#1 With a Bullet

Grace started Sunday with a bang, birdieing 2, 3, and 6 to move to 10 under par. Even a bogey did not set her back much, and after nine holes she stood at nine under. Meanwhile, Becky Morgan got out to a great start, but began to struggle around the turn, so that by that point, she stood at 10 under, only one shot ahead of Grace. Steinhauer made nine pars on the front, and thus the three were bunched just one shot apart.

Meanwhile, Young Kim made three birdies on the front nine against one bogey, then added a birdie at ten. She moved to 7 under, and suddenly was in the tournament. But this was as close as she would get, as two bogeys in the last 8 holes left her at 5 under in the end. This was still good enough for her first ever LPGA top 5, however, so congratulations to her.

Jeong Jang started the day at 6 under, and two early birdies moved her well into contention. But two straight bogeys and a double on nine effectively ended her threat. She would go on to finish 11th, still one of her best finishes of the season to date.

So that left just Young-A Yang, playing in the penultimate group, and Grace Park. Yang played her front nine in even par, and so still sat at 7 under. This was now just three shots out of the lead; she still had a chance. She bogeyed ten, but birdied 15. Hole 16 did a job on her, producing another bogey to knock her back to 6 under.

Jeong Jang had her best finish of 2004

Young Kim chips on Sunday
(AP Photo)

Then an unfortunate incident occurred that really affected the amount of money she could make. On the 17th tee, the marshals announced that Yang's group had fallen behind and was now being put on the clock. Suddenly, she had the added pressure of having to play fast to avoid a penalty. She promptly pulled her drive into a terrible lie in the rough. There wasn't much she could do from there, but took awhile to come to a decision. Her second shot did not reach the green, and though she hit a good pitch, she missed her par save and made bogey. But because she had taken too long, she was assessed an additional two stroke penalty. That was the difference between the 7th place finish she eventually managed, and a solo 5th. The penalty cost her roughly $13,000.

Now, I'm all for speeding up play, but I'll talk a little more about the new slow play rules that the LPGA started enforcing in Tennessee two weeks ago in another article. My impression, though, is that there ought to be a little more thought applied to when the clock should start, and that causing the outcome of a tournament to be so altered by penalties is probably not a good thing. Three players were affected by slow play penalties in the last half hour of the event. That just seems excessive to me.

With Yang's penalty, only one Korean player still had a shot at winning, and that was the usual suspect, Grace Park. But Steinhauer hung tough with birdies on 14 and 15. Grace had an unlikely try for eagle, but ended up with birdie herself on the par 5 15th. So with just three holes to go, she stood at 10 under, Steinhauer at 13 under.

But the next hole was the treacherous par 3 16th, the hole Grace had had fantasies about destroying. It was vital that she give herself a good shot to put pressure on Sherri. Unfortunately, this is not what she did. She hit yet another middling iron and missed the green. Steinhauer's shot was not great, but at least she greened it. Grace was running out of holes.

But Grace's chip was quite good, and she made the four foot par save. Steinhauer, meanwhile, did not hit her putt that close, and was not able to make her par. The lead was reduced to two.

On the next hole, Steinhauer hit her drive to the left side of the fairway, giving her tree trouble if she wanted to hit the green. Grace then hit a pretty good drive. Grace had the momentum, but both walked off with pars, Steinhauer after making a clutch short par save.

On the par 5 18th, Grace was put into a must-eagle situation. By now their group had dropped more than a hole behind the group ahead of them, but fortunately the timing Nazis did not swoop down to put undue pressure on them at this critical juncture. Grace hit another great drive with a fairway wood, but Steinhauer's landed in some deep rough. She was not able to get it to the green, so now Grace had an advantage. One great shot could turn around the entire tournament.

Grace on Sunday
(AP Photo)

Grace tries to see where her drive on 18
went in round 4. Here's a hint:
it wasn't to a good place
(AP Photo)

However, the shot Grace hit was anything but great. In fact, it was one of the worst she had hit all week. It had the distance to make the hole, but was well left of the green. In fact, it was so far left it cleared the grandstand on the left of the hole. Steinhauer then put her third within ten feet of the hole. Short of Grace dunking her shot from her dodgy lie in the rough, it looked like this would be another one that got away from her.

Grace chunked her third shot into the bunker to the groans of the crowd. She did get it up and down from there to finish in solo second, but Steinhauer two putted for an easy par and two shot win. What could have been: an eagle by Grace would have been enough to force the playoff. But considering how ragged her play was over the final two days, it was a miracle that she came so close to winning at all. It's the sure sign that a player has become truly great when even her cruddy game is good enough for her to snag a top two. Grace missed a ton of fairways and hit some of her poorest irons of the year, yet still hung in there, battled, made crucial birdies, and very nearly won her second event of the year.

What she did do was regain the #1 spot on the money list. In fact, short of Annika winning in Corning next week (Grace won't be there), Grace will maintain her #1 spot until she plays again in two weeks. Couple that with her lead on the Player of the Year list and scoring race, and you have a player ready to do everything she has always dreamed of doing.