Grace and Hee-Won both granted interviews with the press upon arriving in Korea. I am grateful to a Korean poster named Willy_C for translating the gist of what they had to say. Among the tidbits in Grace's interview (with my comments added parenthetically):

1. She was not aware that she is leading the LPGA in birdies (hard to believe - she has been called the 'Birdie Queen' in the Korean press for some time!)

2. She feels she is not in the same form as earlier this year for lack of working out (doubtless those frequent trips back and forth across the ocean have not been helping!)

3. She lets her father - he has just acquired a large food concern -manage her money. She gets spending money from him, but will not get all her assets until she marries. (I guess this is not surprising, but being that she is already 24, I would not be surprised to see her ask for more control of her earnings long before she gets married. Unless, of course, she pulls a Hee-Won on us and gets married sooner than we are expecting).

4. She again talked about how hard it was shooting the commercial and doing just what the director expected of her. She joked that she hopes to "leave Korea before they air it."

5. She says her caddie Dave Brooker has practically become a Korean and loved her mother's Kimchee Jigae (stew) after their arrival in Seoul. (I don't blame him - Kimchee Jigae is yummy, although I have never had Grace's mother's version!).

Grace talks to the press, September, 2003

Hee-Won meets the press

Hee-Won and her fiancee, Son Hyok

Hee-Won's interview contained the following morsels:

1. Like Grace she comes from an affluent family in Seoul (which is something I always suspected but was not able to confirm before this).

2. Both started golf at the same time at the same practice range, which used to be right across from Grace's dad's restaurant, in their late elementary school years (now that is a cool thought! Two future superstars, both hitting balls next to each other on the same driving range as kids, neither realizing how their fates would become intertwined over the coming years. It's almost cinematic, isn't it? Naw, you'd never believe it if it happened in a movie!).

3. Hee Won claims that she was much taller and a better golfer in those days, but that Grace had sturdy legs from her roller-skating training (did you know that Grace was a top roller skating champion before she took up golf? True story!).

4. Hee Won became really despondent after losing the Williams tournament and found comfort from her fiance, who called and emailed to console her (I think he may be mistaken; Hee-Won did not contend at the Williams in 2002 (she finished 49th). I suspect he meant the Sybase, where Hee-Won had a birdie putt to win it, but missed).

5. She has not corrected anything in her game that much but feels the bounces are going her way this year. (Maybe Hee-Won is being a bit humble. I am seeing a newfound confidence in her play that has directly translated to better results. She would not have won a playoff like the one at the Wendy's last year in my opinion).

The tournament started on September 4th (Thursday), and was to be three rounds. Right away there was a bit of controversy, in that the LPGA players were not able to get in a full practice round before the event, whereas the KLPGA players and amateurs were. In a three round event, it does not help you to get off to a poor start. Unfortunately, this has been a weakness of Grace's all year, so it remained to be seen whether she could fight that successfully this week.

The fun was definitely increased by the fact that Grace, Hee-Won and Beth Bauer played the first round together. As you can imagine, the galleries were enormous following this trio. Grace ended up true to her tradition, getting off to a lackluster start. She had an early birdie, but almost immediately followed that up with a bogey, then added three more bogeys on the back side to shoot a 3 over par 75. That left her well back in the field, in a tie for 31st, but luckily for her, the leader, a relatively unknown Korean LPGA player named Ji Young Moon, was only at 3 under 69. So Grace was not out of things by any means.

Grace and Dave read a putt in round 1