2003 Wendy's Championship: Notes

Hee-Won boyfriend watch
Hee-Won Han is unique among the top Korean players in that she is having a romance with a famous man, and this relationship is widely reported in the newspapers back home. Usually, the Sisters are very private about their dating life; Grace Park, when asked once if she had a boyfriend, replied cryptically that 'he lives on this planet' (thanks for clearing that up, Grace!). Hee-Won is currently dating a pro baseball pitcher named Son Hyok, and the Korean press have done their bit to keep the public up to date on this burgeoning romance. Every time Hee-Won is in contention at a tournament (which lately has been quite often), poor Son is back in Korea watching over the internet or on TV, living and dying with every shot she makes. And after every win, they publish an article about him and how excited he is with her latest triumph.

This odd collage appeared recently in a Korean
Sports Magazine. No, Hee-Won and
her boyfriend have not yet gotten
married; the magazine was asking: what if?

Check out Fairways and Greens for more behind the scenes
pictures of Peanut at the Wendy's Championship!
Courtesy: Ponyboy

Kimmie's defense
Mi Hyun Kim managed a decent defense of her title, despite the fact that the course was not setting up well for her. In 2002, the course was very dry, the fairways ran fast, and the greens were hard to hold. As a result, Kimmie's distance disadvantage was not so bad. However, this year the course was very wet, which meant it played a lot longer than it had in 2002. Interestingly, Mi Hyun's final score of 7 under was only one shot worse than her winning score of 2002, 8 under. But with the greens holding approaches, and little wind, several great players were able to take advantage and shoot much lower than that. As a result, Mi Hyun only notched a 13th place finish, still good enough to be the second best Korean player in the end, but not good enough to get her first win of 2003.

Sunny Lee
Sunny Lee was participating in only her second event of the year. You may recall that she at long last broke her missed cut streak at her first event of the year, the Sybase Big Apple Classic, even though she ended up finishing dead last in the field. This week things looked good for another made cut. She started out well, then seemingly shot a 69 to finish at even par, which turned out to be exactly the cut line. However, there had been a scoring error, and Sunny's correct score, 71, was not reported until later in the day. So Sunny fans were disappointed to discover that she had in fact missed the cut. Still, she is playing better this year, and will hopefully soon start showing the solid form that made her a multiple winner on the KLPGA.