Meena Lee: Superstar?

After that,she compiled a few more solid finishes, including a 20th place at her first Major since joining the tour, the LPGA Championship. She had moved to 45th place on the money list, which qualified her for
the HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship, a new event with an enormous purse that occurred the week after the US Women's Open. She was having a very good rookie year, and was solidly in the mix with the three other talented Korean rookies for second place in the Rookie of the Year standings.

But what happened the next few weeks elevated Meena another few steps, and showed that she was more than just a solid player. Indeed, her performance at the HSBC showed she might very well possess the seeds of greatness.

The Match Play Championship was set up like your typical USGA match play competition. 64 women were in the field: the 60 top players on the LPGA tour, the top JLPGA player (which was Ai Miyazato), the US Women's Open winner (Birdie Kim), and two sponsor's exemptions. One of those exemptions went to Se Ri Pak, who had struggled mightily all year and was unbelievably not in the top 64 on the money list in time to otherwise qualify. In all, there were 14 Koreans and 1 Korean American in the field, including three of the four top Korean rookies (only Young Jo did not make it). Grace Park had won the last match play event the LPGA had held, and had the best overall record in match play in the field. So she looked like an early favorite, as did Hee-Won Han, who not only was playing better than Grace in 2005, she also had done well in match play in the past (winning the MVP at the recent Pinx Cup being her latest success). Meena, meanwhile, had never played a match play event in her life (although she had herself played match play at the Pinx Cup when she was on the team). And, she was matched against Han in the first round. It did not look like it would be a long tournament for her.

Contrary to what the commentators said,
Meena has played match play golf before.
Here she is at the Maruhan Cup in
2002, where she played a match play and
a stroke play round.

Se Ri Pak and Birdie Kim hung
out a bit before the Match Play
Championship. Both would lose
in the first round.

In the first round, eight Koreans were eliminated, which did not bode well for getting a Korean into the final four. Many lost on the last or next to last hole. Birdie Kim, coming off her sensational victory at the US Women's Open, played very well in her match against Sophie Gustafson, shooting a 4 under 68 (or its equivalent). But on the last hole, Gustafson put her iron to within a couple feet, and even though Kim made a great two putt par, Gustafson still won the match with the easy birdie. Se Ri Pak got up early on her opponent, Rachel Hetherington (another tough early round matchup), but lost steam and ended up losing 2 up. Both Joo Mi Kim and Sung Ah Yim lost their matches as well, as did Young Kim and Soo Yun Kang. But Meena hung tough against Hee-Won, eventually taking her to a playoff when they were all square after 18 holes. Meena would win on the first playoff hole, a definite upset.

Or was it? Meena had a secret that not many knew. While many Koreans were great iron players or long drivers, Meena was a relatively short driver, and a good but not great iron player. What she excelled in was her short game. She was a fantastic chipper and pitcher, and her putting was absolutely top notch. In match play, nothing helps you more than a hot putter. As Meena was soon to prove. Repeatedly.

Fortunately, most of the top Korean players did manage to get through to the second round. Grace Park defeated Michele Redman 2 and 1 (in yet another tougher than expected first round matchup). Shi Hyun Ahn beat the French woman Karine Icher, and Mi Hyun Kim, Jeong Jang, Gloria Park, and Christina Kim also advanced.

On the second day, however, more top seeds fell, and several of the highly touted Korean players also fell victim. Chief among these was Grace Park, who was matched up with a surprisingly solid Marisa Baena. Baena had been a strong match play golfer in college, but Park had been an even better one, and was certainly a better pro than Marisa, even with her recent struggles. But their match proved very tight. They squared their final four holes, forcing a playoff which Baena won on the first hole. It was a disappointing result for Grace, who would skip the next two events to prepare for the British Open. Not so surprisingly,
Shi Hyun Ahn also lost, but she also took it to a playoff before Sophie Gustafson got the better of her when Ahn bogied the first hole in the playoff.

Grace fell victim to Marisa Baena in round two

Christina made it to the third round

Other matches were not nearly so tight. Mi Hyun Kim was routed by Rachel Hetherington, who then earned the right to take on Annika in round three. Hetherington now had two Seoul Sister scalps on her putter, having taken Se Ri out in round one. And Gloria Park was also upset by Nicole Perrot pretty easily, although to be fair, Perrot was a former US
Women's Amateur champ who doubtless felt at ease in Match play situations.

Making it through were Christina Kim, who took out Laurie Rinker without much fuss; Jeong Jang, who eliminated the Japanese sponsor's exemption Shinobu Moromizato; and Meena, who made quick work of #50 Kim Saiki. But here it was only the round of 16, and already 12 of the 15 Koreans had been eliminated.

In round 3, things were only going to get tougher for the Sisters. Jeong Jang had played well so far, but now she was going up against Karrie Webb. And though JJ tried, she didn't do very well, losing 4 and 2 to the former world's number one player. Christina Kim had a more hard fought battle with American Wendy Ward. On paper, this looked to be a tough one to call. Both players were capable of great runs and both were capable of screwing up. They fought tooth and nail, and coming to the last hole, it was all square. Ward was about 50 feet from the hole, and nailed an unlikely birdie putt from there to put the pressure on Christina. Not a good break. Christina could not make her own shorter birdie, and lost in a pretty hard to take way.