LPGA Update

The final full field event of 2006 was the second Mexican event of the year. Like the Tulsa event, most of the top Koreans chose to skip this tournament. Mi Hyun Kim was the notable exception, and she got off to a solid start, with a two under par 71 (this is a par 73 course). Also present was Grace Park, giving it another go, and she shot 2 over par to finish day one in 46th place. Jimin Kang, however, did not have a start like at her previous event. She shot a miserable 8 over par 81 and was in great danger of missing the cut.

By Friday afternoon, the situation for the Koreans was looking hauntingly familiar. Once again, the usual suspects were atop the leaderboard while the Koreans struggled. Kimmie shot a one under par round, but her three under total left her out of the top ten. Grace Park was a bright beacon, shooting two under par to move to even total and easily make the cut, her first made cut on tour in many months. But Jimin missed the cut by a mile.

The big surprise of the day was rookie Sun Young Yoo. Yoo has definitely been the forgotten Korean rookie; she has not had the super success of Jee Young Lee or Seon Hwa Lee, nor the occasional good results of Kyeong Bae. But Yoo has shown promise, and it crystallized on this day. She shot an impressive 6 under par 67 that moved her to 8 under total, all by herself in second place. But once again, one of the LPGA's top player shot an incredible round and staked herself to a lead that was going to be hard to overcome. That player was Lorena Ochoa, who for a while looked like she might threaten 59 before winding up with a 9 under par 64. This gave her an 11 under total, a three shot lead over Yoo despite Yoo's brilliance.

And that was pretty much it. Ochoa didn't have too much trouble after that, eventually amassing a 20 under par total over four days to win in a walk by five shots over Julieta Granada. It was the unbelievable fifth straight event won by one of the top four players on the LPGA tour. Yoo was not able to maintain her lofty position, shooting 76-72 on the weekend to fall to 16th. Kimmie struggled even worse, only ending up in 26th. In fact, all in all, this was possibly the worst tournament of the year for the Korean contingent. Only one player was able to crack the top ten: Young-A Yang, believe it or not. Yang had one of her best finishes in years with a solo 4th, but even so, she finished a whopping ten shots behind Ochoa. The next highest ranked Korean was Yoo.

So things have gotten steadily worse for the Koreans, just at the same time as the top players have played the best golf of their year. Hopefully, the Seoul Sisters will right the ship before the Korean event on tour; they have never lost that one, and it would be great to see them reestablish themselves by winning it again.