2007 Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic:
Gimme Five!

In round two, all eyes were on Se Ri, to see if she could continue her torrid pace or would come back to Earth to allow some other players into the tournament. As it turned out, she wasn't making birdies at the rate she had in round one, mostly because the putts that were falling on Thursday just weren't on Friday. But tee to green, she was still quite exceptional. The wind was a little trickier, making it tougher to get on the greens or close to the flag, especially towards the end of the round. But Pak seemed to know how to handle it. She was hitting most of her drives low, under the tops of the trees, so that they would cut through the wind. She often used three wood off the tee, yet still bombed her drives a mile. In the end, she came up with a three under par 68, which moved her two day total to 11 under par. That gave her a five shot lead over anyone in the field. So even with a lesser effort than on Thursday, she had in fact increased her lead over the field, and looked poised to run away with the title.

A few other Koreans played quite well on the day themselves, even if no one else was able to raise much of an opposition to Se Ri. Jin Young Pak followed up her first day 67 with a 69 to move to solo second place at 6 under par. Thus, for the first time in history, two Paks stood atop the leaderbaord at an LPGA event. The younger Pak admitted that Se Ri had been one of her idols growing up, and that she was going to be incredibly excited getting a chance to finally play a round with her in a tournament. When Se Ri would come back to Korea to play in an event, Jin Young would follow her the entire time, watching her in action. Now she would get an up close look at Se Ri inside the ropes. "Of course (I'm) nervous because she is my hero. I just try to learn from her, like how she plays good, " said Jin Young. "I hope she'll (get to) know me tomorrow and we are going to be good friends."

Meanwhile, Kimmie (pictured on the tournament tee time book) had a decent round going until she ran into problems on the 13th hole; she hit her drive into the woods, then hit a tree when she tried to get out. She wound up with a double bogey on that hole, and never really got back into contention the rest of the week. Still, she ended up finishing tied for 14th, not too bad a finish in defense of her title. Other Koreans who did well on day two included Jimin Kang, who moved to 4 under par total following a Friday 68, rookie Ji-Young Oh, who sat in a tie for 7th at 3 under, and a bunch of Koreans at 2 under including Jane Park, JJ, Christina Kim, Seon Hwa Lee, Angela Park and In-Kyung Kim. For both Jane Park and Ji-Young Oh, this was a great chance to get their first top ten since joining the tour. It meant even more to Oh than that: the top five players on the leaderboard after round two not already qualified were given exemptions into the field of the Women's British Open. Oh now will be going to St. Andrews to play in that tournament next month. Only three golfers qualified outright, while four more were tied for the final two spots. Thus, the two best of these players in the third round would get the remaining exemptions. Jane Park was among the players competing for those spots, but she did not do well enough in round three to get one. Another interesting issue: Jin Young Pak would have qualified for one of the spots, except that she had never registered to be in the event in the first place, and thus could not be given an exemption. Live and learn.

Round three got off to a bang when one of those rookies near the top of the leaderboard went on an amazing birdie spree. In-Kyung Kim (below) had nearly won a few weeks earlier in Rochester, and said afterwards that the experience had convinced her that she was going to win a lot on tour at some point. Apparently her confidence was in full bloom on Saturday, as she started making birdies on the first hole and just didn't stop. She ended up making birdies on her first seven holes, then one putted the two remaining holes for par to wind up with an astonishing 27 on her first nine holes (with nine total putts). That tied the all time record for lowest nine hole raw score with Jimin Kang, who shot that score at the ShopRite Classic in 2005. At that point, Kim was just two shots behind Se Ri, but on the back nine she stopped making birdies until the final hole. She did, however, make a few bogies and wound up with a 6 under par 65 as her final score.

Meanwhile, in the lead group, Se Ri continued to cruise along. As on day two, she was giving herself a lot of birdie chances, and she was coming darn close to making them, but not a lot of putts were falling. Still, she did make two on the front nine against one bogey to move to 12 under. She did have one dicey hole, the par 5 7th. Trouble off the tee caused her to have to punch out, but she ended up in a really bad spot after her third shot: she was under low hanging branches, with rough and a bunker between her and the flag. She hit a power bump and run through the grass that ran up on the green to within fifteen feet of the flag, then nailed the clutch par save to keep her round going strong.

Jin Young Pak, meanwhile, paired for the first time with her idol Se Ri, was a little intimidated by the circumstances. She started out her day with a double bogey on the first hole, and did not make her first birdie until the par 5 7th. She went two over on the back nine without a single birdie, finishing her day with a 3 over par 74 that sent her falling down the leaderboard. It was doubtless a frustrating day for the star struck youth, but no doubt she learned a little about how to play in a final group just by watching her idol in action.

Despite the increasing windiness, Se Ri continued to have good birdie chances, making another on the 13th hole to move to 13 under par. But by this point, another golfer was starting to make a move up the leaderboard. Morgan Pressel could seemingly do no wrong on the back nine. Her streak actually started on hole 8, and she made birdies on that hole, 9 and 10 to move to 7 under; the birdie on the tenth hole was literally an inch from going into the cup on the fly. She made another birdie on 12. On the 14th hole, she let go of the club in disgust after her shot, but still made the birdie from 25 feet to move to 9 under, only four shots behind Se Ri. But the biggest shift came when Se Ri reached the 16th hole. After a great drive, Se Ri had an unobstructed look at the flag. But somehow, her second shot went a bit right into the trees, where it fell down into the rough. From there she made bogey to fall to 12 under. At the same time, Pressel was playing the par 5 17th and put her third shot to within 6 feet. From there she made birdie, and the gap was now two, the smallest it had been in days.

If Se Ri was worried, she didn't act it. But a mediocre tee shot prevented her from going for the green on 17, and she wound up with a par there. At the same time, Pressel made another birdie on the par 5 18th, and the gap was now a single shot. Pressel had made up 8 shots on Se Ri in one round, and the tournament had suddenly turned into a battle.

But Se Ri wasn't going to just hand the tournament to anyone. On the final hole, she hit a 3-wood drive 280 yards, to the very end of the fairway. A brook that cuts across the fairway on this hole makes it tough to go for the green in two on this hole, but Se Ri took a shot at it and nearly made it. From in front of the green, she chipped to four feet and made the birdie to move to 13 under and a two shot advantage. She had shot her third straight round in the 60s, but had seen her advantage drop from five shots to two. Still, Se Ri had every reason to be confident. She loved this course more than any in the world; she had a two shot lead and had never lost a 72 hole tournament when she had an outright lead going into the final round; and she was playing some of her best golf in years. But Se Ri had not won a tournament since she qualified for the Hall of Fame, and there was history on the line: only two golfers in LPGA history had ever won the same event five times: Annika Sorenstam and Mickey Wright, two of the all time legends of the sport. Se Ri wanted desperately to join that short list. The pressure would definitely be on.

Meanwhile, In-Kyung Kim finished the day in third, JJ in a tie for 13th, and Seon Hwa Lee and Jin Young Pak were tied for 15th. Good work, but the final round would be pretty much a two player affair.