SeoulSisters Awards

Best Breakthrough Performance
Amy Yang, ANZ Masters
Amy Yang was virtually unknown outside of Australian amateur golf before her stunning victory at the ANZ Ladies Masters in February. After that win, she was known throughout the world, had the ability to play at certain LET events (and later gained full status on tour), and is now being courted by sponsors such as Samsung as one of the next big things in Korean golf.

Weirdest Trophy
Kolon-Hana Bank Championship
This is a first for this award: the winner of the coolest trophy award the previous year now claims the weirdest trophy award. This event was sponsored by CJ, the Korean entertainment conglomerate, for the first five years of its existence (the first year it was postponed). CJ established several traditions, such as giving the champion a nifty Korean hanbok to wear at the trophy ceremony. They also commissioned artisans to create a truly stunning porcelain trophy each year. This year, the event was taken over by Kolon and Hana Bank. They kept the tradition of giving the winner a special outfit, but it looked more like something out of a costume drama like House of Flying Daggers than a traditional Korean hanbok. The trophy, meanwhile, is a modern art thing that looks more like a tile sample display from Home Depot than a traditional trophy. This year's winner Jin Joo Hong looked unsure how exactly to hold the thing, and who can blame her?

Honorable Mention:
Ginn Clubs and Resorts Open
Noted artist Dale Chihuly contributed a beautiful glass bowl as the trophy for the inaugural Ginn Clubs and Resorts Open. It was undeniably beautiful, but with its awkward shape and weight, it was clearly not designed for easy lifting. Poor Mi Hyun Kim, one of the smallest ladies on tour, looked like she was going to have a hernia as she gamely tried to heft the thing.

ADT-CAPS Championship
This tournament won 'weirdest trophy' last year, but it only made the runner up category this year. They continued the tradition of giving the winner a crème colored gangster suit to wear, but the trophy looks more like a serving tray than last year's version, which resembled the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. And it had a weird tendency to get all smudgy, as this photo clearly shows. We eagerly await what they will come up with at this tournament next year!

Coolest Trophy
Fields Open
Simple, elegant, to the point: this nice little glass trophy is both clearly a trophy, and a nice little modernistic twist on a trophy at the same time. And best of all, the winner, Meena Lee, was able to lift it without help from people in the audience, and could kiss it without worrying about lip injuries.

Honorable Mention:
US Women's Amateur
Nothing like tradition! This trophy has been the same for ages, and it still works. It's a bit on the gaudy side, but it looks important, befitting the purpose for which it was designed: namely, awarding the winner of the most important amateur event in the United States.

Best Team Event moment
Seon Hwa Lee clinches the Lexus Cup, goes undefeated
The Lexus Cup is an event that it still in its embryonic stages. It has a noble purpose: to create a women's golf team event that includes all the golfers in the world, not just those from Europe and the United States. With so many top golfers coming from outside those two areas these days, the Solheim Cup has definitely been inadequate as the sole team event for the pros. It still needs work; the teams of Asia vs. everyone else are pretty unfair, even with all the great players coming out of Asia these days.

Last year, Grace Park was the captain of the Asian team, and watched as the International team thoroughly outclassed her gals. This year, she was again chosen to lead the charge, and wanted to make sure that they would have a team that would be more competitive. She was lucky that the new qualifying standards, and her own personal persuasiveness, enabled her to recruit a team consisting of nine Seoul Sisters and three strong players from elsewhere in Asia. The Korean golfers came through, especially Young Kim and Seon Hwa Lee, who went undefeated for the week.
The star of the week was definitely the LPGA 2006 Rookie of the Year Lee. On Friday, she paired with Young Kim to win their team match. Asia and the Internationals were tied 3 points apiece after that day's action. On the second day, she teamed with fellow CJ star Se Ri Pak to win again, and Asia took the day 4-2 and took a two point lead into the singles matches.

As expected, the Internationals did not just roll over and play dead. Grace Park wanted proven winners playing at the end, and thus put Hee-Won Han, Seon Hwa Lee and Se Ri Pak as her final three. Han came through, Pak did not, and as it turned out, with only one match yet to be decided, the Cup was still up for grabs. That match was Seon Hwa Lee, Rookie of the Year, against Julieta Granada, the woman who finished second in that contest to Lee. It was a tough battle the whole way. Granada had been on a roll the past few months, while Lee had slumped, and many in the press were starting to suggest that perhaps Granada was the real rookie of the year. So, on top of having the Cup in her hands, Lee also was fighting for bragging rights as well. And she came through like the champion she is. She hit a fantastic approach on 16 to make birdie and take a two up lead. She then two putted on 17 to halve the hole and claim the cup for Asia for the first time. It was an electrifying moment. Seon Hwa Lee told this magazine earlier in the year that she enjoyed team matches because the pressure was not so great as at a regular tournament, but I suspect she was feeling more than her share of pressure that day, and she still came through.

Honorable Mention:
Meena Lee clinches the Kyoraku Cup, goes undefeated
South Korea had only been able to tie Japan at the Pinx Cup in 2005. The cup was renamed in 2006 thanks to a new sponsor, and Korea wanted the cup back. They got it back in style, and one of the main reasons was Meena Lee. After winning her match on Saturday, Lee found herself in a tight battle on Sunday. Japan had closed the huge gap to just two points, and she and Se Ri Pak needed to win their matches to put the Cup out of reach of their feisty competitors. She made a few mistakes on the last few holes, but managed to tough it out and collect the win. She was later named the MVP of the tournament, a well deserved honor.

Worst Moment in a team event
Kimmie only plays one day at the Kyoraku Cup
Mi Hyun Kim was the captain of the Korean team at the Kyoraku Cup this year. She did a great job choosing the match ups, as evidence by the trouncing the Koreans gave their opponents this year. But in one case she made a big mistake: she decided to sit her top player out on day one. That player was none other than Mi Hyun Kim. It makes no sense to bench a player who had two LPGA wins and 13 top tens on the season to allow players from the JLPGA or KLPGA to play. She was probably trying to be generous to her lesser known teammates, and in the end it made little difference to the outcome, but it was still an ill advised move on her part.

Best head to head Match Up
Mi Hyun Kim vs. Natalie Gulbis, Jamie Farr Classic
This award is for the best match up pitting a Korean golfer against any other golfer, Korean or otherwise. Probably the best toe to toe battle this year that fits this category was the one waged between Mi Hyun Kim and Natalie Gulbis at the Jamie Farr Classic in July.

In fact, this match up might almost be considered a four way battle. Se Ri Pak, the four time winner of the event, and Paula Creamer also played superlatively on the final day, and the four jockeyed for the trophy much of the day. But in the end, it was Kimmie and Gulbis who fought the longest and the hardest for the win.

At first, it looked like it was going to be a massacre. Kimmie was tied with Gulbis going into the final round, with Se Ri and Creamer one shot back. Pak and Kimmie were both playing well early on Sunday, but Gulbis was absolutely on fire, making four straight birdies at one point. She had a three shot lead over Kimmie by this point. On the 8th hole, Gulbis' tee shot hit the flag, and bounced far enough away that she was not able to make the birdie. Both Pak and Kim did make birdie there to close the gap somewhat.

Se Ri fell out of contention when she made bogey on the tenth hole. Gulbis made yet another birdie, while Kimmie hit a fantastic shot from a fairway bunker to four feet, then made her own birdie to keep pace. But this would be the last birdie Gulbis made in regulation. Kimmie was still several shots back, but she slowly chipped away at the lead. On the 16th hole, Gulbis struggled to make par while Mi Hyun made birdie to cut the lead to one stroke. On the next hole, a par five, Gulbis put herself into trouble near the green. She got up and down for par, but Mi Hyun made birdie to move into a tie for the lead. That is how they would remain after finishing 18, so they went to a playoff.

On the first playoff hole, Gulbis missed a 12 foot birdie try, giving Peanut a chance to put the match away with her own birdie try. But she missed, and they went on to a second playoff hole, the 17th. On this hole, Kimmie put her second shot into some rough, and could not reach the green in three. Gulbis put her shot near the flag. By this point, a large gallery was following the group, almost all of whom were rooting for Natalie. Kimmie did what she could, putting her fourth shot close and saving par. But now Gulbis had a short birdie putt to win. Fortunately for Kim, she missed, and they moved on to a third playoff hole.

On this hole, Kimmie's approach ended up twice as far from the hole as Gulbis'. But Kimmie putted first, and drained the birdie to put the pressure on Gulbis. Once again, Natalie could not respond, and Kimmie had the win. Peanut had managed to first come back from a big deficit early in the round, then outlast Gulbis for three holes despite having most of the crowd against her. It was another gutsy performance from the little lady with the lion's heart.

Honorable Mention:
Kim Kim vs. Katharina Schallenberg, US Women's Amateur

Best Playoff
Hee-Won Han vs. Meena Lee, Corning Classic (see best Korean confrontation above)