2005 Mitchell Company Tournament of Champions

On day 2, the seedings were arranged based on position on the leaderboard, so Christina played in the final group with Liselotte Neumann. Ahead of her group, several Koreans continued to play well. Hee-Won Han followed up her first round 69 with another one to move to 6 under total and a tie for third with the event's defending champion, Heather Daly-Donofrio. Kangsy improved slightly from her day one result with a 2 under par 70 to move to 3 under, and Jeong Jang also shot a two under par 70 to move under par for the tournament, -1.

But several other Koreans struggled. Meena Lee and Birdie Kim both had one over par rounds to fall to a tie for 18th. Shi Hyun Ahn and Jimin Kang were also over par, while Kimmie followed her first round even par score with another one, and sat in 23rd place.

But Christina was having no problems whatsoever. Indeed, she started her round in a white hot way, with birdies on her first three holes, a bogey on 4, and another birdie on 5 to move to 8 under and the lead. She would have only two pars on the front nine, as she bogied the par 5 6th (her other bogey also came on a par 5) and birdied the 8th. She settled down after that, and added two more birdies on the back nine to shoot her second consecutive 67 and move to 10 under.

Hee-Won in round one

Christina wills the ball into the hole in round 2

However, earlier in the day, the Australian star Rachel Hetherington, who had been struggling through a lot of 2005, suddenly found her game and set the course on fire with a birdie barrage. After starting with two bogies, she had an eagle on the par 5 4th hole, then added seven more birdies throughout her round to also move to 10 under total.

Meanwhile, Liselotte Neumann, who was playing with Christina, shot 2 under on the front and added another birdie on 10 to move to 9 under total. She looked good to be in that group with Christina and Rachel at the top, but she bogied the 15th hole, then had a double bogey on the tricky par 3 17th to fall back to 6 under. Thus, at the end of Friday's round, two players had separated themselves from the field. Both Rachel and Christina were 4 shots clear of the others.

When a couple of players separate themselves from the field, two things can happen. Either they stall and the field reels them back in; or they continue to play well and maintain or increase the lead. Well, in this case, the former situation occurred. Rachel and Christina, playing in the final group on Saturday, hardly played terribly; but some of the players behind them played really well, and by the end of the day, the leaderboard was much more tightly bunched.

Christina had an early double bogey, followed shortly thereafter by a birdie. After that, though, she had a long stretch of pars. While this was was going on, Rachel was having similar results. But some of the other players were making their moves. Some were too far back to get into contention. Jeong Jang shot a 4 under par 68 to move to a 5 under par total, while Soo-Yun Kang shot a one under par round to move to minus four. The one Korean who looked like she could position herself well, Hee-Won Han, struggled on this day, and her one over par round left her tied for 7th by day's end at 5 under par. In fact, none of the Korean ladies were able to put themselves within four shots of the lead by the end of the day.

Except for Christina, of course. After stalling for a while at 9 under par, she finally made a birdie at the 15th hole to move to 10 under. By this time, Liselotte Neumann had also moved to 10 under, and a short time later regained the lead at 11 under. And the defending champion, Heather Daly-Donofrio, had also moved up the leader board, ending the day at 10 under.

On the par 5 16th, Christina got onto the green in two and two putted for birdie to move into a tie for the lead with Neumann. But it didn't last; a short time later, she missed a short par save on the par 3 17th to fall back to 10 under, where she would finish the day. Because Daly-Donofrio had finished at 10 under first, she would play in the final group on Sunday with Neumann, while Kim would play again with Rachel (who also finished the day at 10 under). Christina wasn't too bummed about losing her four shot cushion, however. As she told a reporter after the round, she had already shot 67 twice on this course; there was no reason she couldn't do it again. It proved an eerie foreshadowing of what was to come.

Christina kept fighting in round 3

Christina on the first hole
Sunday

Early on Sunday, a couple of the Koreans who had faded to the back posted great rounds. Particularly impressive was Jimin Kang, who had fallen into last place by the end of her first round, yet had bounced back with a 68 on this day to climb to 2 over total for the event. Shi Hyun Ahn shot a 69 to similarly rebound from a poor start.

But as it turned out, neither Hee-Won Han nor Soo-Yun Kang, the two Koreans who were closest to the top ten at the start of the day, played well enough to climb into the top ten by the end of it. So Christina was all alone, the only Seoul Sister who had any chance to take the title.

At first, leader Liselotte Neumann did not look willing to give anyone else a chance. She made a birdie on the second hole, then an eagle on the par 5 4th after a fantastic approach. Christina tried to keep pace with birdies on 3 and 4, but Neumann still had the upper hand. One more birdie and one more bogey left Christina at 12 under at the turn. Neumann also had a birdie and bogey more, but sat at 14 under, with Rachel Hetherington at 12 under as well. It was still anyone's game.