Se Ri went out early on Thursday morning and played a typical Se Ri Pak first round. Nothing too dire happened, she hit a fair amount of greens, but was not able to hit the fairways as often as she would have liked. Alas, her putting, again common for early rounds, was a bit off, and on this course, putting is at a premium. There is a saying among the players: 'No Jail at the Rail'. What this means is, you can get away with missing fairways on this course (sometimes, anyway), and still have a chance to get birdies if you hit the proper part of the green. This allowed such phenomena as Laura Davies hitting but a single fairway in her Friday round, yet still shooting a 67. Se Ri was not able to capitalize on hitting 16 greens because she just was not putting it well In fact, she had a rather pedestrian 32 putts on her round. By the end of the day, she would end up in 23rd place, again a usual result for her after the first day.

There were others who were not so shy about taking advantage of the Rail Golf Course, however. One of these players was Candie Kung, who was playing with Se Ri the first two rounds. She shot a lights out 64. But Hee-Won Han, the other hottest player in golf the last month, was not far behind. After an even par front nine, she rocketed up the leaderboard with an exquisite run of five straight birdies from the 13th through the 17th holes. Add another birdie on 10 and she had a 6 under par 30 that put her in second place, just two shots behind Kung. And Grace Park matched Se Ri's 70, meaning that several of the players who could potentially unseat Se Ri for the Series crown were in place to do just that.

Se Ri putts in round 1
AP Photo/Seth Perlman

Se Ri gets wet driving on Friday; her caddie stays dry
AP Photo/Randy Squires

On Friday, Se Ri played in the afternoon. Again paired with Kung, she watched as Kung bogeyed her first two holes and dropped out of the lead, while Hee-Won took advantage and climbed into that spot. But Se Ri was not able to make any birdies on her first few holes. Finally on 13 (she had started on the tenth hole), she hit a superlative approach to just a few feet, while Kung's approach was lackluster but still rolled to about ten feet via a lucky bounce. Naturally, Kung somehow took advantage of the break and made her birdie. But Se Ri, despite having almost a gimme, lipped the ball out, watching as it rolled completely around the cup and hopped out. That painful birdie miss would come back to haunt her later.

Se Ri finally got off the schnied on the par 3 16th, a hole that is quite butt clenching in that it requires (depending on the flag placement that day) potentially a huge water carry. She did not hit a good iron, but still made a roughly twenty foot birdie putt to break the ice. Kung, who was closer, missed her birdie, and the difference between them returned to four strokes. Another birdie on 17, and Se Ri seemed to be on the move, but in fact, she would only make one more birdie on the day. Most noticeable was that, in two complete rounds, she had only birdied two of the 8 par 5s she could have birdied. A good example of her struggles came on the par 5 15th hole. Se Ri hit a fantastic drive there, leaving herself only 175 yards to the front of the green, a little more than 200 to the hole. She took out a wood (probably a 7 wood), but did not hit a very good shot. It hit the green and rolled all the way off the back, thankfully stopping before the water. She then proceeded to hit a weak pitch, then a weak putt, and walked off with par. If even one of those two shots had been a little better than average, she would certainly have had a birdie to show for her efforts.

Meanwhile, Kung recovered from her doldrums and went on to shoot a 67 to take a four shot lead over the field. Hee-Won had another solid day, and sat in a tie for second with Jennifer Rosales. Se Ri had moved up to 13th place, but was now a formidable 8 shots out of the lead. Once again she had shot two decent but uninspiring rounds to open her tournament, just as she had done at the King the week before. She was going to need something to goose her to the next level, and she was going to need it fast.

Hee-Won continued her scorching play
of the last month at the Rail