2003 US Women's Open

When it comes to women's golf, it doesn't get any bigger than the US Women's Open. With due respect to the other Majors on the schedule, this is the Major Major. It is also the only American based Major that rotates to different locations from year to year, and lucky me, this year it settled at Pumpkin Ridge outside of Portland, Oregon, only a few hours from where I live in Seattle. I was certainly not going to miss a chance to witness the Seoul Sisters in battle at a Major! I decided to try something new this year, and applied for media credentials for the Open, to cover it in the detail that Seoul Sisters Magazine fans demand. And I got them! So as you read the articles about my experiences, keep in mind that most of the photos here were taken by me and are exclusive to Seoul Sisters Magazine.

Interestingly, it was exactly five years ago to the week that I first became interested in women's golf. That was the date of the 1998 US Women's Open, held at Blackwolf Run near Kohler, Wisconsin. I was idly flipping channels when I stumbled across the playoff between two twenty year olds to decide the Open title. One was an amateur from Duke University named Jenny Chuasiriporn, and the other was a rookie pro from Korea named Se Ri Pak. The more I watched, the more riveting it became. Eventually Se Ri went on to win in twenty thrilling holes, and I became a big fan of Se Ri's poise, skill and joyous love of the game. That fandom eventually led to this site.

The enduring image from the 1998 US Open:
Se Ri and that very large trophy
(and that even larger smile)

Se Ri has not won the Open since then, although she has a second and a fifth place finish to her credit. She did not come in playing the best golf of her career, and one of the questions this week would answer was: could she control her driving well enough to compete on a course where the rough would be punishing, or would she have another terrible Major result like at the LPGA Championship, where she had had her worst ever Major finish as an LPGA pro? The other Seoul Sisters likewise had their challenges and their questions to answer. Grace Park had also had a lot of trouble staying in the short grass all year; could she build on her second place finish from the LPGA Championship and perhaps win? Would Mi Hyun Kim at last emerge from her semi-slump and put up a great finish? How would Christina Kim, who has played well at USGA events before, do in the Open? Would Michelle Wie, who got an enormous amount of pre-tournament hype, live up to it?

I arrived in town during rush hour, which means it took quite a while to negotiate myself over to the course. Eventually I made it, walked to the media tent and got my credentials. Pumpkin Ridge is about twenty miles outside of Portland, past Beaverton (which is famous as the home of Nike). The course lays beyond an enormous field, which consisted of about half wheat and half sand. By the time I left the event Sunday, my car was yellow from all the sand that had kicked up onto it. It would take two car washes to clean it all off.

The country club consists of two courses, Witch Hollow and Ghost Creek. The Open was being played on the former, and anyone who saw it on TV will attest that it is a beautiful layout. I only saw a little of it this day, but was duly impressed. The media tent was a large one, situated at the far end of the complex. Fortunately, they provided a media shuttle service to get there every day, which spared me the long walk (believe me, you do a lot of walking covering the Open, you don't need to do more!). Inside the tent was a large room with several long desks that faced an enormous leaderboard and several big screen TV's. Every organization had their own spot at the desk, and I was no exception. I was grouped in with the Korean news organizations; to the left of me was the Daily Chosun, and on the other side Golf World Korea.

The first thing I did after acquiring my pass was to check out all the handouts. They had a long table that had about 50 different handouts. Every conceivable bit of data was crunched and presented in a convenient handout. Histories of all the players? Yes. Current standings on all the statistical lists? Yup. As the week went on, they would present in minute detail data about driving distance, pin positions, accuracy, greens in regulation, results on each hole every day, complete interviews with leaders, etc. I still haven't looked at even half the stuff I collected.

Anyway, she was doing a drill where there was a club lying on the green, and she would use it as a guide for her putter. She hit about 50 4 foot putts that way, sinking every one. There was a bit of a break on the putt, too, so it wasn't just straight into the hole. Creavy monitored her stroke, occasionally giving her advice on what to change, but mostly just letting her do her thing.

Besides Se Ri, Hee-Won Han was also doing a putting drill on the green. Hee-Won had placed several tees around a hole, each at various distances from five to ten feet. She would hit a few putts from each tee, than move to the next one. By and large she didn't miss too many! There were only three other ladies practicing, none of whom I recognized.

After Se Ri did that for a while, she went over to the driving range. As I tried to follow her, a huge number of golf carts got in my way and I had to wait a while. I could swear I saw Peanut on the range from afar, but did not see her by the time I got across the street.

Se Ri has worked very hard on her
putting this year