2005 Lexus Cup

The history of team events in women's golf is a relatively short one. For the better part of the last decade and a half, the only women's team event in golf with any international cache has been the Solheim Cup. This event has the benefit of being supported by both the LPGA and the Ladies European Tour. Since its inception in 1990, it has gradually grown in prestige, until it has become one of the most popular events in all of women's golf.

But the Solheim Cup has a major problem, one that was not so much of an issue back in 1990, but which has become increasingly glaring as time has gone on, particularly since 2000: it only includes golfers born in the United States or Europe. When the event was created, the majority of important women golfers came from one of those two places, so it was not so much of an issue. But in the last few years, with the explosion of golf interest in places like Asia, Mexico, Canada and Australia, there are now many great top golfers who would love to play in a team event, but do not qualify to play in the Solheim solely by virtue of their place of birth.

Christina Kim can play Solheim, but Korean
golfers born outside the US cannot

Bo Bae Song and Jeong Jang played in this year's
Women's World Cup of Golf

Various events have been created over the past half decade to try to answer this problem. There are the events such as the Pinx Cup, which started in 1999, and matches the best Korean women golfers against the best from Japan. But as intense as that match up can get, it still is too limited in scope to have general international appeal. In 2000, several sponsors started up a World Cup of Women's Golf, but it only lasted one year before folding. It was revived again in 2005, and looks to be on more solid ground for now. This event does include teams from many countries, based on the position of their top players on the LPGA money list. It is a worthy event, but it has two main problems: one, that it always occurs in South Africa, which makes it a problem for viewing in the United States, at least as a live event; and two, that the teams consist of two players. This is well and good for countries with relatively few great players, but some countries, like South Korea, have many qualified players. It's unfortunate that most of them will never get to play in the World Cup. And of course, in this format, you don't get the intense mano-a-mano confrontations you get when you have two teams going head to head, like you get at the Pinx Cup and the Solheim Cup.

Enter Lexus, the luxury car maker, who in 2005 created a new team event designed to answer some of these problems: the Lexus Cup. This event would consist of two teams of 12 golfers, one culled from the best women golfers in Asia, the other the best golfers from the rest of the world. It was scheduled to take place in Singapore from December 9th - 11th at the Tanah Merah Country Club. The purse was $50,000 for each member of the winning team, and $30,000 for each member of the losing team. As well, and more impressively, Lexus committed over $3 million dollars to the tournament, an undisclosed amount of which was used for up front appearance fees; i.e., certain golfers would be guaranteed an unrevealed amount of money just to appear, regardless of whether they won or lost. It must have been an enticing amount, for they attracted an impressive field of top talent to participate.

As good as Asian golfers have been over the past few years, there was no doubt that they were looking at a tough battle to win a team event against golfers from all the other continents in the world combined. Lexus chose Grace Park, the top Asian golfer in the world in 2004, to be the captain of the Asian team. It was disappointing that Se Ri Pak was not chosen (at the time the choice was made, she was still considered by many the top Korean golfer), but in hindsight, considering she was injured towards the end of 2005, it was just as well. The rest of the team included several more Korean stars: Meena Lee, Canadian Women's Open winner in 2005; Jeong Jang, British Women's Open champion; Birdie Kim, US Women's Open winner; Gloria Park, a top ten golfer on the LPGA money list in 2005; Hee-Won Han, another top ten golfer; and Aree and Naree Song, the Thai/Korean twins. Joining them were Jennifer Rosales of the Philippines, Riko Higashio and Namika Omata of Japan, and Candie Kung of Taiwan. A fairly impressive team on paper, though one had to wonder at some of the omissions that could have made the team much stronger. For instance, why omit Soo-Yun Kang, a recent Korean winner, Mi Hyun Kim, a longtime Korean star, or most of the top Japanese golfers in the world, particularly Yuri Fudoh and Ai Miyazato? Any number of other Korean stars would have been preferable to the two Japanese players that were included. But since we don't know how the teams were chosen, or who may have turned down offers to play, that question is hard to debate.

Grace practices before
this year's Lexus Cup

Jeong Jang meets the press in Singapore

Grace helps a youngster during a
golf clinic before the Lexus Cup

As good as the Asian team was, the International team, chosen from all the non-Asian stars in the world, clearly had a big advantage. It's captain was none other than Annika Sorenstam, the world's #1 player, and a golfer for whom the Asians had no answer. Also included was the #2 golfer in the world in 2005, Paula Creamer, and the LPGA's #6 golfer, Natalie Gulbis. The other members of the team were: Marisa Baena of Colombia, the winner of the World Match Play Championship in 2005; Catriona Matthew and Janice Moodie of Scotland; Carin Koch and Sophie Gustafson of Sweden; Karen Stupples, who won the 2004 British Open; Suzann Pettersen of Norway, a stalwart on the Solheim team for Europe; and perhaps the only weak links of their team, Jill McGill and Erica Blasberg of the US (Blasberg replaced Chile's Nicole Perrot, probably the only break the Asians got before the event). It was going to be a tough haul for the Asian team to even keep up with this group, especially since the Internationals, besides having the top two players in the world and a bigger pool of talent to draw from, also had more team golf experience than their rivals. As if that weren't bad enough, the Asians #1 player, Grace Park, was having her worst season; Jennifer Rosales and Gloria Park had struggled with injuries all year; and Birdie Kim had not played all that well since collecting her US Women's Open trophy. Would some of those women be able to overcome their troubled years and contribute? They would pretty much have to if Asia was to have any chance.

Before the event, Annika Sorenstam was justifiably confident about her team's chances. Grace Park tried to remain upbeat, but seemed a little more subdued in her pre-event assessments. The fans, meanwhile, were treated to a clinic by some of the best women golfers in the world, in anticipation of the first day of play.

On Friday, the teams played six matches of foursomes. The results swung pretty much against Asia on this day, and the team never recovered the rest of the weekend. The first team out, though, did a pretty convincing job in their match. This team paired Hee-Won Han and Candie Kung against Carin Koch and Janice Moodie. The two Internationals had a wealth of team competition on their resumes, so looked strong from that angle; but the Asian team was a good match between two players with similar temperaments and complimentary games. On the one hand you had Hee-Won Han, a short driver but excellent iron player; while Candie Kung had the length off the tee. Both were strong match play golfers who had notched top finishes in match play tournaments in the past. And they had both played well in 2005. As expected, they won their match, but it was a surprise that they did so easily, 5 & 4. The second match, however, pitted Grace Park and Jennifer Rosales against Pettersen and Gustafson. It probably was not a good idea to match up the two players who had had the most struggles with injuries in 2005, and in fact, the Asians did lose this match 3 & 2.

The third match was kind of a surprise, as the Wonder Twins Aree and Naree Song beat the American twosome Natalie Gulbis and Jill McGill. And they did it easily, 5 & 4. So for the moment, at least, the Asians seemed to have the upper hand. But there were many top International players yet to play.

Probably the pivotal match was the fourth one, which pitted JJ and Meena Lee against the top two golfers in on the International team, Annika and Creamer. The JJ/Lee team was arguably one of the strongest pairings the Asians could have asked for; Meena was a great match play golfer, and JJ had won a Major in 2005. But it was asking a lot of them to beat the two best players on the opposing team. Nonetheless, the two Koreans battled bravely, and had a two up lead for much of the front nine. Then Annika made a clutch par save on the 7th hole, and their team got it going after that. Eventually, they went on to win 2 & 1 to move the Internationals into a 2-2 tie with the Asians.

Back in the middle of the day,Asia had had the lead in three matches and was square in another one, but things fell apart for them after that. The final two matches also went to the Internationals, and what could have been a close score turned out to be a 4-2 lead by the end of day one. The two Japanese players easily lost to Stupples and Matthew, while Birdie Kim and Gloria Park were touched out by Marisa Baena and Erica Blasberg 2 & 1. This last result was probably the most disappointing for team Asia, in that, on paper at least, they probably were the favorites.

Grace and Dave read a putt

Hee-Won consults with her caddie on Sunday
(click to enlarge)
SeoulSisters.com photo by Mistdew

Hee-Won Han & Birdie Kim
(click to enlarge)
SeoulSisters.com photo by Mistdew

The Asians had their work cut out for them on Saturday, and made a good effort, but this time, a little bit of bad luck would cost them, and they were not able to make any ground up. Day two's action would consist of six team matches in the better ball format.

For a while, at least, things looked promising. Several of the matches started out close, and were close for a while. Jeong Jang and Candie Kung were even with Creamer and Gulbis for much of their match, but the two Americans rallied at the end and won 3 & 2. The Song twins played together again, but this time were not able to rise to the occasion and lost 4 & 3. Perhaps most disappointing was that Hee-Won Han, teamed with Birdie Kim, was not able to win their match against Koch and Baena. Indeed, they also lost rather easily. So the first three matches all went to the Internationals, and their lead looked to be almost insurmountable.

Still, the Asians fought on. Captain Grace, teamed with Riko Higashio, this time managed a victory over Moodie and Matthew, a pretty good 3 & 2 win against a tough team. If the Asians could win the last two matches, they would go into Sunday still just two points behind, and with a real chance to pull off a comeback.

It looked oh so promising. Jennifer Rosales and Omata had a one up lead going into the last hole, and seemed set to get that needed point, until Erica Blasberg jarred an 85 foot wedge on the 18th hole to win the hole and secure a tie for the Internationals. Moments later, Gloria Park, whose team was all square on the 18th hole, had a five footer for birdie to win her match with partner Meena Lee against Annika and Stupples, but she missed and had to settle for a tie. It was quite an achievement to get a tie against the top player on the International team, but a win would have been so sweet. Just two shots separated the Asians from a 3-3 tie for the day and the 4-2 loss they ended up suffering. That meant that, with one day to go, the Internationals had a basically unbeatable 8-4 lead. Now the Asians had to play for pride, because a win seemed highly unlikely.