Vare Trophy 2004

For the second year in a row, the player with the lowest scoring average in the league did not play enough rounds to qualify for the Vare Trophy, one of the most prestigious awards the tour presents. This is, of course, the award given to the player with the lowest scoring average who has played a minimum of seventy rounds during the season. That player, of course, was Annika Sorenstam, but whereas last year, the seventy round requirement seemed to have caught her by surprise, this time she seem to have purposely not attended enough events to win it. Her reasons may be cryptic, but in the end they are irrelevant. Simply put, she did not play enough rounds to win the trophy, so now the award came down to two players who did. Of course, only one of them could walk away with the prize.

Se Ri won the Vare Trophy last year

Grace won the CJ 9 Bridges a few weeks ago
Is it V for Victory, or V for Vare?

Grace waves to fans during round 1 of the ADT

The two players were Grace Park and Lorena Ochoa, and both players had waged quite a battle all year for the #2 spot on tour. Lorena had held the spot for a while, but starting in September, after her shoulder and back problems healed, Grace made a serious run at Ochoa with one brilliant performance after another. For a while she was the hottest golfer going, with a third place at the Safeway, a second at the Asahi Ryokuken, another second at the Samsung, and a win at the CJ 9 Bridges in her home country of South Korea. As she continued this torrid pace, she crept closer and closer to Ochoa in the money standings and scoring race. She was around .16 of a stroke behind Ochoa at one point, but by the time the CJ 9 Bridges was over, she had overtaken Ochoa and posted her own lead of nearly .1 of a stroke. Grace would play two more events, and if she could do well at both, she could clinch her first Vare.

But there was one problem. Simply that Grace had played so much golf during this long end run that she was starting to run out of gas. In one stretch she played in Georgia, then California, then flew to Beijing for a Skins Game, then to Korea to win there, then to Japan, where she finished second again, then to Las Vegas for the Wendy's Three Tour Challenge (we'll talk about that next issue), then to Alabama for the Tournament of Champions. By the time she reached Mobile, she was running on fumes (but was not, as far as I know, stuck outside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues again).She did manage a great opening round, but that was it, and the rest of her experience at this event was frankly terrible. Fortunately for Grace, Ochoa was also burning out fast, but still was able to make significant gains on Grace during the week. With one event to go, Grace's lead had been reduce to .04 strokes.

The final event of the year did not present an easy course for the ladies. The ADT Tour Championship was played on Trump International, a course not known for producing low scores. How would Grace do there? Could she hold off Ochoa and win the Vare?

Well, it became clear by the second round that neither woman was going to contend. The drama really came down to who was going to survive. Grace put together a pretty good opening round of one under par 71, while Ochoa faded to 3 over par. This certainly was a good sign, but on Friday, Ochoa bounced back with a 4 under par 68, while Grace managed a respectable 2 under par 70. She still held a two shot lead over Lorena, and as long as she beat her this week, the trophy was hers.

The problems would come if she were not able to beat her. If both of them had relatively weak tournaments, Ochoa, by virtue of the fact she had played more rounds than Grace in 2004, would be less affected than Grace. But by the same token, if they both played good tournaments, Grace would benefit more. Unfortunately, they were tending towards the weaker end of the spectrum (weaker being anything that would increase their scoring averages, and since their averages were both under 70, that meant anything 70 or over).

Basically, if Grace did better than Ochoa, she had the trophy. If not, she probably had to beat her by three - four strokes to get it. There was still little margin for error.

On Saturday, Grace at last had a terrible round, a 2 over par 74 that knocked her back to one under for the tournament. But Ochoa took the same moment to also shoot a 74. That night, Grace attended a party to celebrate the crowning of the 2004 Player and Rookie of the Year. They doubtless would have given out the Vare Trophy at this event, had they been able to, but that was still in doubt. Still, she got a chance to watch her good friend Shi Hyun Ahn collect her Rookie of the Year award from Louise Suggs, the woman after whom the award is named. It must have inspired her.

The mission was clear. If Grace just shot par or better, it would be very tough for Ochoa to beat her. Grace's award fate was in her own hands. On Sunday, however, she did not get out to a great start, with two bogies in her first three holes. She calmed down after that, and even managed two birdies on 8 and 9 to come back to even par. At the same time, Ochoa was falling apart. She had bogies on 3, 4 and 6 before a birdie on 8. But then she double bogied 9 to go out in 4 over par on her front nine. Advantage Grace.

But not so fast. Just when it looked like Grace had the trophy locked up, she started to struggle again. She made her own double bogey on 10, and another on 13, offset slightly by a birdie on 12. Now she was 3 over par on the day. Ochoa, meanwhile, made birdies on 10 and 12 to come back to +2 on the day. She was slightly outplaying Grace, but was running out of holes. It was still Grace's trophy to win or lose.

At that point, Grace hunkered down, and parred all the way in. Her 3 over par 75 was hardly stunning, but it got the job done. Ochoa could not make another birdie, and wound up with a 3 over par 75 herself. And so, despite quite a bit of struggle from the exhausted golfer, Grace Park became only the second Korean to win the coveted Vare Trophy.

Grace during round 2

Grace hangs with Rookie of the Year
Shi Hyun Ahn on Saturday night

Grace earlier on Saturday

I guess it's V for Vare!! Grace on Sunday

That means that this year, Grace accumulated 4 Hall of Fame points. To put this in perspective, her total number of HOF points leading into this year was only 4. At this rate, she might yet reach the magic 27 point number and join Se Ri Pak in the Hall of Fame. Time will tell, but for now, she can celebrate the achievement of her 2004 season, topped by her first ever post-season award on tour (remember, she did not win the Rookie of the Year like many other Koreans did). Congratulations to her!