LPGA Update

ADT Championship
The final event of the LPGA season is always the tour championship. Outside of the Majors, it is probably the most prestigious tournament a player can win. In years past, the top thirty players on the money list qualified to play. This year, however, the LPGA decided to try something radically different. Instead of merely qualifying for the event based on money list position, players now had to earn points that would qualify them for the event. The rules for qualification were Byzantine and at times a bit inconsistent, but it basically worked as follows. The season was split into two halves; the players who accumulated the most points each half would qualify. As well, winning a Major or the HSBC Match Play Championship automatically qualified a player (if she were not already in the field). Later in the season, the rules became even stranger. The player who did the best at the three Asian LPGA events would qualify. Furthermore, the points "earned" during those events were only used to determine the special Asian event qualifier and were not included in the annual totals.

After all was said and done, thirty two golfers qualified for the final tournament. That's when things really took a turn for the strange. The tournament was still to be played at Trump International in Florida, as it had been the two previous years. But this time the rules for the event were quite different. The golfers would play two rounds of golf, and on Friday afternoon, after the second round was complete, only the top 16 golfers in the field would continue on (if there were any ties, there would be sudden death play-offs). On Saturday, they would play a third round, and after that, only the top eight would proceed to the finals. It was in the finals where things really got wild. All the scores were to be thrown out, and the eight golfers would play one round of golf. Whoever had the low score at the end of the day would walk off with a one million dollar first prize, by far the largest single prize in the history of women's golf. The second place golfer would only get $100,000, and no one else would get more than 20 grand. In effect, it was a winner take all situation, and it had the capability of greatly changing the money list all in one day. For one player, that final day could be a life changing event.

In the end, ten Korean golfers qualified for the field of 32, with three others on the alternates list (alas, none of them got into the field in the end). The first to qualify was Se Ri Pak, who got in when she won the LPGA Championship in June. Shortly after that, the first half of the season ended, and five more Koreans qualified based on their earned points. They were, in order, Mi Hyun Kim, who finished second; Seon Hwa Lee, who finished fifth; Hee-Won Han (pictured), sixth; Jeong Jang, seventh; and Meena Lee, 11th. After the Tournament of Champions, the second half of the season ended and the remaining players qualified for the event. They were Jee Young Lee, who was third on the second half list; Il Mi Chung, who was fifth; and Sun Young Yoo, who was 8th. In addition, Sung Ah Yim was added to the field as one of two wild cards, which were determined by the two players who were highest on the money list who had not qualified already. Doing the qualifying this way allowed Sun Young Yoo and Il Mi Chung to qualify, despite the fact neither of them were as high on the money list as some of the players who didn't qualify. They made it thanks to having great second halves of their seasons. Meanwhile, Gloria Park, Young Kim and some other Koreans who were more consistent all year, but not as strong in the second half of the year, were left out in the cold.

After the first round, three of the Koreans had effectively knocked themselves out of the tournament. Sun Young Yoo and Sung Ah Yim had only barely qualified for the event, and so it wasn't that surprising that, after the first round, they were the two players in last in the entire field. They both also had never played in this event before, and perhaps weren't ready for the tough course they would be facing. But Rookie of the Year Seon Hwa Lee also struggled mightily on this day, shooting a 77 that put her in fourth to last place. As she told this magazine a few issues ago, she has really run out of steam in the second half of the year and intends to be more strategic about making her schedule in 2007.

Several Koreans also put themselves near the top of the leaderboard, and gave themselves a little breathing room for the moment. Surprisingly, the top Korean on day one was Il Mi Chung. She had gotten into the field thanks to her great second half of the season, but did not seem to be a player who would stand out among all the top Korean talent in the field. But she was extremely solid on this day, shooting a three under par 69 that moved her into a tie for second. Mi Hyun Kim had been forced to drop out of the Tournament of Champions the previous week due to a severe illness, but she obviously had recovered in the meantime: she shot a 2 under 70 to finish tied for 4th. She looked good to do even better, but put her approach on 18 into a bad lie and could not get up and down. Se Ri Pak had also had a terrible Tournament of Champions, but on this day shot a 71 and was nicely inside the cut line.

The course definitely showed its teeth on this day, and the preponderance of water on the course, particularly on the final three holes, made it a nerve wracking experience all around. On day one, the seventeenth hole was particularly nasty to the Koreans. Se Ri Pak made a clutch long birdie on the 16th hole, but hit a weak iron and watched it land in the water on the par 3 17th. She got a double bogey there. But on 18, she buried another long birdie putt to finish with her 71. Hee-Won Han also saw her tee shot on 17 go into the water, but JJ was able to get a little back with a solid tee shot to ten feet and a birdie from there.

The main action involved those near to the cut line, which at this point stood at 1 over par. Jee Young Lee finished the day at even, Hee-Won Han right on the cut line. Jeong Jang, meanwhile, was at 2 over and had some work to do to make the top 16. Some of the top players in the field were also hovering around this point, including two time defending champion Annika Sorenstam, who finished the day at 2 over par, and money list leader Lorena Ochoa, who was at 3 over.