2007 Corning Classic: Breakthrough

The Corning Classic is in some ways a throwback event on tour. It is held in a fairly small community, and the entire town gets into the spirit of the event, treating the ladies like queens for the week they are there. This event has proved to be quite good to the Korean golfers in recent years. In 2005, Jimin Kang (pictured) had her own initial victory on tour at Corning, making an incredible and unforgettable hole-in-one on the 15th hole in the final round to move into the lead with Meena Lee. Lee eventually made double bogey on the final hole and Kang walked off with the win. In 2006, Lee had her chance to make amends. She went into the clubhouse with the lead, and it looked like no one was going to catch her. But Hee-Won Han was not going to give up, and she made two clutch birdies on the last two holes to tie Lee and force a playoff. After four holes, Han walked off with the trophy, and Lee had to hope that her third time in Corning would be the charm. In 2007, Han was not in attendance, the first time a defending champion was not able to appear at the event, but she had a good excuse, being that she was only a few weeks away from delivering her first child. But Lee was back, as were a number of other top Korean stars, including Grace Park and Mi Hyun Kim. Would Lee be able to at last get the trophy? Would Kimmie be able to get win #2 on the year? How would the many young guns in the field fare? All the questions were about to be answered.

The action started on the morning of May 24th. By the end of the day one, the leader was a Sorenstam, but not the one most people have heard of. Rather, it was Annika's sister Charlotta who led the field after shooting an 8 under par 64. Charlotta has not been a very strong golfer in the past few years, and this score seemed to come out of nowhere. But unfortunately for her, it was a one time achievement, and she struggled the rest of the week. She would not be a factor in the outcome of the tournament. In second place was a player almost as unlikely as Sorenstam: Beth Bader. Although a longtime player on tour, Bader had only managed two top tens in her entire career. But she immediately put herself into the hunt with a 7 under par 65 in round one. Unlike Sorenstam, however, Bader would be a factor all week, threatening right until the end to win the event.

For the Koreans, the best score was turned in by Shi Hyun Ahn (pictured), who shot a 6 under par 66 to tie for third. Just a shot behind her were two more Koreans: rookie In-Kyung Kim and Hye Jung Choi. The eighteen year old Kim has played well in her first season, but had not been able to make much ground up in the Rookie of the Year race on Angela Park, who not only had played every event in 2007, but had also made every cut. On this day, however, her five under par 67 was her career best, beating the 68 she had shot during the second round at the Michelob Ultra Open. A logjam of top Korean players was tied for 11th at 4 under. Included in the group were Young Kim, Seon Hwa Lee, and Jeong Jang, who had been in contention to win this event much of last year, only to cough up her lead on the back nine in the final round. The highlight of her round, which she played with Paula Creamer and Young Kim, was when she pitched in her approach for eagle on the tenth hole. Kim and Creamer also put their shots to within a few feet, meaning the group went 4 under par on that hole alone. Also at 4 under was Mi Hyun Kim, the only Korean to have won to this point in 2007, and Grace Park. For Grace, a player much in need of a good result, it was a welcome return to form. But she had shot good rounds this year before, only to follow them with very poor rounds. The real test would be whether she could keep playing well on Friday.

On day two, Shi Hyun Ahn was not able to keep her good mojo going; she shot a one over par 73, which, given the massive number of birdies being made on the course, knocked her well back in the pack. But another Korean made a huge move out to the front of the field on this day. Playing in the morning, Young Kim was absolutely on fire, showing a lot of the form that had made her one of the most promising Korean players for so long. She made eight birdies on this day and not a single mistake; in fact, she had yet to make a bogey in the first 36 holes. She wound up at 12 under total; at the time, that put her several shots ahead of anyone else in the field. Her playing partner Creamer ended up finishing at 10 under and was, at the time, in second. But eventually, Beth Bader, who played in the afternoon session, would rally and move to 13 under total and a one shot lead. Amazingly, Young's 64 was not the lowest score of the day; that honor went to Alena Sharp, who shot a 63. But Sharp had shot 74 in the first round and so was many shots behind Young.

So Young (pictured) found herself in second place, and would play in the final group on Saturday. She would later reveal that she had gained a lot of confidence by playing with Creamer for two days and beating her. Since Creamer was one of the top players on tour, beating her for those two days, she said, gave her confidence that she could possibly win the entire event.

But it was not going to be easy. Besides Bader and Creamer, Young still had a lot of other players to worry about, including a number of top Koreans. Chief among those was Mi Hyun Kim, who shot a second day round of 5 under par 67 to move to 9 under total and only 4 shots out of the lead. Kimmie later commented that she felt like her putting was really off all week, but despite that fact, she was right in the competition. If she started making just a few more of the birdie chances she was giving herself, she could easily take her second win of the season. In-Kyung Kim, coming off her best round of the year, shot another strong round, a 3 under par 69, to move to 8 under total. But she wasn't the only rookie making a move on this day. A non-exempt rookie named Na On Min shot a 5 under par 67 to move to 7 under total. Both rookies had a bit of a lead on Angela Park, the top Rookie in 2007; she was back at 4 under total after a 69 on day two. If things continued as they were going, the two might be able to gain a little ground on the Rookie star.

Meanwhile, Grace Park was trying to follow up her great first round with another strong one. All in all, she did a pretty good job. She shot a roller coaster 71 that consisted of three bogies and four birdies. It wasn't the best she ever did, but considering how much trouble she has had this year following up good rounds, it marked a big step up for her. She now sat at 5 under total in a tie for 28th. If she could make a top 20 or even a top 10, it would be her best performance in quite a while.

Both Young Kim and Beth Bader, paired together on Saturday, continued their great play as the weekend started. On the par 5 second hole, Young just barely missed draining an eagle putt, but Bader made one there. However, Bader made bogey on the 6th. Young also made a birdie on 4, and she moved into a tie for the lead at 14 under with Bader. Mi Hyun Kim (pictured) was not going away, either; she made a superlative birdie putt on the 4th hole to move to 10 under, and crept up to 12 under by the time she reached the turn. In-Kyung Kim was also at 10 under at that point, and rookie Na On Min had moved to 11 under.

Meanwhile, ahead of the other players, Grace Park was having a great round. How wonderful that she was taking advantage of her position to make a run at the top ten on the leaderboard! By the end of the day, she had wrapped up a tidy 5 under par 67 and a 10 under par total. Grace had not had a top ten in well over a year, but she certainly was in prime position to end that unfortunate streak with one more solid round on Sunday. The Golf Channel even interviewed her after her round, a rare occurrence for Grace on a weekend these days.

Back with the leaders, Young corked her approach on the 8th hole to four feet and drained another birdie to move to 15 under par and the solo lead. On the next hole, it looked like Bader might be starting to crumble when she missed the fairway by a mile and put her approach into a tricky lie in the bunker. But she popped that shot to an inch for an easy par save, maintaining the pressure on the leader.