2005 Pinx Cup: Think Pinx!

The fun began on Saturday morning, and as typically happens with the Pinx Cup, the weather was absolutely terrible. Arctic temperatures and wind, with an ample supply of freezing rain thrown in. The typical results of trying to play golf in December in Korea! In 2005, they had decided to shake things up a little bit by altering the format of the tournament. In years past, Saturday's action consisted of 12 singles matches with match play scoring, while Sunday's was 12 singles matches of stroke play. This year, they moved the stroke play matches to Saturday, and on Sunday planned to have six *team* matches (presumably match play, although this was not spelled out).

Since each team consists of 13 players, each team had to sit one of their players out each day. Weirdly, the player they chose to sit out on Saturday was Meena Lee, their second highest ranked player. Normally, they would bench a JLPGAer or a young KLPGA player rather than sit one of their LPGA stars. Captain Kang later explained her reasoning: because all 13 players were so "equal in skill", she had decided they should draw straws (!) to decide who sits out. If I may be allowed a bit of editorial comment, I have to say that was not the wisest way to make that decision. With all due respect, Meena Lee had proved herself a great deal more capable than many of the other golfers on the team, and should not have sat out. This decision might have had a pretty big effect on the eventual outcome of the Cup, as we shall soon see.

Meena Lee sat out round one

Kyeong Bae did her part on Saturday

The golfer who went out first in the morning was Kyeong Bae. An up and coming superstar, Bae did not disappoint. Despite the terrible conditions, she shot a fantastic 1 over par 73 and easily handled her opponent Shiho Ohyama, who shot +4. The second match featured the two youngest players on their respective teams, 18 year old Hee Young Park and 20 year old Sakura Yokomine. And both of them played horribly, Yokomine squeaking out a one shot win after shooting a 7 over par 79. This was not Hee Young Park's proudest moment. And the KLPGA stars suffered another blow when, in the third match, their Player of the Year Bo Bae Song shot a miserable 9 over par 81 to be easily beaten by Hiromi Mogi, who shot a 75. So in the early going, the KLPGA stars were not able to get off to a good start, and Japan had a 4-2 lead.

The next three matches paired the three Korean JLPGA stars against three tough Japanese competitors. The JLPGA Koreans were going to need to do a little clean up to offset the problems the KLPGA had had. But Mi Jung Jeon, in group four, shot the worst round of the Korean team this day, an 11 over par 83, and lost her match to Chieko Amanuma, who shot +5. Fortunately for the Koreans, the other two JLPGA players rose to the occasion against tough foes. Hyun Ju Shin was matched against Kasumi Fujii, one of the toughest players on the Japanese squad, and came through, winning 74-76. Then came the match of the day: Jee Hee Lee vs. the top dog on the Japanese team, Yuri Fudoh. Fudoh is a great golfer, but had not won a match either day in 2004. She was aching to pull one out here, but Lee played wonderfully, and they ended up tying each other with matching 73s. A great shot in the arm for the Korean team; with this squared match, they climbed up to 5 points, vs. 7 for the Japanese.

The remaining six golfers for the Koreans all played on the LPGA tour. But the first two out struggled mightily, playing against some of the strongest golfers of the day. Gloria Park was waxed by Midori Yoneyama 78-72, while Birdie Kim lost convincingly to Mikiyo Nishizuka 77-73. Japan thus increased their day one lead to 11-5. Fortunately for the home team, the four remaining matches consisted of four of their best players, and all of them were playing well enough to handle their opponents. But they would need to win at least three of the next four matches to have any chance to be tied going into the final day, and could not do worse than tie the other one. Some of the earlier golfers had played well, but for the most part, they had dug a pretty big hole for the Korean squad.

Hee-Won Han was matched up against Junko Omote in the 7th match. Han is definitely one of the top Korean players, but on this day, in these tough conditions, she was not lighting the world on fire. She still, however, had a one shot lead with two holes to go. But on 17, she hit a fairly poor iron to the par 3, leaving the ball well short. Her opponent had a makeable birdie. Hee-Won then hit a terrible chip that scooted well past the hole, and failed to save par. She fell to 7 over. Fortunately for Korea, her opponent also failed to make birdie, and remained at 7 over. But now a crucial possible win was reduced to a possible tie or even a loss. Hee-Won could not afford any more mistakes.

On 18, though, she righted the ship, and hit a superlative approach to five feet. Omote also had a birdie try, but failed to make it, and settled for par. So, while her teammates watched and waited, Han had a putt for the win. But she missed it, leaving the ball one roll short, and had to settle for par. Her whole team groaned after that one, because they really needed a win after two straight losses. Score: 12-6.

Fortunately, the remaining three Koreans were all leading their respective matches. Soo-Yun was not playing very well; she was 5 over par in her match. But her opponent Hiroko Yamaguchi was far behind her nonetheless, and Soo-Yun just needed to get to the end without incident to easily pick up her two points. This she did, as Yamaguchi ended up shooting the worst score of the day, a 12 over par 84. Korea moved to within 4, 12-8.

Hee-Won Han in round one

Jeong Jang poses with Yukari Baba, a golfer who
really looked up to JJ (in more ways than one!)

While her collected teammates watch and cheer,
Mi Hyun wins her match against Miho Koga

In the final match of the day, Jeong Jang was playing the kind of match you would expect for a bad weather specialist like her. While most everyone else was shooting bogey after bogey, JJ was only one over par. On the 16th hole, she even made a birdie to move to even par. Her opponent was nowhere near her. She would have little trouble dispatching her to get two more points for Korea.

For JJ, this proved to be a particularly unique day. It turns out that her opponent, Yukari Baba, is even shorter than she is! Jang is well known for being one of the shortest top golfers in the world. In fact, after the round, she told reporters that it was the first time she can ever remember playing with a golfer who was shorter than she is since she turned pro. Afterwards, she made sure to seek out Baba to pose for a photo with her, as if to prove to everyone that it was really true!

So in order for South Korea to tie Japan on day one, it all came down to the wild card pick, Mi Hyun Kim. Kim had but a two shot lead over her opponent Miho Koga as they battled in the penultimate match. It was rough going for them, as the weather was far from ideal, but give Kimmie her due: she hung in there. In the past, those kinds of pressure situations have not been good to her, but this time she made pars on the last few holes, forcing Koga to make birdies, which she was not able to do. Kimmie wrapped things up with another par on 18 and breathed a sigh of relief, and Korea moved back into a tie for the lead, 12-12. Not what you would expect from Korea, which had dominated stroke play the last few years in this event. It remained to be seen how they would handle the new team format on day 2. But being tied was much better than having to deal with a 4 point deficit, which had happened in 2004.

Shortly after the first round ended, the pairings for round 2 were announced. The odd woman out would be Hee Young Park, who had not been able to get a point Saturday despite her opponent shooting a 79. She would be back next year, no doubt.

But it was not to be. Overnight, Cheju Island was hit with a massive snowstorm, and there was just no possible way to finish the event. Several players had to be in Seoul for the KLPGA awards banquet on Monday, and Kyeong Bae was due in Florida to take part in a mandatory LPGA rookie orientation following the conclusion of the Q-School. So for the first time in history, the second day of Pinx Cup was canceled, and, because the two teams were tied, they jointly shared the victory (also a first).

I suppose this was the right thing to do, but one can't help wonder: what if Meena Lee had played on Saturday instead of Mi Jung Jeon? Would she have gotten the critical point that would have given Korea the cup? What about if Han's birdie on 18 had taken just one more roll and fallen in the cup? The Koreans were so close to walking off with their fourth straight Pinx Cup victory. But then again, considering some of the problems the team had to deal with this year, including missing superstars, injuries and whatnot, coming out with a tie was probably not such a bad result. And besides: this will only sweeten the rivalry for the next year, as the two teams dream of claiming the cup outright in 2006. Hopefully then we'll have Se Ri and Grace back at full strength, and Miyazato and Shinobu Morimizato, with a year of LPGA experience under their belts, will be stronger than ever. One can only imagine how intense the battle might be. Let's just hope that no one gets benched due to picking the short straw!!

Soo-Yun Kang and Yuri Fudoh jointly hold
the Pinx Cup trophy

Kangsy takes the mike after the second day had been canceled

The Korean Pinx Cup team poses on Sunday