Magazine 2003 Wachovia Classic

Volume 1, Number 13 September 3, 2003

2003 Wachovia: The Seven Sisters

Pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Results

Seven Korean players in the top 20; how much more amazing can they be?

One of the truly amazing results of the Wachovia Classic (hosted of course by Betsy King) was the sheer preponderance of Korean names on the leaderboard. In fact, an incredible 7 Korean players finished in the top 20 at this event. That means that one third of the players who scored a top twenty at this event hailed from the Land of the Morning Calm. Let's take a brief look at the Seven Sisters and how they did this.

Tops on the Korean hit parade was of course Se Ri Pak, who finished second on the list, and about whom you already read in the first article. The next ranked Korean was Grace Park. Grace was coming off a nice rest of two weeks, but she had been doing anything but resting. In fact, she was back home in Korea, shooting a commercial for Pantene Shampoo which will soon be airing. Unfortunately, it will probably only air in Korea, but who knows, we might get lucky. Even if we don't, I'll do my best to locate it on the web. Grace found the shoot interesting, but was glad to be back doing what she does best. And though it was not a sensational week for her, owing mainly to the usual suspects (namely an errant driver), she still played decently all four days. Her best day was a four under 68 she scored on Saturday to move within shouting distance of the lead. Alas, she was never able to get too close, but still finished ninth for her 11th top ten of the year. Perhaps the biggest drag was that she was almost totally ignored by the Golf Channel, who were covering the event: she only got one shot televised all week. But she was also interviewed for a cute segment they showed on Friday, where they asked various golfers what the meaning of a golf term is. This week's term was 'dormie', and match play star Grace certainly knew the meaning of that term (although she wasn't quite able to articulate it while the cameras rolled!).

Grace in yet another of a seemingly endless
line of great looking outfits.
This is from round two of the Wachovia
Reuters/Tim Shaffer

Grace during Round 1 shows off the swoosh on her driver
(not to mention the schwing!)
Reuters/Tim Shaffer

Tied for tenth were Jeong Jang and Gloria Park. That marks four Koreans who squeezed their way into the top ten this week. JJ was plodding along at roughly even par for the tournament before she shot a great 67 in the final round to climb into the top ten. Gloria did much the same thing, except her final round was a 68. This was Jang's sixth top ten of the year, a year which has also seen her post several great performances in the Majors.

Just a shot behind those two ladies was Soo-Yun Kang, tied for 12th. Although Kangsy missed grabbing another top ten, she had a pretty good event overall. Her best round came on the first day, where she shot a four under 68 that left her in a tie for second at the end of the day. The rest of her rounds hovered around par, so she slowly slid down the leaderboard until she wound up 12th. Still, another strong event that moved her into 30th place on the money list for the season. This is a very significant development, because the top 30 at the end of the year get an invite to the Tour Championship. If she can hang on to that placing, it could prove very lucrative for her.

Sometimes you wonder if it's a golf tournament
or a fashion show! Soo-Yun Kang

Young Kim at the King
Reuters/Tim Shaffer

Lastly, tied for 14th were Mi Hyun Kim and Young Kim. They played virtually identical tournaments, shooting average first and third rounds and good second and fourth rounds. A witness to their play on Sunday (they were paired together that day) tells me that Young was very impressive, and that it would only be a matter of time until she became a star on the LPGA. Mi Hyun is already a star, albeit one having a weaker than normal season. Still, the almost-top ten helped keep her close to the top twenty on the season money list. Sooner or later she is bound to have a few good tournaments; it remains to be seen whether they will be enough to move her back into the top ten on the money list, a place she has been pretty much nonstop (until this year) since joining the tour.

Sunny Lee might have very well made it eight in the top twenty. She was in the top twenty for almost the entire tournament, but slipped out at the last moment. But that tale shall be saved for our next story!