2007 KLPGA Samsung Finance

The Samsung Finance Ladies Championship was contested from October 5 - 8th. This event took place at the Phoenix Park Golf course, a par 72, 6,264 yard track. This year, two of the KLPGA's stars, Hee Young Park and Na Yeon Choi, were not in attendance; they were busy at LPGA Sectional qualifying in Florida, and both would easily advance to the finals, with Choi claiming medalist honors. As usual, the big story at the event was Ji Yai Shin: would she become the first woman in history to win 7 times in one season on the KLPGA tour?

Shin got out to a decent start, carding a one under par 71 which put her in the top ten. But that still left her four shots out of the lead. That lead was captured by Ji Na Im, who is a good friend of Hee Young Park, and who was using the absent Park's regular caddie this week. Im carded a 5 under par 67: 6 birdies and one bogey.

In second was Yoon Hee Jo with a 68, while another relative unknown named Mi Hee Jang shot a 69. Sun Ju Ahn, playing with Shin and Eun Hee Ji in a power threesome, managed the best round of the multiple winners, shooting a 70. Ji shot a 71, just like Shin did.

So after one day, a lot of top players were on the leaderboard, but several unknowns stood at the top.

After round two, an oh-so-familiar name crept to the top of the leaderboard. Once again, as has happened so often in the past two years, Ji Yai Shin (pictured) had a powerful round and charged up the leaderboard. She started the day four shots back, but carded a 5 under par 67, the second best score of the day, to move to within a shot of the lead at the close of her round. She then waited while those ahead of her fell back, so that by the end of play, she was tied for the top spot. Shin started OK with a birdie and no mistakes on the front nine, but really kicked it into gear on the back, carding four more birdies there. She was bogey free on the day.

The first round leader, Hee Young Park's pal Ji Na Im, struggled in the spotlight. She shot a 4 over par 76 and faded. But the other two KLPGA superstars, Eun Hee Ji and Sun Ju Ahn, were still lurking near the top. Ahn shot a solid 69 to move to 5 under, just a shot behind Shin. Ji shot a second straight 71 and was four shots back. A relatively unknown player, Yoon Hee Jo, was tied for the lead with Shin and would get the task of playing in the same group with her on Sunday. Jo had a late surge in her round, making birdies on 14, 16, and 17 to take the one shot lead over Shin, but bogied the last hole to fall back into the tie.

Once again, Ji Yai Shin was on the brink of more history. Could she notch her seventh KLPGA win of the season? Would Ahn be able to stop her? Could Jo or one of the other newbies near the top take her down?

In round three, Ji Yai Shin started the day tied for the lead with a fairly unknown player named Yoon Hee Jo. It certainly looked like a great chance for her to claim her seventh win of the season, and her tenth since turning pro and joining the tour in 2006. Well, much as you would expect, Jo found herself in over her head. She made a bogey fairly early in her round and wound up shooting a 76, which plummeted her to 2 under total. She would not challenge Shin for the win.

The player who did challenge Shin was fellow multiple tournament winner Sun Ju Ahn (pictured). Ahn started the day a shot behind Shin, but went out in three under on the front nine. Shin was two under during the same stretch, so at the turn, the two superstars were tied for the lead at 8 under par. This had all the makings of another classic battle.

But Ahn ran into a big roadblock at the 10th hole, where she made double bogey while Shin birdied. Shin added another birdie on the 11th, and even after Ahn birdied 12, she still found herself three shots behind Shin. Ahn had another double bogey a couple of holes later, however, and was never able to recover from that. She wound up shooting an even par 72, and finished at 5 under par, tied for third.

The only player who seemed even close to Shin was Hyun Hee Moon. Moon had been 1 over par after two rounds, but was having a fantastic round on Sunday. She was 5 under par on her front nine, then added two more birdies on 11 and 13 to move to 6 under for the tournament. At the time, she was four shots behind Shin. Moon would go on to finish with a 7 under par 65 and a 6 under par total. Shin looked like she had everything in the bag.

But then, Shin uncharacteristically started making errors. She bogied 15 and 16 to fall to 8 under, only two shots ahead of Moon. Fortunately, she righted the ship after that, parred the remaining two holes, and claimed the two shot win.

Ji Yai Shin has rewritten the record books yet again. With her 7th win of the year, she once again established a new mark for most wins in a season, breaking her own record that had lasted all of two weeks. She now has ten wins since joining the KLPGA tour. The all time record for most wins on that tour is held by Ok Hee Ku, who had 20 in her career. Woo Soon Ko is second with 17 total wins. Shin is already thinking about reaching those marks. She is just behind Mi Hyun Kim, who has 11 total wins on tour (Shin also has 11 wins, but one came before she joined the tour).

Shin also had won 6 of the last 8 events on the KLPGA tour. How long would it take her to win #8? How many more could she win?

Shin has announced that she plans to stay at least one more and possibly two more seasons in Korea. If she does want to stay in Korea but fly to different international events, she now has help. She has made a deal with Asiana Airlines: they will provide her with free airfare anywhere they fly for the next year. It's not clear if she will display their logo somewhere on her person.

The executive who presented her this offer said that they were doing this in honor of the brave way she overcame the death of her mother in a car accident at a young age to become one of the premiere athletes in the country.

They have also extended this deal to other athletes in the past, including figure skater Yu Na Kim and PGA golfer KJ Choi.