Lucky me, Se Ri decided to hit from the stall nearest where spectators could stand. It was at this point I noticed something that made my heart sink. Se Ri had some kind of wrap on her left wrist. It looked very light, almost like a sweatband. I remembered how she had had a wrist problem before the Nabisco Championship in 2002, and how it had hindered her efforts to complete the Grand Slam. So I watched extra closely to see if this injury was affecting her now.

She worked her way through her clubs, starting with a lofted iron (looked to be an 8 iron), while Colin measured the distances with a range finder. These shots all looked fine. She worked her way up to fairway woods, which she was really smoking; each shot fell within about a twenty foot circle, so the accuracy was there, too. It seemed like every one of her drives was pretty straight. She was spending a lot of time working on the first move of her swing. On the irons especially, she would do the wrist cock about 6 times before each swing.

Finally she got the driver out. Each drive looked the same: long, straight, with a slight leftward move at the very end. That leftward move didn't look intentional; I figured there was some wind up there affecting the ball's flight. Of the thirty or so woods I saw her hit, I only saw one that went off line. It did not look like the wrist was hurting her swing.

Se Ri's driving has let her down sometimes
this season

After Se Ri left, I noticed a TV reporter doing a live broadcast from the course. He was standing so that Se Ri would have been right behind him. I overheard, as I walked by, something like: 'come down to the practice rounds tomorrow, you will be really impressed by what you see. Just a moment ago Se Ri Pak was hitting one five iron after the other 230 yards and straight. Pretty incredible stuff.' I'll say! I love Se Ri and all, but I don't think she's hitting her five irons quite that far!! Still, it's cool that Se Ri was mentioned on TV here!

All in all, I saw maybe six women on the range, and five on the putting green. None of the stars except Se Ri, Lorena Ochoa and Han were there. Se Ri was obviously burning the midnight oil preparing for this tournament, as it was about 6:30 when I saw her. She looked a little tired, but I'm guessing that was jet lag. She was getting ready, and I decided to go to my hotel and rest as well, for I had a long week ahead of me.