SeoulSisters Awards

Most Surprising Result
Sung Ah Yim, Florida's Natural Charity Championship
Without a doubt, among the eleven wins Korean golfers pulled off on the LPGA in 2006, the most unlikely was the one that took place at the final edition of the LPGA's Atlanta stop. Sung Ah Yim was a second year player in 2006 who had had a decent but unspectacular career to that point. She occasionally managed to put herself in contention, and even came close to winning an event in 2005. But she was not particularly consistent, and would occasionally have long stretches of tournaments where she did not do so well.

Nothing about this tournament seemed to suggest that a Korean would be walking off with the title in 2006. In fact, after the first round, not a single Korean golfer was in the top ten. Sung Ah was one of four Koreans tied in 12th place after day one. But everything changed 100% on day two. On Friday, several Koreans had great rounds. Sung Ah was one of the first golfers to go out in the morning, and she took advantage, shooting one of the best rounds of her life, an 8 under par 64. By the end of the day, her 12 under par total was good for the lead. Another Korean, rookie Jee Young Lee, was by herself in second place at 11 under. And yet another, Hee-Won Han, shot a 29 on her front nine and 64 total left her at 10 under, tied for third. But not far back were several non-Korean stars, including Karrie Webb, who was tied for third with Han; Annika Sorenstam, who was at 9 under; and Natalie Gulbis and Juli Inkster, who were not too far behind them.

On Saturday, the three Koreans played in the final group. Looking at that lineup, one would have expected Han to come out of the day with the best round, or perhaps tournament winner Jee Young Lee. But amazingly, it was Yim who played the best. Her 4 under par 68 was one of only two rounds in the entire field without a bogey. Han shot an even par round, which dropped her into 9th place, while Lee shot a 4 over par 76 and completely tumbled out of contention. Meanwhile, Annika shot a lights out round of 64 to move to 17 under par and a one shot lead over Yim. The other players in the field were four shots behind Yim.

The scenario on Sunday was one we had seen many times on the LPGA tour over the last few years. Annika in a final group with an untested player. The results were almost always the same: the untested player collapsed and Sorenstam breezed to the victory. In fact, the previous eleven tournaments where Sorenstam had been leading going into the final round she had collected eleven wins. The odds were monumentally against Sung Ah. But Yim refused to collapse, surprising everyone hole after hole with her tenacity.

Both players were unusually inconsistent on the front nine, but as they approached the turn, Sorenstam maintained just a one shot lead over Yim. Yim caught Sorenstam when Annika made a bogey on the 12th hole, then both made birdies on 14 to stay tied. With two holes remaining, Yim still remained tied with the Hall of Famer.

Then came the 17th hole, where the most unlikely thing of all happened. Sorenstam hit a drive out of bounds, essentially costing herself the tournament. Yim made par to take a two shot lead, then made birdie on the par 5 18th to beat Sorenstam by two shots. Her only LPGA win to date, it was an amazing accomplishment by the young Korean, and a very unlikely one at that.

Honorable Mention:
Jenny Shin wins the US Girls Junior
Shin is a 13 year old golfer who has only just started playing national level tournaments. She managed to make her way, remarkably, all the way to the finals at the US Girl's Junior, the country's top event for golfers 17 and under, but once there found herself playing 17 year old Korean American Vicky Hurst. Hurst had been a dominating presence all week, beating one golfer after another, including the top ranked and seemingly unbeatable Mina Harigae. In the final, it looked for all the world like she was going to beat Shin, too. They were tied after 18 holes, but in the afternoon session, Hurst surged to a three up lead quickly. She maintained a 2 up lead through the fifteenth hole, and Shin was running out of chances to catch Hurst. But on 15, Hurst inexplicably missed a gimme two footer to lose the hole. She then missed a birdie to win on 17. On 18, Shin missed the green. She needed to win the hole to have any chance. She did get up and down, but Hurst needed only two putt from twenty feet to win the match. Once again, she messed up, three putting to lose the hole and fall into a tie.

Forced to go to extra holes, Hurst nearly put her drive into the water. She got lucky there, but on her next shot, she did dunk it, and when Shin put her second shot onto the green, and Hurst hit her fourth into a bunker, Hurst surprised everyone by conceding the match and thus the championship to her young opponent. From a two up lead and seemingly certain win, she had fumbled the ball and given the title to her young, tenacious foe Jenny Shin. Shin thus became the second youngest to ever win this tournament, behind only Aree Song.

Most Dominating Performance
Ji Yai Shin, Orient Chinese Ladies Open
The Orient Chinese Ladies Open was the first KLPGA sanctioned event to take place in mainland China. The event featured stars from China, Thailand, and Taiwan, as well as top stars from South Korea. As the tournament ended, the Korean golfers had captured the top seven spots on the leaderboard. But one player completely dominated the proceedings: KLPGA superstar Ji Yai Shin.

Perhaps the Chinese golfers should not have shot their mouths off to the press before the tournament begun. The top Chinese golfer in the field opined that she felt that a Chinese golfer was going to win the event, despite the presence of the KLPGA powerhouses in the field. Who knows if Shin was even aware of her comments, but after a slow start in round one, she took off like a rocket in round two by shooting a 6 under par 66, the best round of the day. That left her tied for the lead going into the weekend. But she was just getting started. On Saturday she kicked it into yet another gear, shooting a sizzling 8 under par 64, three shots better than anyone else that day. By the time the dust cleared, she had a seven shot lead, and the only question remaining was how much of a massacre the final result would be. In the final round, Shin, surprisingly nervous, was only able to shoot the second best round of the day. Her three under 69 still left her at 17 under, the best total at a KLPGA event all year, and a stunning 8 shots ahead of KLPGA star Na Yeon Choi.

Best Victory Celebration
Joo Mi Kim, SBS Open
Joo Mi Kim was the 2003 KLPGA Player of the Year who was just starting her second year on the LPGA tour in 2006. She had had a good but not great rookie year on tour. But at the SBS Open, the very first event of the LPGA season, she played well enough to get into a three way playoff, outlasted superstar Lorena Ochoa on the first hole, and then played brilliantly to beat Soo Young Moon on the second hole to win the tournament.

Literally seconds after sinking the winning putt, Joo Mi was drenched in a champagne shower by Christina Kim. Jeong Jang and several other golfers ran onto the green to join in the fun. Joo Mi was laughing her head off, enjoying every minute of it. But what happened next elevated this simple victory celebration into classic territory. JJ got the evil idea to toss Joo Mi into the water near the green. Joo Mi wasn't too sure about that and resisted, so the four ladies picked her up and dragged her over to the pond. The problem was, there were all sorts of jagged rocks there, and there was no way they were going to get her into the water with cutting her up big time. So they dropped her on the green, but still insisted she dive into the water. She walked tentatively over the rocks while her caddie jumped into the water. She joined him, becoming even more drenched than she had already been. After she emerged, laughing harder than ever, she made sure to go up and hug a friend, getting him all wet as well.

Later, during the trophy ceremony, she laughingly insisted she would give a speech at her next win in English, but for now she would be forced to do it in Korean. Her smiles, high fives and good mood were infectious, making the whole ceremony a wonderful time; even the commentators enjoyed watching Kim's happiness.

Honorable Mention:
Se Ri Pak, LPGA Championship
The sweetest win of the year, Se Ri was also spritzed by Christina Kim on the green after her triumph. Later, after being congratulated by Ronald McDonald among others, she talked about how much the win meant to her, choking up when she talked about the sacrifices her parents had made for her. After she had gone through so much, the sweet success of her win made for one of the most touching moments of the year.

Most controversial moment
Jeong Jang double hits (?) at the US Women's Open
The US Women's Open was hampered all week by weather; indeed, the first day was completely canceled thanks to thick fog. This resulted in a 36 hole marathon to finish the event on Sunday. As the third round wound down, the tournament had pretty much boiled down to a few players who could still win. One of those players was Jeong Jang, who, after a poor front nine, rallied in a big way on the back. She made three straight birdies on 14, 15 and 16 to move to 2 over, right in the thick of the competition with more than a round to go. She then bogied 17. But it was on 18 where the controversy happened.

She put her drive on this hole into some tall weeds, and was forced to chip to get it out. But the ball took a strange detour in the middle of its path. On replay, it looked for all the world like JJ had hit the ball twice in one swing. That would count as two strokes. She finished the hole after more struggles and carded a double bogey. But before she could sign her card and move onto her fourth round, several officials stopped her and forced her to watch several replays of the shot. They seemed to believe that she had in fact hit the ball twice, but even after watching the replays, JJ stuck by her claim that she had not double hit the ball. She signed her card and moved on to play her fourth round.

But fans called in to the TV network in droves, thinking that JJ had gotten away with something. The officials decided that she should be penalized after all, but because of the unusual circumstances forcing her to play so soon after finishing her round, they did not disqualify her for signing an incorrect scorecard. The commentators seemed to think that the right thing had been done. By this point, she had been thoroughly shaken up by the controversy, and she plunged off the leaderboard, eventually finishing with an 80.

So, what happened? Did she double hit the ball? Did she know she did but lie about it? Should the USGA have penalized her? You could argue about this for hours. Our take is that the video was inconclusive, and given that JJ has shown herself to be an honorable person her entire career, there's no reason to believe she was trying to knowingly cheat. As for the final question, the USGA probably should have let the decision stand; even if it was a bad call, bad calls happen all the time in other sports. You don't go back half an hour later and reverse some umpire's call in baseball, either. And in the end, JJ was probably far more penalized by the fiddling and diddling of the USGA, forcing her to take the precious time between rounds to talk about the shot, then she would have been by having the stroke added.

Honorable Mention:
Michelle Wie struggles in men's events
Wie's decision to play men's events so frequently has always been a controversial one; it has provoked a lot of discussion, with people coming down on both sides of the issue. But this year, particularly at the end of the season, she has struggled to come up with decent performances when she has played the guys. After dropping out of one tournament due to dehydration and finishing last or virtually last in several others, the normal controversy has kicked into another gear. The fact is, she's going through a slump right now, and not playing at the level she is capable of achieving. Time will tell whether that slump is long lasting or just a blip on the radar, but you can count on one thing: people will be talking about it!