2007 Ginn Open

In the final round, everything changed. A ton of rain fell on the course in the early morning, forcing the officials to delay the start of the round for a few hours. When they finally started, the wind kicked up, gusting to speeds of up to 40 mph. Suddenly, it became extremely tough to even make par, let alone make a run up the leaderboard. Under par rounds became extremely rare as a result. Early on, only one player managed to finish her round under par: Meena Lee. Lee was at one point four under, but double bogeyed the final hole and finished with a 71. It ended up being her first top ten of the year, a tie for 8th.

Mi Hyun Kim lives in the Orlando area. She told reporters that she had to make sure not to swear if she made a mistake, because she was being followed around much of the weekend by members of her church! Kimmie had played well enough in defense of her title the first three days, but on the final day, she might have been tested in her resolve to avoid swearing. The wind really tortured her, and she ended up shooting a 78 to fall to a tie for 20th. Almost all the other Koreans were at least a few strokes over par as well, so she was hardly alone.

By the turn, it was becoming evident that a Korean was not going to win. Ochoa and Davies hung on to the lead. Gulbis plummeted down the leaderboard. Se Ri hung in there for a while, but her lack of birdies started to hurt her in the end. On Saturday, she had made four birdies with no bogies, but on Sunday, her situation was reversed, and she shot four bogies and no birdies. She still didn't make any major mistakes, but she made enough minor ones to ruin her chances to win. It was especially painful when both Ochoa and Davies also started to make mistakes, falling down the leaderboard themselves. In the end, Se Ri shot a 76, still better than the average score in the field. She finished tied for 6th, her best finish of the year and a three place improvement over her finish from the previous year at the Ginn. Birdie was 2 over for the day, and finished tied with Se Ri for low Korean; it was her first top ten finish on tour since her miraculous US Open win in 2005. Se Ri needn't have felt bad about her round, for in the end, Ochoa and Davies played even worse: Ochoa shot a 77, Davies a 79, and Lincicome won the tournament at 10 under par.

Had Se Ri managed a 71, she would have tied Lincicome; but on this day, with the treacherous conditions and Se Ri's lack of good fortune on the greens all week, perhaps that was asking a bit much. Still, she has now managed top 20s in four of her first five events in 2007, and every indication is that she is extremely close to breaking out and becoming a tour winner again.