SeoulSisters Awards

It's time once again for SeoulSister.com's annual review of the year just passed. After two amazing years, 2005 and 2006, where Koreans were rewriting the record books, producing amazing career resurgences (Se Ri Pak), stunning Major wins from seemingly nowhere (Birdie Kim), or just plain dominating leaderboards (the top five at the 2005 Safeway Classic), 2007 was decidedly a down year. Koreans only won 4 events on the LPGA tour all year, fewer than Suzann Pettersen and Lorena Ochoa won by themselves. For the first time since 2003, no Korean won a Major, and no individual Korean won more than a single event, either. On the Futures Tour, only one Korean managed to earn a tour card for 2008, and she was already a (non-exempt) LPGA rookie in 2007. In fact, only one Korean rookie, Hee Young Park, managed to claim an exempt tour card in 2008, which will make for the smallest rookie class for the Koreans in some time (compare that to the bonanza of exempt Korean rookies in 2007). Things were not much brighter in amateur golf; whereas in 2006, Koreans had finished first in all three top USGA amateur events (the Pub Links, the US Amateur and the US Girls), as well as second in two of those events, in 2007, they only managed to win one of those events when newcomer Kristen Park won the US Girls. Even at the 'sure win' tournaments, the Kolon Hana Bank Championship, which Koreans had never lost, and the Kyoraku Cup, which they had not lost in six years, the Koreans came up short.

There were some bright spots, however. The rookie class was a definite highlight, with golfers of Korean heritage nabbing the top four spots on that list and providing many highlights throughout the year. And Koreans put more golfers in the top ten on the LPGA money list (five) than ever before, with two of them finishing in the top five. Jee Young Lee continued her development, managing to capture three second place finishes, and Seon Hwa Lee turned into a match play machine, winning every match play match she played during the year. And Ji Yai Shin continued to torch the KLPGA mercilessly, compiling the greatest season that tour had ever seen.

Without further ado, let's check out the top accomplishments and most memorable moments of the 2007 season!

Best Start to the Season
Na On Min
At the start of the season, one of the most obscure of the new Korean rookies was a teenager named Na On Min. Min had been a member of the Korean national team (as indeed, many of the Korean stars have been), but had made no impact whatsoever on this side of the globe when she showed up for Q-School at the end of 2006. She just missed out on earning an exempt card, so things looked grim if she wanted to make her way as a pro on the LPGA. Nonetheless, she turned pro and took her chances.

Min was finally able to get into her first LPGA field in late April, but she had to travel to Mexico to do it. The tournament was the Corona Championship, and she made the most of her opportunity. In the first round, she started with a 68 that put her just one shot out of the lead. She remained near the top of the leaderboard the rest of the week, eventually finishing 5th. A top five finish in her very first LPGA event is not something that a lot of golfers can claim, but Min can. Her performance moved her up in status on tour, and she eventually cemented her place as one of the top non-exempt golfers on tour with a third place finish at the LPGA Championship in June. But she would not have even been in that field were it not for her strong Corona performance.

Eventually, Min finished 40th on the money list, earning herself a two year exemption on tour in the process. She played in 19 events in 2007 and made over $300,000. But it was her quick start at the Corona that made it all possible.

Honorable Mentions:
Angela Park
In her first event as an LPGA pro, the SBS Open, Park started with a lackluster tie for 33rd. It was the only time she trailed in the Rookie of the Year race in 2007. In her second event, she finished tied for third after contending most of the week. She never looked back..

Ji Yai Shin
How's this for a start to your year? Shin competed in the Women's World Cup and finished (along with Young Kim) in third place. She traveled to Australia, played in two events there, and finished top five in both (including a second place at the ANZ Masters). She then traveled to Thailand, played the Thai Women's Open, and won that event in a rout by ten shots. In just a few weeks she played tournaments on three continents and finished in the top five in all of them. And that was before the KLPGA season even started!

Biggest Disappearing Act:
Michelle Wie
In general, I've made it a policy on this site not to pile on to Michelle Wie too much this year. It has doubtless been a pretty tough year for her, and the last thing she needs is yet more criticism. But if you're going to talk about the player of Korean heritage who fell the farthest in 2007, without any doubt that player would have to be Wie. Her plunge from the top has been so calamitous and so quick that it would be hard to ignore.

In 2006, Wie continued her march towards getting her first LPGA win, getting closer it seemed with every tournament she entered. She managed top fives in several Majors, and in July contended at, and probably should have won, the Evian Masters, losing the lead on the back nine to eventual winner Karrie Webb. But shortly after that, she started to show signs of vulnerability, playing a decent but hardly spectacular British Open as her final Major of the year, and bowing out of a men's tournament after that due to heat induced health issues.

Still, nothing indicated that she was about to have the kind of year she had in 2007. Where in 2006 she was contending at Majors, in 2007, she was struggling at first just to finish tournaments. She had a particularly controversial withdrawal from the Ginn Tribute, due to a flare up from a wrist injury, yet the next day was on the range at the LPGA Championship practicing for that event. Even when she finished the week out, she often found herself either missing the cut or winding up at the bottom of the standings. By the end of the year, she had given up on playing men's events, had only broken par twice, and shot some of the most heinous rounds of golf the tour had seen. It's hard to imagine a bigger crash from a player of such obvious talent.

Some writers have made a cottage industry trying to figure out what the problem with Wie is, and I'm certainly not interested in joining their ranks. Among their many theories are her oft spoken about but still difficult to define wrist problem(s), a general apathy to playing the game after so many years of pushing hard, parental pressure, bad coaching, lack of preparedness due to not having played (and won) enough amateur events, entering men's events when she should have been focusing on women's events; indeed, everything but sunspots and the heartbreak of psoriasis has been posited as a possible reason for her catastrophic slump. But whatever the reason is, it is inarguable that the results have been nothing short of disastrous. Further, the people in her camp (and that she even has a 'camp' making decisions and comments about her is a sign that things are dire) do not seem to have any idea what caused the problem or how to go about fixing it, the evidence being the fact that little has changed about her approach to the game, and her comments about her playing seem at times ludicrously out of touch with the reality (surely, it is not weakness to admit when things are off the rails?).

Time will tell whether Wie will recover quickly, slowly or not at all, but for the time being, she has a lot to do to get back to where she once seemingly effortlessly was.

(Dis)honorable mentions:
Meena Lee
Meena Lee's slump has been a real head scratcher. In her first two years on tour, she was a solid top twenty golfer, easily one of the very best Korean golfers on tour. She won two tournaments during that span, and probably should have won the World Match Play as well. But in 2007, nothing much went right for this star. It was not exactly a horrible season; she still made nearly $300,000 during the year. But her 48th place ranking on the money list was well below what she had done in 2005 and 2006, and she notched only two top tens all year, two ties for 8th place. Things seemed amiss right from the start of the year, when she missed the cut at the Fields Open, where she was the defending champion. She had a couple of good finishes sprinkled in after that, and the occasional strong round, but was never able to get herself into contention in 2007 at any tournament.

Grace Park
You can't have this category without at least mentioning Grace Park. Although she played slightly better in 2007 than she did in 2006, she still barely finished in the top 90 on the money list. Injuries have continued to plague her, but even when she is healthy, she can't seem to stay healthy long enough to get back in tournament shape. Once the second best Korean golfer of them all, will she ever be able to return to the form that made her so impressive in the early part of her career?

Song Hee Kim
It's a bit weird to put a rookie in this category, but Song Hee definitely qualifies. In 2006, she absolutely dominated the Futures Tour, winning five times and setting all sorts of records in the process. Among those whom she demolished that year were the LPGA's top 2007 rookie Angela Park and third ranked rookie Inbee Park.

So, Song Hee seemed like a sure bet for success on the LPGA in 2007. What happened? She was not even able to secure a top twenty finish all year, and did not keep her exempt status for 2008. She did secure a conditional card by finishing 99th on the money list, but that left her in tenth place on the Rookie of the Year standings, behind not only Park and Park, but also five other Korean players. On the Futures Tour, her length, short game and mental toughness were all praised, but they all seemed to let her down in 2007. In the few holes I was able to see her play, the only thing I noticed is that her putting in particular was off. She missed several makeable putts in the nine holes I watched, including a one foot par save. Or perhaps the expectations were a bit much for her, and she was not able to cope. Regardless, it will be interesting to see if she can bounce back in 2008, when she does not have exempt status to fall back on.

Soo-Yun Kang
Kang was one of the top players on the KLPGA in the early part of the decade. She came over here and struggled, but in 2005, she won her first event, finished well in several others, and seemed at last on the road to success. Since then, however, she has done almost nothing of note. In 2006, she only managed to finish 94th on the money list, but in 2007, she did far worse, making only $37,000 and finishing outside of even the non-exempt card range (fortunately, she still has her exempt status thanks to her 2005 win). There are rumors that she has struggled with neck problems that have made it difficult to practice. Her marketability remains undiminished; she recently signed an agreement to represent Tovice in Korea, and still is sponsored by Hite Beer as well. And she is tons of fun to watch when things are going her way, like they did last year in Portland. But whether or not she will ever get back to contending in tournaments is still anyone's guess.

Kimchi Power: Best Korean Finish:
Asians go 6-0 first day of Lexus Cup
The Asian team at the Lexus Cup was captained this year, for the first time, not by Korean mainstay Grace Park but by Hall of Famer Se Ri Pak. Grace, in fact, was not even on the Asian team this year, but the Koreans were hardly underrepresented: nine of the twelve team members were from that country. The Asian team had been thoroughly beaten in 2005 at this event, but had squeaked out a narrow win in 2006 to tie the match record at one apiece. For the first time, however, the event was held not in Asia but in 'enemy territory': Perth, Australia. Would the Asians be able to hold off a tough International team? It seemed unlikely. Many of the Lexus Cup Koreans were coming off a surprising loss to Japan at the Kyoraku Cup the previous week. Koreans had not managed to win an LPGA event since July, an unusually long dry spell for the tough golfers. Meanwhile, they were facing a team that included Natalie Gulbis and Suzann Pettersen, both of whom had won more recently on the LPGA than any Korean golfer. How on Earth were the Koreans going to be able to stay in the Lexus Cup hunt, let alone win? One thing was for sure: they would have to get out to a strong start. In 2005, they had effectively lost the cup on the first day, when the International team doubled the point total of the Asians and never surrendered the lead thereafter.

Amazingly, the Asians not only seized the lead on day one, they did it in overwhelming style. For the first time in the short history of the Cup, a team won every match contested on a day. Yes, the Asian squad went 6-0 on day one, to grab a lead so overwhelming that they never came even close to losing it after that. Even more impressive was the fact that this day's format was foursome golf, which involves both golfers playing the same ball and alternating shots. This is a format that is particularly tough to play if you haven't had a lot of practice doing it, and since most of the Asian players have not played a lot of team golf, they haven't had nearly the practice the European and American players have had in this style of play.

Getting things off to a great start was the marquee match of the day, which pitted two of the best Korean golfers, Jee Young Lee and Seon Hwa Lee (pictured), against two of the top Internationals, Suzann Pettersen (the #2 golfer on the LPGA tour) and Natalie Gulbis. Seon Hwa Lee had never lost a Lexus Cup match, and continued her hot streak, winning all three in 2007 as well, including a relatively easy 3 and 2 defeat of Gulbis and Pettersen. Two other matches were also strong wins for Asia, the final two of the day: Candie Kung teamed with Japanese player Ayako Uehara to beat Annika Sorenstam and Catriona Matthew 3 and 2. This was another surprisingly easy match against the world's former #1 player and another tough match play golfer with tons of Solheim Cup experience. And Ji Yai Shin, the KLPGA superstar, teamed with Amy Hung to down the long hitting tandem of Maria Hjorth and Brittany Lincicome 4 & 2.

What really swung things Asia's way was that the other three matches, all closer affairs, were all won by the Asian squad. Se Ri Pak made an inspired decision when she paired herself with the youngest player on their team, LPGA teenage rookie In-Kyung Kim. They won both of their matches, including a close 2 & 1 win over an American teen star, Morgan Pressel, and Thai American Stacy Prammanasudh. Jeong Jang and Shi Hyun Ahn had relatively weak outings at the Lexus, but they teamed together in round one to defeat Rookie of the Year Angela Park and the only Australian in the competition, Nikki Campbell, 2 and 1. But the closest match was the one between Korean vice captain Sarah Lee and Meena Lee against US Women's Open champ Cristie Kerr and Nicole Castrale. Meena had been having a weak 2007, by far her worst season since joining the LPGA, and Sarah had been underperforming of late after a great start to her year. Nonetheless, they hung tough and won their match on the final hole after winning the previous hole to square the match. With their win, the sweep was complete, and Asia, anchored by their tough squad of Korean stars, would go on to win the Cup easily 15 - 9.

Read more about the Lexus Cup triumph elsewhere in this issue!

Honorable Mentions:
US Women's Open
Cristie Kerr won her first Major when she captured the US Women's Open this year, and Lorena Ochoa grabbed a tie for second. But every other player in the top nine, and one of the players tied for 10th, was either Korean or had Korean heritage, an astonishing and unprecedented achievement for the Seoul Sisters in the most important event in women's golf. Korean-Brazilian rookie Angela Park tied Ochoa for 2nd. Long time superstar Se Ri Pak and another rookie, In-Bee Park, tied for 4th. Right behind them in 6th place was Jee Young Lee, while two more Koreans, Jeong Jang and Mi Hyun Kim, tied for 8th. Kyeong Bae was one of the Koreans who tied for 10th, with Joo Mi Kim, Jimin Kang and Birdie Kim also notching top 20 finishes.

Korean Rookies sweep top four spots in Rookie of the Year standings
The Koreans may have struggled to get wins in 2007, but if the rookie results are any indication, the future is in very good hands. Koreans have a history of capturing the Rookie of the Year award, but this year, they had more success in the rookie standings than ever before. A woman of Korean origin not only won the award, but Koreans captured a jaw dropping 8 of the top ten spots on that list, including the top four. Angela Park won the Rookie award, with In-Kyung Kim second, Na On Min third and Inbee Park fourth. Jin Joo Hong, Eun Hee Ji and Ji Young Oh were 6th through 8th, and Song Hee Kim was 10th. For good measure, the 11th and 12th finishers were also Korean (actually Korean American): Jane Park was 11th and Irene Cho 12th. In a word, wow.