean golfer playing domestically. But many other Korean stars also attended the event.

Here is a list of the awards that involved players familiar to Western audiences, and who won them:

Here's something you don't see every day: Grace Park
winning an award! In this case, it is the KLPGA's
International Player of the Year award

Grace and Shi Hyun were Popular

Christina Kim and Hee-Won Han
also got some attention!
Best Domestic Player: Bo Bae Song
Best International Player: Grace Park
Hall of Fame: Ok Hee Ku
Leading money winner, KLPGA: Bo Bae Song
Best Scoring Average, KLPGA: Joo Mi Kim
Rookie of the Year, KLPGA: Bo Bae Song
Amateur of the year: Choi Na Yeon (remember her? She beat Se Ri Pak at last month's ADT-CAPS Invitational! She also topped Jane Park and Michelle Wie for this award. Hmmm...)
Special Domestic Award: Shi Hyun Ahn, Soo Yun Kang, Joo Mi Kim
Special International Award: Se Ri Pak, Hee Won Han, Christina Kim
Popularity Award: Grace Park
This Year's Best Shot: Soo Yun Kang
Best Dresser: Song Yeon Kim (beating out Grace and Soo Yun among others!)
Leadership award: Hee-Won Han
Meritorious Service Award: Se Ri Pak, Shi Hyun Ahn, Ok Hee Ku, Grace Park

Ho Ho Ho! Merry X-mas!
But where's the beard, Se Ri?

On the 8th, it was Se Ri Pak's turn to spread some holiday good cheer. She dressed up as one of Santa's helpers and appeared in a restaurant in Seoul. The event was arranged by her primary sponsor, CJ, as an invitation only event for kids of all ages. CJ sponsors a learning program of some kind for children, and one reward the kids got was to meet their idol, Pak Se Ri, and get some gifts and fun golf lessons from her. In the pic you can see her with a batch of Christmas cards, which she exchanged with the little folk in attendance. She also made a gift of 50 million won (about $48,000) to the program. How's that for Christmas spirirt?

It's a little funny for a well known Buddhist like Se Ri to be celebrating Christmas, I suppose, but can you think of a better image with which to end our little recap? Happy Holidays from all of us (me) at Seoul Sisters!
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