2003 John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic:
Tired But Game

Where exactly did the John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic come from? If you had studied the LPGA schedule at the beginning of the year, you would have seen no such event. So why is it that we are talking about it now? Who is John Q. Hammons, and why is he only the second guy, after Jamie Farr, to have an LPGA event named after him in 2003?

Well, this event arose from the ashes of the Williams Championship. Those who are following the ups and downs of various American corporations this year have probably heard all about Williams. To put it mildly, this company has been having all sorts of trouble. Thanks to Williams, Tulsa, Oklahoma managed to get its very own LPGA event starting in 2001. But its unforeseen economic distress made continuing the event in 2003 a tough proposition.

Gloria Park won the inaugural
Williams Championship in 2001

About the only good memory Se Ri had of the 2002
Williams Championship came in the pro-am, pictured here

During its short history, the Williams Championship had produced a few memorable moments. In 2001, Donna Andrews, a formerly great American player who had never been the same since falling off a horse a few years previous, went on an absolute tear in the second round. Seemingly nothing could go wrong, and on 18, she tapped in for what looked like an astounding 61. But she confessed that she believed the ball had moved when she addressed it, though no one else saw the infraction. So she took a one stroke penalty and scored a 62 instead.

That one stroke was seemingly insignificant, for she had a five shot lead going into the final round. But on Sunday, while Andrews had trouble, it was Gloria Park who played lights out golf. Gloria had only a few weeks previously notched her first ever LPGA top ten, and now she was playing so well that she might just as quickly grab her first victory. And indeed, when the event was over, Gloria had shot a final round 64, good for a one shot win. Yes, the one stroke penalty Andrews had called on herself, that no one else had seen, gave Gloria her first LPGA victory.

In 2002, Se Ri came into this event at the end of a long stretch of tournaments. In retrospect, it was probably not a good idea to play here, but she tried anyway. Her first round was quite atypical for this time of season, a 5 over par 75 that put her perilously close to missing the cut. She played much better in the second round, but just barely made the cut, the closest she came to missing a cut in 2002 except for the US Women's Open. By the time she was done, she had her worst finish of the year.

Se Ri drives during round 1 of the Hammons Classic
Reuters/Jeff Mitchell

Between 2002 and 2003, Williams had its financial meltdown, and had to bow out of supporting the event. The city of Tulsa did not want the event to go away, and worked with the LPGA to find a sponsor. That's when hotel magnate John Q. Hammons stepped in and took over. And thus the event was rechristened the John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic.

Coming into this week, the Sisters were not exactly set up to have fantastic tournaments. First of all, Grace Park, Hee-Won Han and Soo Yun Kang were all at the Korean Women's Open rather than this event. Se Ri Pak was again coming off a long stretch of events without much rest, the same schedule that had nearly spelled disaster for her in 2002. And Mi Hyun Kim and Gloria Park were having sub-par seasons. Could any Seoul Sister rise to the occasion and contend? Or would the stretch of Koreans finishing in the top ten that had lasted all year at last be broken?