SeoulSisters Awards

Rookie of the Year/Most Improved Player: Angela Park
For the first time, we have one player winning two of our most important awards. At first glance, it might seem impossible for someone to manage this feat. How does a player who is a rookie also become the most improved player? Well, Angela Park may have been a rookie on the LPGA tour, but it was her second year as a pro. And based on her performance on the Futures Tour in 2006, compared to the quantum leap in results she made on the LPGA in 2007, she well deserves to be considered the most improved player among the Koreans this year. To put it another way: she went from 8th on the minor league Futures Tour in 2006 to 8th on the major league LPGA in 2007.

On the other hand, she was also clearly the best Rookie on the LPGA tour in 2007, and looking around at other tours Koreans played on, the best Korean rookie, period. The only knock against her is that she was not able to win a tournament in 2007 (or indeed, since she turned pro). But when you are finishing top ten on the money list in your first year, and you are the youngest exempt player on tour, it's hard to complain too much about the results. Really, this wasn't even close, again an amazing statement. This year, you had four Korean rookies finish in the top 40 on the money list to earn two year exemptions, one of whom (Na On Min) was non-exempt at the time. You had one Korean rookie (In-Kyung Kim) lose a tournament in a playoff, while Inbee Park, Na On Min and Eun Hee Ji all managed top fives in Majors. Yet another rookie, Seo-Jae Lee, earned her exempt status by finishing top five on the Futures Tour money list, while Eun Hee Ji earned hers in just four events played on the LPGA (she too came within a shot of winning a tournament, when she finished second to Suzann Pettersen at the Kolon-Hana Bank Championship in Korea). And yet another rookie, Jane Park, won the 2007 Q-School, while In-Kyung Kim had been co-medalist at the 2006 edition (and, yes, another rookie, Su A Kim, finished second at the 2007 qualifier). Jin Joo Hong, Jin Young Pak and Ji Young Oh also managed to contend at times in 2007. Yup, all rookies. And we haven't even looked at talented rookies on the KLPGA tour like Ha Neul Kim, who won that tour's Rookie of the Year award.

Yes, all those above facts show the depth and talent of Korean rookies in 2007. Despite all that, Angela Park is nonetheless the clear choice for Rookie of the Year. But before we talk about that, let's review where she came from, and why she is also my choice for most improved player on tour.

Now, don't get me wrong, her 2006 season on the Futures Tour was a good one. Before that season even started, she played brilliant golf as a 17 year old amateur invitee at the Nabisco Championship, finishing tied for 15th. She turned pro shortly after that, joined the Futures Tour, and was among the top players in the league all season in scoring average (4th), sub-par rounds (4th), greens in regulation (2nd), eagles and birdies. She was also up near the top of the money list much of the year. Korean teenager Song Hee Kim, only a few months older than Angela, pretty quickly ran away with the Player of the Year award, but In-Bee Park and Angela Park also played well all season. However, as the year progressed, she found herself clearly behind both Kim and Park in the standings. And while Kim won five times during the year, Angela was unable to win even once. Still, she looked solid to earn one of the five exempt cards available for top five finishers on the money list.

Coming into the year's final event, she was fifth on the money list, but had only a small lead over the next three people in line. She would have to play better than all of them to secure her card. Alas, she did not, and fell behind them all, finishing 8th for the year. She was forced to go to Q-School to get her card. Once there, she did so easily, finishing tied for fifth. But she was beaten at Q-School by another teenager, In-Kyung Kim, and beaten on the Futures tour by Song Hee and In-Bee. Add onto those three other promising rookies like Jane Park, a former US Women's Amateur winner, top ranked junior Ji Young Oh, college player of the year Irene Cho, and Kolon-Hana Bank winner Jin Joo Hong, and it looked as though it would be quite a struggle for Angela to stand out. That she would be a very good rookie seemed clear; but that she would beat all those other women for the top Rookie title, based on what she had accomplished so far in her pro career? That seemed far less likely.

She wins the most improved award, and the Rookie award, because she not only beat all those women, she did it with surprising ease, and that despite the brilliance of many of them during the year. In fact, Park seized control of the Rookie race in the second event of the year and never looked back. She played every event but one thereafter, missed only one cut, and week after week was producing quality golf.

In a way, it shouldn't have been as much of a surprise that she did so well as it was. Her goal, right from the moment she secured her tour card, was to win the Rookie of the Year award. She said she used this desire as motivation on days when she was feeling lazy: "Every time I don't want to practice or I just want to go home and just take a nap and it's like two o'clock and I'm like, okay, no, no, I've got to practice," she told the press at the Fields Open. "Everything keeps popping back in my head, rook of the year, rook of the year, so it's a good determination for me right now." This determination helped her to shoot a 66 in the opening round of the Fields, which got her into a tie for the lead with Thai American Stacy Prammanasudh after the first round. By the end of the second round, those two remained tied atop the leaderboard at 10 under, with Jee Young Lee a shot back at 9 under. Those three would play together in the final round. Angela was not able to keep up with the others on the final day, but she still wound up tied for third, an auspicious start to her LPGA career. For the first time, she took control of the Rookie of the Year race, and did not look back after that.

She had a few mediocre events after that early high, but she continued to make cuts and build on her lead while her main opponents struggled. After Na On Min earned a top five at the Corona, she had a new challenger to worry about, but Angela earned a 15th at the same event. At this point, she picked her game up somewhat, and her next three tournaments were all top 25 finishes.

In early June, she kicked it up another notch, and collected her second top ten at the Ginn Tribute. This prepared her for her second Major of the year, the LPGA Championship. She had played well at the first Major, the Kraft Nabisco, where she finished a respectable tied for 26th, but nothing had prepared anyone for the way she would play at the LPGA. In the first round she seized the lead with a 5 under par 67.

She came down to Earth in round 2, shooting over par while a surprising number of golfers went under par. But she would bounce back on Saturday, shooting a 4 under par 68 with no bogies to move to within two shots of the leader, fellow Korean rookie Na On Min. Both players would factor in the result Sunday, with Min eventually finishing slightly ahead of Park in third. But Park's fifth place finish, her best ever in a Major, announced that she was not going to give any ground in the Rookie of the Year race.

The next week, another rookie, In-Kyung Kim, made the biggest splash. She practically had the tournament won when Lorena Ochoa made a last minute charge, eventually capturing the trophy in a playoff. Angela dodged a bit of a bullet there, although her 21st place finish was still a decent one. But the next week, Park put herself in the driver's seat permanently in the ROY race. After her performance at the year's third Major, the US Women's Open, her lead in that race was never challenged seriously again.

What did Angela do that was so special? Well, for the second Major in a row, she captured the first round lead, this time by shooting a 68. Due to the weather, she would not play golf again for more than a day, and sat in the lead comfortably while her opponents worked to get their rounds completed. Angela finally got on the course again on Saturday morning, by which time another Korean, her good friend Inbee Park, had the lead for those who had finished two rounds. But Inbee was only at even par, and Angela shot a fantastic under par round again to extend her lead to two strokes over Julieta Granada, with a 5 under total. She then started her third round, and by the end of play Saturday had fallen one shot behind Korean teen superstar Ji Yai Shin. Still, she was right in the thick of things with a round and a half yet to play.

On Sunday, she continued to hang in there as Lorena Ochoa and Cristie Kerr charged up the leaderboard, eventually dropping behind those two somewhat. Angela was hitting magnificent irons, provoking Johnny Miller, who was working as a commentator for the TV network covering the Open, and who is known to be a bit on the prickly side, to proclaim that she had the best swing in women's golf! But her putting was a little off, and so she was not able to make up ground on the leaders. Finally, her putting came around on the back nine, and with just a few holes to go, she was still very much in the hunt. She made a crucial mistake on the 17th hole when she missed a longish par save, but bounced back with a birdie on the final hole to move to 3 under, the clubhouse lead. That would not be enough, and Kerr would win the title, but Angela's score was good for a tie for second with Ochoa. In the last two Majors, Park had nabbed two top fives.

Park continued to put up good results over the next few months. She missed her only cut of the year at the year's final Major, the British Open, and great finishes at that event by Min, Inbee and Eun Hee Ji cut into her rookie lead somewhat. But it wasn't long before Angela was again hunting down trophies. At the Navistar, she shot a scintillating final round 63 to finish tied for third, and she claimed a fifth place finish at the State Farm. She thus clinched the Rookie of the Year award, and treated herself by skipping the Longs Drugs Challenge, the first event she had not attended all year!

Angela had one of her few terrible events in Korea a few weeks later. She had never played there before, and was excited for the opportunity, but she really messed up at the Kolon-Hana Bank Championship, finishing in last place in the end (fortunately for her, there was no cut at this tournament). But she had another top ten at the Mizuno Classic a few weeks later, bringing her total to 8 top tens for the year.

She easily won the LPGA's rookie title, in a year where several Korean rookies had their own fabulous seasons. Her margin over second place In-Kyung Kim was a whopping 457 points. She had nearly twice as many points as Kim, in fact. She also had the best money list position among rookies by far, making just shy of a million bucks and finishing 8th on the money list. She capped the year at the ADT Championship when she gave a touching speech in accepting her Rookie of the Year award (see above under 'Touching Moments' for more). All in all, it was an amazing year for the talented teen from Torrance by way of Brazil. With her swing and determination, she looks to have a long, wonderful career ahead of her!

Rookie of the Year honorable Mentions:
In-Kyung Kim (pictured), Inbee Park, Na On Min, Eun Hee Ji
Any other year, rookies who contend in Majors, like Ji, Park and Min did, or nearly win tournaments, like Kim, Min and Ji did, or who get their exempt cards in just a few events, like Ji did, or who earn two year exemptions, like Kim, Min and Park did…. Any other year, those rookies would be strong candidates for the Rookie of the Year award. But this year, Angela Park did all those things just by herself, and as explained above, there just was no doubt she was the year's best newcomer.

Most Improved Player Honorable Mentions:
Eun Hee Ji, Sun Ju Ahn, Ji Yai Shin
Ahn and Ji, you can understand. Both went from being solid KLPGA players to two of the very best in the league. But Shin? She was already the best player hands down on the KLPGA tour in 2006. How could she also be the most improved in 2007?

Well, Shin went from 3 wins in 2006 to 9 in 2007, from just breaking Se Ri's money record to absolutely shattering it, and notched her first top ten in a Major for good measure. It's scary to think how much better she could get.

There's just one more award to go...