2007 Ricoh Women's British Open:
Historic Week

On day two, the tough conditions continued, and scores under par were hard to come by. Ochoa was only able to shoot an even par round, but it was good enough to keep her atop the leaderboard. But In-Bee Park (pictured) was not so fortunate. She held it together for the first 6 holes, but made back to back bogies on 7 and 8 to fall to 2 under. Her real struggles came on the back nine, where she went 4 over par. She shot a 6 over par 79 to plunge from a tie for second to a tie for 29th. Her fellow rookies were not faring much better. In-Kyung Kim had started the week with a respectable one under par 72, but was three over on Friday to fall to 2 over for the week. Na On Min shot a two over par round herself. Ji-Young Oh, who had qualified for the event by virtue of a strong first two rounds at the Jamie Farr Classic, shot 77-76 to miss the cut by a mile. And Angela Park, super consistent Rookie of the Year leader, even she was not able to get it done. She shot a 78 in round one and followed that with a one over par 74 to miss the cut by a stroke. It was the first missed cut of her LPGA career.

Meanwhile, the Old Course was claiming some of the top Koreans as well. JJ followed her 76 on day one with an even worse 77 to miss the cut by a lot. Disappointing, considering her success at this event in the past. But even more surprising was Young Kim. Kim has been having a career year in 2007, even collecting her first win earlier in the season. She has seemed to do well at this event in the past, and shot a decent even par round to open. But on day two she fell apart, shooting a 79 that caused her to miss the cut by a single stroke. Seon Hwa Lee, who had only missed one cut in her entire LPGA career, also fell victim here, as did Mi Hyun Kim for the fifth straight year. Michelle Wie also missed the weekend, her first missed cut at a Major. Shi Hyun Ahn was not able to recover after a first round 79. Hye Jung Choi missed the cut as well, but the amateur, Hye Yong Choi, did not. She shot 74-76 in the first two rounds to sit in a tie for 52nd place.

Fortunately, there were still a few Koreans who were somewhere near the top of the leaderboard, although, by the end of the day, none of them were even within four shots of the leader. Se Ri Pak started her day in a rough fashion with a double bogey on the first hole. But she made two more birdies and a bogey on the front nine to close that stretch at one over total. On the back, she had another bogey on the 13th when she was not able to save par from a distance. But she followed that with a great approach on 14 and a six foot birdie, followed by a second birdie on 15. She missed the green on 16, but putted it to within a foot for an easy par save. Her putting touch was spot on this week, so if she could just sharpen her approaches a little more, she might yet contend. But after a second even par round in round two, she was still six shots behind Ochoa. It would be a lot of work to catch her.

The top Korean on the leaderboard was KLPGA star Eun-Hee Ji, and even she was only tied for 9th at 2 under par total. Ji-Yai Shin avoided her first missed cut as a pro, but her one over par 74 on Friday left her in a tie for 52nd, a long, long way out of contention. Jee Young Lee was the other Korean who was under par at one under. To put it mildly, the Korean contingent had a lot of work to do if they wanted to even place anyone in the top ten, let alone win the trophy. If one of them failed to win the Major, it would be the first year since 2003 where a Korean did not win at least one of the four Majors on the schedule. It would also tie the longest winless stretch in Majors for the Koreans since the early days of the Se Ri Pak era. Since 2001, the longest stretch of Majors where a Korean did not win was 6, between Se Ri's win at the 2002 LPGA Championship and Grace Park's title at the 2004 Nabisco. Failure to win here would tie that, since a Korean has not won a Major since last year's LPGA Championship. There were several Korean stars who did not want that to happen!

Alas, round three dashed the hopes of the Koreans, and most of the rest of the field, that anyone other than Ochoa was going to go home with the trophy this year. By the end of the day, Ochoa was the only player still under par, and she was at 6 under total. She had never won a Major before, and had a history of making a big number at the wrong time, but in those past cases, there had always been someone in position to capitalize on her mistakes. This time, even if she did screw up, it seemed like she would still be in perfect position to take the trophy. The top Korean on the leaderboard was Jee Young Lee (pictured), who shot a 75 in round three and finished the day at one over par. Se Ri had her worst round thus far, a 2 over par 75 that knocked her back to 2 over par total and 8 shots behind Ochoa. Even for a player of Pak's caliber, it was asking a lot to make up 8 shots in one round on the world's number one player. Eun-Hee Ji was also hanging in there at 2 over, while Na On Min was at 3 over par.

Ji-Yai Shin has almost always been in contention at every event she has played since she became a professional golfer at the end of 2005. It's really a pretty remarkable record of achievement, but in all that time, you can count on one hand the number of times where she was not a factor going into Sunday. This, alas, was one of those times. After contending at the US Women's Open much of the weekend, and nearly winning the Evian Masters the previous week, she was never able to get anything going at the British. Despite her third round 77, she amazingly improved her leaderboard position to 37th. But at 14 shots behind the leader, there was next to no chance of her even getting a top ten, let alone a win. Faring somewhat better was Grace Park. It seems so long ago that Grace was the second best women's player in the game. But this week she was at least playing decently, and sat at +7, tied for 33rd. Considering the tough year she has had, this was not bad at all.

In the final round, the conditions were tough, with intermittent rain and plenty of wind. Ochoa refused to give an inch, and by the middle of the round was in fact under par for the day. But so were several of the Korean stars. They had almost no chance of catching Ochoa unless Ochoa made a mistake, but they were still acquitting themselves nicely. Se Ri Pak had moved back to one over for the tournament, which put her in a tie for 6th as they reached the back nine. Jee Young Lee was two under on her day and one under for the tournament. She was still six shots behind Ochoa, though.

But in the end, no one could make a move on Ochoa. Pak drained a long birdie on the 15th hole to move to even par, but made a bogey on the next hole to neutralize any gain. She wound up finishing tied for fifth. The player she was tied with was Eun-Hee Ji, who, remember, was playing her first ever Major. In the end, though, there was only one Korean player who still had an outside chance of catching Ochoa, and that was Jee Young Lee. Lee had run three birdies off on her front nine to move to 2 under par for the tournament, at that point five shots back. But two straight bogies on 12 and 13, the second after her drive landed in a dreaded pot bunker, knocked her seemingly out of the running. She was far from done, however, for she had length, and judging by the players on the leaderboard, that was a quality that really helped on this course. Ochoa, Lee, Maria Hjorth, and Se Ri Pak, all in the top five at that point, were known to be among the longest drivers on tour. Coincidence? Probably not!

On the par 5 14th, Lee put her third shot to within less than a foot for an easy birdie, then followed that with a short birdie on the 15th to move to 2 under again. She still had the Road Hole coming, where a birdie or even an eagle was possible with her length. Could she do the impossible and catch Ochoa? But on the 16th, her luck came to an end when she drove it into another bunker and was not able to save par. Had she avoided that bunker, who knows what could have happened? Regardless, she finished the week at one under par, tied for second, her best Major finish yet. In the four Majors this year, Jee Young finished tied for 13th at the Nabisco, tied for 10th at the LPGA Championship, 7th at the US Women's Open, and now tied for 2nd at the British. She was slowly becoming one of the great Korean golfers on tour, and a win at a Major may be just around the corner for her.

In the end, Ochoa stumbled a little, but not enough to cost her the trophy. She finished at 5 under par, a four shot win. Despite the weak showing of the Koreans in the first few rounds, they ended up claiming three of the top six spots in the event. Rookies In-Bee Park and Na On Min finished tied for 11th, narrowly missing their second top tens in Majors this year (both had one top ten in a Major previously). Gloria Park had a relatively good finish, a tie for 16th, in a year which has seen few good finishes for her. Ji-Yai Shin wound up tied for 28th, so in the three Majors she played this year, she was tied for 15th at the Nabisco, sixth at the US Women's Open, and tied for 28th here. Not a bad record at all! The amateur Hye Yong Choi shot an 83 in the third round, but rebounded with a spectacular 3 under par 70 in the final round, one of the best rounds of the day. She finished tied for 48th, and the teenager will doubtless long remember her week in Scotland.

So the women finished their historic week in Scotland with world number one Lorena Ochoa claiming her first Major trophy. It was a great week for the Koreans, and Se Ri should be proud of playing even with Ochoa for the final three days. Regardless of how they finished, though, they will all take with them the memory of participating in this once in a lifetime event.