Volume 1, Number 14 September 17, 2003
 

2003 John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic:
Yang Bang

 Pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Results
Young-A Yang is showing surprising resilience this season

Not a lot of Korean players go the route Young-A Yang did to get to the LPGA. Most players either play in the KLPGA, then play Q-School and come onto the LPGA that way; or they play the Futures Tour in order to get their tour card or at least gain direct access to the final round of qualifying school. The third option is one that not as many Korean players take as you would think. Namely, getting a scholarship to an American college. Even fewer of them stay at the college the whole four years, then try out for Q-School. In fact, the only other current Korean players who went to college here, Grace Park and Jimin Kang, both quit school after their sophomore years to turn pro. Yang, meanwhile, stayed at the University of Tennessee the whole four years, where she became an All-American golfer, then turned pro last summer.

Young-A Yang (left) and Young Kim at the LPGA Championship

Young-A reads a putt during round 1 of the
Hammons Hotel Classic
Reuters/Jeff Mitchell

Even more surprisingly, she got an exempt card when she finally went to Q-School last October. Not that being an All-American golfer made her an underdog, but of the two Korean players who had gone to American Universities participating in Q-School, Jimin Kang had the far more gaudy record. Yang's record, while good, was nowhere near as impressive. Yet it was Yang who got the exempt status, not Kang.

Yang would go on to have a pretty bumpy rookie campaign, but she began to improve as the year went on, culminating in a fantastic 6th place finish at this year's second Major, the LPGA Championship.

So coming into this week's Hammon's Hotel Classic, Young-A was 75th on the money list for the year, thanks largely to her top ten at the Major. With only three full field events left in the schedule, it was looking good for her to maintain her exempt card, something that rookies are often concerned about achieving. But this was going to be a tough challenge, a narrow course with tricky greens and penal rough. Come to think of it, somewhat like the course the LPGA Championship is played on. And amazingly, when the first round was finished, Yang had put herself smack into contention. Her 2 under par 68 left her in a tie for fourth, the highest ranked Korean on the leaderboard, and only 3 shots out of the lead.
The second round did not prove as kind for Young-A. She shot a 2 over par 72. Still, the average score that day was even higher than that, and many a superstar played that well or worse (for instance, Se Ri Pak and Mi Hyun Kim also shot a 72 on Saturday, and Annika Sorenstam a 74). As a result, though she lost some ground on the leaders, she still sat at even par for the event and in 8th place. And of all the Koreans in the field, she had the best chance to walk away with a top ten.

Yang drives it in round 2
Reuters/Jeff Mitchell

But it was not to be. Young-A did not manage a bad third round, really, but like many of the other players who played late in the day, was not able to achieve an under par score. In fact, she shot another 2 over par 72, which shunted her down to 2 over for the tournament and a tie for 15th finish. Still, this is nothing to sneeze at! One of her best finishes of the year, and even under tough conditions, she managed over three days to not shoot worse than a 72 on a course with only two par 5s and only one reachable one. Although this only moved her one spot up the money list to 74th place, she was able to give herself a cushion that will almost certainly enable her to keep her exempt status for 2004. And then, perhaps, with a year of professional golf under her belt, we will see what Young-A Yang is capable of becoming.
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