Seol-An Ice!

This year, there are more Koreans on the LPGA tour than ever before, an incredible 23. As if that weren't enough, you also have Korean-Americans like Christina Kim, half Koreans like Aree Song, and a gaggle of talented amateurs and young pros who are honing their games even as we speak, and will doubtless invade the tour in the next few years. It's getting harder and harder, if you are a Korean player, to stand out in that crowd.

Credit, then, to a 22 year old rookie named Seol-An Jeon. I'll be honest: at the start of this year, even I barely knew who she was. I did know she had played on the Futures Tour in 2003, where she had managed a decent but not particularly noteworthy record. I also knew she was a surprise qualifier at Q-School, finishing tied for 12th to earn exempt status for 2004. But really, these are not the kind of numbers that get the public to stand up and take notice. Indeed, there were two Korean players, Soo Young Moon and Ju Kim, who played much better on the Futures Tour in 2003; surely one or the other of them was going to be more of a force on the LPGA in 2004 than Jeon.

Seol-An Jeon has had an excellent start to
her rookie year

Seol-An watches the ball during round 2

Thus it came as somewhat of a shock when Seol-An Jeon got out to the start that she did. In her first event of 2004, she played well enough to threaten a top five before fading somewhat to an 8th place finish. Still, for her first event on the LPGA (she had played one previous event in 2003, where she missed the cut by a mile), it was pretty darn good. But even then, she got overshadowed by Aree Song and Shi Hyun Ahn, two other Korean rookies who made noise in Tucson.

Jeon didn't do much else until this week, but if her performance this week is any indication, we have a real horse race shaping up for Rookie of the Year. Aree Song is still the leader, but Jeon, with her second place finish at this year's Takefuji, and Ahn, with her consistent brilliance, will doubtless do their best to upset the apple cart.

The story coming into this week centered around Se Ri Pak. The Korean superstar was one of the only Korean players on tour who didn't show up in Las Vegas. Though she had a top ten here last year, she felt it better to take the week off and practice some more. Despite four top twenties to start the season, she was pretty disappointed with her play, and wanted to correct all her issues as soon as possible.

Quickly picking up the spotlight was Grace Park, whom the Vegas oddsmakers anointed the Woman to Beat (her odds? 9 to 2). Grace got further ink when she appeared at a fashion show for Nike's new line of women's golf clothes, and when Anheuser-Busch announced she would be one of four LPGA golfers to represent the company in 2004. The hits keep coming for Sister Grace.

Then there was the Monday qualifier, which I talk about in the Highlights and Lowlights section. It was windy in Vegas all week, but on Monday, the course conditions were definitely Sunny, as both Sunny Lee, a favorite of ours at SeoulSisters.com, and Sunny Oh, a college player for UNLV, qualified for the event. Oh missed qualifying in a playoff last year, so this marked the first time the Running Rebel managed to crash a professional party. Be sure to check out the sidebar article on her elsewhere in this issue!

Or maybe In-Bee Park was the one to watch. The superstar of Junior Golf had, unbelievably, never before played an LPGA event, despite winning the US Girls Championship in 2002 and darn nearly doing it again last year. When you consider how many times Michelle Wie has been invited to play, it's all the more amazing. And In-Bee, happy to say, did not disappoint.

Other stories included Mi Hyun Kim and her recent resurgence, the powerful rookies Shi Hyun Ahn and Aree Song, and Soo Yun Kang, who hoped to regain her form at the course that jump started her 2003 campaign. You can see that Seol-An Jeon was well off the radar when the festivities started...

Grace shows off one of Nike's new outfits
(LPGA.COM)

In-Bee Park's first LPGA event was a
very successful one
(Reuters)

Thursday was the first day because the event, a 54 hole affair, was timed so that the final round would play in Japan on Sunday morning. The conditions were treacherous, with tricky winds keeping the scoring down. Grace Park was not striking the ball badly at all, but just could not get anything going on the frankly bumpy greens (the condition of the course not being one of its strong points). She got pretty irritated, and even lost her temper a couple of times, something we have not seen from her too often this year (nor has she had reason to, with the way she's played!). Still, her even par 72 kept her within shouting distance of the leaders.

Several Korean players shot just under par, including the rejuvenated Mi Hyun Kim, who finished her day one under par, just two shots out of the lead. Another player who shot 71 was 15 year old In-Bee Park, proving her sponsor's invitation was a very deserved one. But the surprising first round leader among the Korean players, and only one shot out of the overall lead, was Seol-An Jeon. Her two under par 70 was a good omen of things to come.

Still, several of the Korean players were not so lucky, including poor old Sunny Lee. After shooting a 71 to Monday qualify, she followed it with an 83, the worst score of the entire day. She then dropped out of the tournament, citing back problems. If it is true her back is ailing, here's hoping it recovers soon! And if not, and she just wanted to spare herself further golfing pain, let's hope she isn't too discouraged.