Grace Park Plays Tiger Skins Game in Thailand
On April 17, Grace Park participated in the 'Tiger Skins Game', a charity golf event to benefit the victims of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami. Originally, Se Ri Pak was to be the female representative at this event, but had to bow out due to unspecified issues (there is a rumor that she has a back problem, like Grace has, but most probably, she didn't go owing to the general malaise that has affected her golf game the last few months). Joining Grace and competing with her for the $180,000 purse (all of which went to the charity) were PGA pros Thomas Bjorn, Colin Montgomerie and Retief Goosen.

The event took place at the Blue Canyon Country Club in Phuket, Thailand. The point of having it there was to show that the area had recovered since the tidal wave, and was again ready to host tourists from all over the world. Grace naturally attracted the most attention upon her arrival from the press, as these pictures show. They had a joint press conference the night before the tournament. Grace admitted that she was a bit nervous to be facing men for the first time (not really the first, since she had previously played team events against male pros in Boise last year and also in Beijing, China). However, she also said that she did not intend to play regular men's events, and was quite satisfied with the challenge of playing on the LPGA.

Goosen laid somewhat of a sour egg (get it? Goose? Egg? OK...) by dredging up the old 'women should qualify for men's events, not be given exemptions' thing. I personally think that women should focus on their own events. I don't, however, believe that because I think women playing in men's events is wrong in and of itself, but because too many top women players trying to play the PGA would imply that the women's events are somehow not good enough by themselves (alas, the media tends to support this by giving exhaustive coverage to Michelle Wie and Annika Sorenstam at men's events, while ignoring normal LPGA events. Look at how Golf Magazine's recent 'ten best rounds of all time' feature included just two women's rounds, and BOTH of them were women playing in men's events). However, having said this, I just don't think the occasional exemption for a woman into a men's event hurts anything. Sponsors give exemptions to players all the time who don't otherwise qualify for the field; why are only the women an issue? Regardless (and off my soapbox now!), Goosen agreed that these charity events are fine if they are coed, since they are for a good cause.

Grace arrives in Thailand for the Skins Game.
Note that she quickly attracts a crowd wherever she goes!
(And check out her pale feet in the second picture!)

Before the match, the four participants held a press conference

Sun Young Yoo

Futures Tour: Korean player Yoo tops money list
The latest Futures Tour event, the Jalapeno Futures Golf Classic, was contested April 22 - 24 in McAllen, Texas. The winner was Thai player Virada Nirapathpongporn, who now goes by the nickname 'NP3' (hey, I suggested that one for her! Wonder if she read it from me?). It was her first professional victory, and came just a few weeks after the death of her father due to leukemia. Congratulations to her, and condolences on her loss.

The Korean contingent represented itself well, as usual. Coming out of nowhere was Sun Young Yoo, shooting her career best round of 7 under par 65 to capture third place. This allowed her to move into the top spot on the Futures Tour Money list, despite not having yet won a tournament in 2005. The 18 year old turned pro recently, and has compiled two top three finishes already on tour. Watch out for her!

Meanwhile, two other Koreans currently round out the top five on the money list: teen star Seon-Hwa Lee, who is fourth, and Jin Young Pak, who is fifth, and won the first event of the season. The top five players at the end of the year get automatic exemptions into the LPGA. Last year, Jimin Kang and Aram Cho earned exemptions onto the tour this way.

Hana Kim featured on LPGA website
It's not too surprising to me that attractive and personable Korean-American golfer Hana Kim, a rookie on the LPGA this year, has already attracted some attention from that organization. She has already been featured in a couple of photos posted on the site, and now, she gets the royal treatment with an interview there. In a feature they periodically post called 'A Quick 18', Hana answers 18 questions on various important issues, such as the food she just won't eat (anything, 'but I draw the line at internal organs'), and her nicknames (now I can update that portion of her bio!), and the fact that she sings Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' on course to relax (I sure hope they mike her later this season!)

So far, Hana has gotten out to a slow start in 2005, but don't be surprised to see her featuring on the golf course as well as the website in months to come!

Click here to read the interview!

Say cheese!

New Photos on LPGA site
The LPGA took a bunch of interesting photos of their tour members at the recent Safeway International in Phoenix. Several of the Seoul Sisters got the treatment, as you can see from this gallery. You've never seen them photographed like this before!

JJ looks downright crazed, but this photo does manage to capture her personality well, I think. Also included in the first batch of photos released from this were Hee-Won Han, Hana Kim and Se Ri Pak. I expect that we will see photos from this session featuring some of the other ladies emerge later in the year. And be sure to check out this week's parting shot for a great shot of Se Ri from this session!