Fairways and Greens

LPGA Message Board no more
The LPGA decided a few days ago to discontinue its fan message board. Fans were greeted with the following terse message when trying to log on:

After careful consideration, the Message Boards feature will no longer be offered on LPGA.com. The LPGA has decided that to better serve our fans and the association, we will focus our resources on continuing to create informative and entertaining content. We encourage you to visit the numerous other interactive features on LPGA.com.
Thank you.

I'm not sure exactly when they started the message board on that site, but I started frequenting it back around the 2000 season. In those days, I was literally the only English speaking fan on the Se Ri Pak board, but I hung around long enough to see quite a little community develop there. It was a great place to find out the latest about her career, and trade photos of her and, later, the other Korean players. It was there that the embryo of this site developed; after I started SeoulSisters.com in 2002, many of the first people to visit were fans who knew me from the LPGA message boards

The discussions were often lively there, and occasionally contentious; but it was great to see so many people stick up for the Korean players back in the day when they got relatively little in the way of coverage in the American media or respect from their league. It's hard to recall, but it took until the last year before they even featured an interview with Mi Hyun Kim or Hee-Won Han on their site, despite the fact that these two players were among the ten best in the world and had been for years. I believe that part of the reason the LPGA started paying more attention to these players was the very vocal community on those message boards who repeatedly lobbied on their behalf. And they paid us back too; Grace Park posted numerous times to thank us, and Mi Hyun Kim and Christina Kim also contributed to the boards from time to time. That sort of fan interaction with their idols was what made the LPGA different from other professional leagues. I only hope we have not seen the last of it.

Several people have e-mailed me and asked me why I think the LPGA did it. I surmise there were two reasons behind the move: money and control (the two reasons behind most business decisions, really). Although it probably did not cost a lot of money to keep the boards going, it still probably required a couple of full time employees dedicated to the boards. It was probably a fair amount of work for them to monitor the posts and keep the nasty stuff off. On several occasions, the board monitors denied efforts to increase the number of boards because they claimed there was not the time or resources available to take care of them.

Secondly, the LPGA, like most organizations, probably wants to be able to control their image. In any message board community, there will be a fair number of people who are critical of the organization. I suspect they didn't want to pay to support a place where they could be bashed. Perhaps some players or sponsors also voiced concerns; certainly, there were the occasional threads that could get quite insulting to both. And perhaps a lawyer advised them that they would be potentially liable if somebody came on there and started causing trouble.

For whatever reason, the boards are history, and I doubt they'll be coming back any time soon. If I discover a new spot for fans of the Korean golfers to gather and talk about the ladies, I'll let you all know! In the meantime, come by here every once in a while for your latest news and gossip on the Sisters.

Kyeong Bae with her trophy

KB in action

Kyeong Bae wins, takes over money list
On to some happier news now. The Seoul Sisters have yet to really hit their stride in 2005 on the LPGA tour; but over on the Futures Tour, the minor league 'training' tour for the LPGA, Koreans have been doing spectacularly well. And a couple of weeks ago, another young Korean player claimed her first win on that tour. This player was Kyeong Bae, or KB as she is known by her fellow competitors.

Although still only 19 years old, KB has already accomplished a whole bunch of impressive things in golf. Like Se Ri Pak and Bo Bae Song, Bae made a name for herself in Korea at a young age by winning the Korean Women's Open, the biggest tournament in Korea. In fact, she won it twice, and at a young age, she turned pro to take advantage of her talent. In 2003, she finished 6th on the KLPGA tour, and got a sponsorship with CJ, the same company that sponsors Pak. But Bae was anxious to try her luck in America, and thus journeyed there in 2004 to play on the Futures Tour. Although she was not able to get a win, she did collect 7 top tens, including a second place, and made the cut 17 of 18 tries. That allowed her to finish 8th on the money list.

So far in 2005, she had continued her successful ways, with an 18th, 5th and 11th place finish in her first three starts. Then came the fourth event of the year, the IOS Futures Golf Classic in El Paso, Texas. And it was here she finally broke into the winner's circle.

KB trailed the leader by up to five shots during the final round, but stayed focused, and made two birdies in the final four holes to shoot a 70. This tied her for the clubhouse lead with another Korean, Hye Jung Choi, who had much earlier blistered the course with a final round 65. The two had to wait to see if anyone would beat them, but Tara Bateman of Phoenix could not put her away, and thus, they had a three way playoff. As it turned out, it all came down to short par putts. Bae made hers first, then watched stunned as the other two both missed theirs. And thus the win was hers, and with it, the top spot on the money list. And she maintained that spot after the tournament the following week as well.

Watch out for Kyeong Bae. The daughter of a former professional soccer player who played for Real Madrid, and a mother who was a table tennis champ, she's got competitiveness in her blood. She could be the player to beat on this year's Futures Tour!

Here's a link to the story!

"Proud sponsors of Grace Park"
Keep your eyes open for a new TV advertisement featuring Grace Park! One of Grace's sponsors, Michelob Ultra, premiered a new ad featuring Grace during the broadcast of the Franklin Mortgage Championship. It shows a serene golf course, while the words 'Beauty... Elegance... Artistry.." flash one at a time on the screen. We see shots of an arm winding up, two eyes in close-up, a golf ball sailing through the air, then landing on a green very close to the hole. The next shot shows Grace walking up the fairway, flash cutting closer to her until she fills half the screen. The finally adjective appears: 'Grace'. Then the tag line: "Michelob Ultra... Proud sponsor of Grace Park".

This marks the first time Grace has been featured by herself in an ad in the States (unless you count the old promo the LPGA aired a few years ago). In her Nike and Rolex ads, she has appeared with other golfers. I wouldn't be surprised to see more ads featuring her before the year is out!

Check out the ad here! (Enter your birthday, then click 'Golf', then 'Grace Park ads')

Grace Park Documentary coming soon
For all you Grace Park fans, here's a real treat: Rolex recently sponsored the making of a documentary about Grace, and it should be coming soon to the Golf Channel (and for those of you overseas, there are plans to show it in Europe and Asia as well). The documentary is called "Spirit of Golf: Grace Park, Model Golfer". A few months ago, I helped the director with some of her research. In gratitude, she sent me a copy of the show, which I just got in the mail the other day. As we go to press, I haven't yet had a chance to watch the whole thing, but I did look at the first few minutes, and I can assure you that Grace fans are gonna love it. The director, a lady named Olivia Heriot-Walker, told me that she conducted a two hour interview with Grace, and talked to almost everyone else she ever knew, in pulling together this work. The result seems to be a very slickly made, informative piece on Ms. Park.

Next issue, I'll be able to give you more details, and hopefully the times when you will be able to see it!

Money List
Se Ri Pak returned to the tour at last, but her woes continued. She shot two miserable opening rounds in her first events back, including a 9 over par 81, to easily miss the cut both times. Se Ri has not cashed a check on tour since late March. Meanwhile, Grace Park continued to play decently but unspectacularly, and no other Korean player really stepped up their play. As a result, for the first time at least since 1998, no Korean player is in the top ten on the money list this late in the season.

On the rookie front, Joo Mi Kim scored her career best LPGA finish at the Franklin Mortgage, and just missed out on her first top 20, and Young Jo continues to play well.

Congratulations also go to Jimin Kang for what I believe is her first career LPGA top 20 at the Michelob Ultra. This made her the biggest mover on our chart the last few weeks. Way to go!