LPGA Update

Mitchell Company Tournament of Champions
The end of the LPGA season has been a lot less successful for the Korean golfers than the beginning was. Except for the brief two week period when the tour was in Asia, the Koreans have by and large not played up to their top standards during the end run of the season. Could they change things during the final two events of 2006?

First up after the conclusion of the Asian swing was the Mitchell Company Tournament of Champions in Mobile, Alabama. This is a special limited field event that contains nothing but tournament winners from the last four years. This year, Gloria Park lost her right to play here, as she has not won an event since 2002, and only winners from 2003 onward are allowed to participate. Mi Hyun Kim had also faced that same possible fate, but she ended her four year winless streak in resounding fashion in 2006, capturing two titles to extend her eligibility for this event until 2009. As far as next year's event goes, Shi Hyun Ahn is in danger of losing her right to play, as she has not won since her breakthrough victory at the CJ 9 Bridges in late 2003.

The loss of Gloria Park was more than offset by four new Korean golfers who qualified to play in this event for the first time. They are Joo Mi Kim, who won her first ever LPGA event this year at the tour's first event in 2006, the SBS Open; Sung Ah Yim, who topped Annika Sorenstam to claim her maiden win; Seon Hwa Lee, who won the ShopRite Classic en route to claiming Rookie of the Year honors; and Jin Joo Hong (pictured), whose win at the Kolon-Hana Bank Championship just a couple weeks earlier made her the year's most recent first time winner. It's an indication of how common KLPGA winners at this event have become that Hong was so easily able to get her work visa prepared to get her into this field; back when Shi Hyun Ahn won the CJ in 2003, it practically took an act of Congress to expedite her paperwork and get her into the country to play.

So many Koreans have qualified for this event that the local papers jokingly referred to it as the Tournament of Koreans. Joining the first time winners in the field were the first time winners from last year, now returning for their second crack at this title: Jee Young Lee, Soo-Yun Kang, Jimin Kang, Jeong Jang, and Meena Lee, as well as long time stars like Grace Park and Mi Hyun Kim. Hee-Won Han dropped out for an undisclosed reason before the event began, and Birdie Kim was also a no show. As if that weren't enough Seoul Power, the event also featured the returning champion, Christina Kim, and Se Ri Pak (pictured), who won this event twice early in the decade but had not been in attendance the previous two seasons. Christina has been struggling with her game in 2006, but she still was top 40 on the money list, so it had hardly been a terrible year by any stretch of the imagination. Se Ri, meanwhile, was coming off of a top five finish at the Kolon-Hana Bank. She had not been able to play often in the past few months due to recurring injuries, though, so there was no telling if she would bring her A game to Alabama this week.

As it turned out, many of the Korean golfers struggled right out of the gate. The brief return to form witnessed in Asia seemed to be gone. Mi Hyun Kim was deathly ill, and valiantly gutted out a first round 75 before dropping out of the tournament to preserve her strength for the ADT Championship the following week. Se Ri also played pretty poorly, although her main problem was an inability to make birdies most of the day. Poor Christina Kim! In defense of her title, she got out to a horrible start, posting a 6 over par 78 that left her in second to last place in the field.

In her first ever action in the States, Jin Joo Hong did pretty well, shooting a one over par 73. Grace Park, who has suffered all year from various maladies and injuries, was able to put together a fairly decent 2 under par 70, but that still left her in 17th place. The best round of the day by far by a Korean was turned in by Joo Mi Kim. Joo Mi had recently had some great finishes in KLPGA events, and on this day she was smoking hot. At one point she had gotten her score to 7 under par, including a fantastic approach on a par five to a few feet which she later converted for eagle. A late bogey dropped her down to 6 under par, but that was still good for a tie for second place with Lorena Ochoa, who had won her two previous events, and Liselotte Neumann, and two shots behind Paula Creamer. Other solid Korean starts were turned in by Sung Ah Yim and Jee Young Lee, who shot 4 under par 68s, and Jimin Kang, who shot a 69.

The leaderboard completely flip flopped in round two, and many of the players who had started well struggled. Ochoa got off to a horrendous start with an early quadruple bogey, but still managed to climb back to a one over par 73 by the end of the day. Creamer was also two over par, and Joo Mi Kim (pictured) really struggled, shooting a 76 to plunge out of the top ten on the leaderboard. The highest ranked Korean after two rounds was now Sung Ah Yim, who also shot an over par round on this day but still remained at 3 under total and a tie for 9th. The only other Koreans even in the top 20 (and keep in mind that this was a limited field event with only 38 players remaining in the field) were Joo Mi Kim in 12th and Meena Lee in 18th. At the half way point, this was shaping up to be not only a bad event for the Koreans, but quite possibly the worst event of the entire year.

There was more bad news farther down the leaderboard. Grace Park and Se Ri Pak both shot 75s, and were near the bottom of the pack. Indeed, Se Ri was the second worst Korean in the entire field, in 34th place out of 38 golfers. But the saddest result was reserved for defending champion Christina Kim, who was playing her worst event of the year. She shot a 76 and was in dead last. She must have felt horrible.

On Saturday, there was good news and bad news. The good news is that some of the Korean contingent rebounded with good rounds this day, and gave themselves chances at top tens. The bad news was that Lorena Ochoa found her game at the worst possible time, shot a blistering 63, and, just when it looked like she might be out of contention, surged into a five shot lead. Far from being nervous trying to capture her third straight win, it looked like she was going to do it with ease. The top ranked Korean golfer was still just hanging on to the top ten. Joo Mi Kim shot a 2 under par 70 to rebound from her calamitous second round. She was at 4 under par, tied for 9th. Jee Young Lee was at 3 under in tenth. The third best Korean, amazingly, was Jin Joo Hong. In her first ever pro golf event outside of Asia, Hong put together a 70 to move to 2 under total and a tie for 13th. It will be very interesting to watch her rookie year next year, to see how quickly she adapts to playing in the States. From all indications, it will be no problem for her at all.