2003 CJ 9 Bridges Classic: Shi Devil

Chances are that, unless you are Korean and follow the Korean LPGA closely, you have never heard of Shi Hyun Ahn. Which would put you in very good company. The 19 year old golfer is in her rookie year on the KLPGA, where she has played well enough to put herself fourth on the KLPGA money list. This is after last year’s performance on the ‘Dream Tour’, the Korean version of the Futures Tour, where she placed 1st. So she is far from unaccomplished, but typically only the very best KLPGA players become well known outside of Korea. That is, unless they do something to make a name for themselves, like a certain Seoul Sister named Se Ri Pak did by moving to America to play on the LPGA tour in 1998.

As it turned out, Shi Hyun Ahn did not have to travel to America to make it big. She let her clubs do the talking right in her home country, and in just one week she went from a promising young player to a national sweetheart. Her fan club went from 50 members to over 4000 in just one day. She went from a footnote to a player featured in dozens of articles, which give myriad introductory details about the new national treasure. The fashions she wore at 9 Bridges are flying off the shelves. And best of all, she earned not only an enormous check doubtless greater than everything she had earned in her career to date, but also a two year exemption to the LPGA tour, where she will have the chance to try her luck against the top players in the world on a regular basis. Shi Hyun Ahn really is a Cinderella, and you would be hard pressed to find a photo of her from the last few days where she does not have a huge grin plastered across her face.

Shi Hyun likes to tell the story of what happened to her in the pro-am at 9 Bridges. She was paired with the chairman of Kolon, one of the Korean companies that co-sponsor the CJ 9 Bridges Classic - the only LPGA tournament that takes place on Korean soil - as well as her own chief sponsor. The chairman told her after watching her play that he felt she was going to win, and that she should go ahead and do just that. No doubt she is grateful for his support, but probably not about to give any of her winnings to this prescient gentleman!

Shi Hyun Ahn

Se Ri looked sharp in practice as usual

But psychic Korean businessmen aside, it’s doubtful you could have found anyone outside of Ms. Ahn’s immediate family who would have suspected that she could be holding the trophy at the end of the week. Not only had she not won any professional tournaments before, but she also had never played an LPGA event in her life. She would be facing 50 of the best women players in the world from that tour. The field consisted of those 50, plus invitees from the KLPGA tour and JLPGA tour. Rounding out the collection of talent were two top young players with far more notoriety than Shi Hyun: Aree Song, arguably the best amateur in the world (but recently turned professional); and Michelle Wie, the big bomber from Hawaii whose every move was covered in gory detail by the Korean press. This was Wie’s first trip to Korea to play golf, and it was big news. As if that weren’t enough, Se Ri Pak was going to play, only one week after nabbing a top ten in a men’s golf event. She had enormous and boisterous galleries following her all week, most of them trying to will her to a victory that would get her that much closer to the Hall of Fame. Indeed, Pak only needs two more wins to enter that august assemblage. The field also included the #3 ranked player in the LPGA this year, Grace Park, and the #4 player, Hee-Won Han, as well as most of the rest of the awesome group of talent we know as the Seoul Sisters. And a number of other great, non-Korean players as well, such as three time winner Candie Kung, Laura Diaz, Natalie Gulbis, Lorena Ochoa, Lorie Kane, zillion time winner Laura Davies… It would be no easy task to even finish well in that group, let alone win.

Despite the fact that the event takes place in Korea, last year’s event yielded but a single Korean player in the top ten: Se Ri, who won. No one in the KLPGA, even the stars, had made much of an impact. The odds were certainly against that changing this week, but if it did change, again, Shi Hyun Ahn would not have been the one you would have picked to change things. Ju Mi Kim, perhaps, who at 19 leads the KLPGA money list in 2003. Or Mi Na Lee, who has played raggedly of late but has been the top dog on the KLPGA until recently. Or Il Mi Chung, another top KLPGA player fresh off her successful attempt to get an LPGA exempt card at Q-School. All of those players have multiple wins on their resumes, and would doubtless have been better prepared to take on the elite competition than Shi Hyun Ahn was.

But a funny thing happened. Maybe it was the benign conditions that made a difference. In 2002, the conditions had been absolutely dreadful, but in 2003, they were pleasant and allowed for much lower scoring. Maybe it was the prediction of the Kolon executive. Or maybe she just felt no pressure on her, because any top finish would have been impressive. Regardless, the script did not go anywhere near as planned, and somewhere in the world, a fan is basking in the glow of a long shot bet that paid off at enormous odds.

Last year, the temperatures were almost unbearably cold.
Here Se Ri commiserates with
Jackie Gallagher-Smith