Hole 8: This does not seem to be such a hard hole from the tee. 379 yards long, straight, no real tree trouble although the fairway is narrow. Yet this was the hardest hole on Thursday, and the reason was the green. The green here is tough. It has several tiers, and if you are on the wrong one, good luck getting the putt close. Put the ball past the green, and the chip is nightmarish. Actually, the bunker fronting the green is a safer mistake, although you do not want to have to one putt this green if you can avoid it.

She hit another perfect drive, right down the middle, about three yards past Annika's drive. They had to wait about ten minutes in the fairway, then everyone hit bad shots in. Annika hit her approach over the green and shouted something in Swedish. Se Ri landed in the left back rough. The flag was towards the right, however, and apparently she felt the only way she could get it close was to hit a high shot almost dead right and land it in the fringe. She did so, and after landing it rolled towards the hole, gathering steam all the way until it came to rest about fifteen feet past the hole. She hit a good par attempt, but it was short. Bogey, and this dropped her to +3. It was at this point that Se Ri started to struggle.

Hole 9: This is a weird hole. A par 4, 427 yards long with a dogleg left, it has an island of rough and bunkers in the middle of the fairway. End up in the left rough, and trees may block you from the green. Se Ri found the middle bunker off the tee. Her out came out really low, landing her in another bunker. As I walked up to the hole I mused that 'this hole has bogey written all over it. She's really in trouble here'. The bunker was still a ways from the green, and so far she had not been hitting fantastic shots out of the sand. It would have been a miracle from there to get it even within 15 feet, and even bogey was not a given; if she were to go out in 5 over it would have been a disaster. But she somehow walked away with bogey after a pretty good out.

Se Ri putts during round 1
AP Photo/John Gress

So in her first nine, Se Ri stood at four over par. It was pretty imperative that she right the ship ASAP if she wanted to stay in the competition. Unfortunately, the fun was only getting started...

Hole 10: A par 3, 156 yards normally, although on some days they used a back tee that measured 197 yards. Some trees on the right, and a deep bunker left. As she had been doing a lot today, she hit another one into the bunker, but this time with a pretty poor tee shot (there was no doubt from the moment she hit it that something bad was going to happen). However, she hit a great out, leaving herself a five footer for par. Again her putting failed her, and she settled for another bogey. This was her third in a row and dropped her to +5. I mused that she was almost to the point where she had to stop thinking about winning and start worrying about making the cut.

Hole 11: A 534 yard par 5. Not a lot of tree trouble, although there are a few bunkers in the fairway that can cause problems. Also, the green is small and hard to hit in two. Still, this seemed to be a good birdie hole to me.

Once again, Se Ri hit a fantastic drive (well behind Annika this time), showing that at least her accuracy off the tee, something she has struggled with this year, was decent. She hit a pretty good second shot, which rolled into the rough thirty yards to the front and right of the green. My comments: 'you didn't think it could get worse; it just got worse...'. She tried to pitch up to the front flag location, but hit another bad one, and it rolled maybe twenty feet past. Her birdie putt was also too fast and rolled maybe four feet past the hole. She had been doing this a lot today, also. And this time, she was not able to save par. Yet another bogey, and when you are so close after two shots, to get a bogey is extremely disheartening. This put her at 6 over, in more and more danger of missing her first cut at the Open.

My pictures of Se Ri on Thursday didn't turn out too well
Here's one of her in the fairway with her caddie Colin Cann
Seoul Sisters Photo/Eric Fleming

Hole 12: Short par 3 (127 yards) with a water carry, but nonetheless a great birdie chance. This time Se Ri hit a good iron to 12 feet, but just missed the birdie and tapped in for par. At least it wasn't a bogey, but she sure could have used a birdie about then.

Hole 13: Par 4, 287 yards. Fairly straight hole, but narrow fairway, and if you are too far right you will have tree trouble. Annika nearly killed me with her tee shot; it landed right in front of me! Se Ri hit a *terrible* drive into the left rough; from where I stood on the right side of the fairway, it looked like she might have an unplayable. She got it back onto the fairway (at least she avoided the bunker for once!), but some 40 yards short of the green. She hit her pitch, and wouldn't you know, for the first time all day, the darn thing stuck where she landed it. Unfortunately, she was expecting roll, and was still 40 feet from the hole. Yet another bogey. +7. By now I'm thinking this is the worst round of golf I've ever seen her play. Even more amazingly, Annika somehow got her second shot out from behind the tree and stopped it maybe ten feet from the hole. She went from no shot to legitimate birdie opportunity, although she only made par.

What was really hard about this hole from my standpoint was, I did not know if Se Ri had had to take a drop after the tee shot. So that 40 foot putt, for all I knew, might have been for bogey. Fortunately it wasn't, but at 7 over par, she was now in a position where she had to get her act together to even have a chance to make the cut.

Hole 14: Par 4, 394 yards. This one is the sister hole to #6, a dogleg left with a green well guarded by water on the left (and the green had one of those stone walls in front of it, again like six). Here she hit a good drive and a good iron, but she was robbed. This green was rock hard, and when her iron landed it took off like a rocket, jetting off the green and down a hill, and ending up next to a tree. She had no shot from there, and just shook her head when she saw her predicament. She pitched it high, but it hit a branch and dropped onto the fringe. Yet another bogey. +8. Even when she hit good shots she couldn't win. The other two women also had problems stopping their balls anywhere near the flag; this green was apparently quite nasty in that way.

Hole 15: Par 3, 175 yards, fairly narrow fairway, elevated green. When the greens got faster later in the week it became nearly impossible to stop one near the hole. Here Se Ri hit a good tee shot and actually gave herself a legitimate birdie opportunity, something I hadn't seen from her in a long time. But she missed birdie by a hair, and tapped in for par.

Hole 16: Par 4, 407 yards. The fairway here is fairly wide, and there isn't a lot of danger as long as you don't hit it right. What's tricky here is the green, which has multiple tiers; par is a challenge if you don't hit the ball to the correct tier. Se Ri split the fairway with her 3 wood, then finally hit a great approach, sticking it to ten feet on the correct tier. The putt was fairly straight, and finally, finally, she made a birdie! Hooray! This produced the first big smile from Se Ri all day, which was nice to see. Back to +7.

While she was waiting for Annika to putt, I noticed she was jabbering with Laura Davies and smiling a lot. It was heartening that she wasn't too depressed. And this was before she made the birdie. Go Se Ri!