Friday was much better for Se Ri...
Until the dreaded 13th hole, that is
Reuters/Tami Chappell

Then came the 13th hole. This time she kept her drive straight, and laid up nicely to a good distance. Surely she would be able to walk off with a decent score on the par 5 this time. But her third shot flew the green and ended up in the woods, where she once again had no shot. By the time she was done, incredibly, awfully, she had another triple bogey 8. Had she but put her third shot in the middle of the green, she almost certainly would have had a 5. But she got too aggressive and paid the price. Mi Hyun, meanwhile, walked off with a birdie.

Essentially, that one shot was the only mistake Se Ri made of any consequence all day. She finished with 12 greens and another birdie on hole 16. That meant a one over par 73. Not bad, but as previously stated, a slightly more conservative approach on 13, and she would have had a 70. It's very difficult to recover from one triple bogey in an event. You almost never recover from two. Se Ri had her work cut out for her. And yet, she was still only six shots out of the lead.

On Saturday, Se Ri really turned on the jets and at last played a great round. She was helped by the improved weather, warm with little wind. In fact, she hit her first 15 greens and would go on to hit 16 greens and 10 fairways. She notched birdies on 1, 3, 6 and 7, and thus vaulted up to +1 for the tournament. A bogey setback on 9 barely impeded her, as she got another birdie on 11 to return to 1 over.

Well and good, but now she had to contend with 13 again. The three-peat Se Ri wanted was to win this event three times (becoming one of the few in history to manage such a feat). The one she didn't want was to get a triple bogey on the same hole three days running. Fortunately, the 13th proved tame on Saturday, and Se Ri added another birdie, moving back to even par for the tournament and five under for the day.

Finally a great round on Saturday
Reuters/Tami Chappell

Se Ri had her chances on Sunday, but
a few costly mistakes did her in
Reuters/Tami Chappell

Se Ri did not miss a green until the par 5 16th hole. And this also gave her only her second bogey on the day. Hard to understand what could have gone wrong for her there. She had birdied it on Friday and would do so again on Sunday. But this day she got a bogey, and dropped back to one over. Fortunately, a final hole birdie gave her a 67 total. This was tied for the best score of the day with about five other players. But some of those players were near the top of the leaderboard, and so Se Ri made next to no progress on them. But she was now in a tie for 7th, certainly a better place to be.

Se Ri confessed to Nancy Lopez after her round that she was exhausted, and found herself impatient. When a hard situation would come up, she just didn't have her usual concentration. That had already born itself out during the first two rounds, and would again rear its head on Sunday.

She started out wonderfully, with birdies on holes 2, 4 and 6. Just like that she was at 3 under, only 4 shots out of the lead. If she could continue that kind of play, she had a real chance to win. But that was as close as she would get. She had one of those concentration lapses starting on 7, where she finished with a double bogey-bogey on those next two holes to fall all the way back to even par. And though she tried hard, she was never able to make a move beyond that, finishing the event at one under, seven shots off the lead. She had the worst day among those in the top eleven, and ended the day but one shot out of her 13th straight top ten. And of course, she failed to three-peat. It was only her second ever chance to win an event three times in a row, and since she did not defend any of her titles this year, she will not have another chance to do it until possibly 2005, if she can win the Chick-Fil-A, the Ping or the Farr next year.

Clearly, her tiredness was a prime factor in her mediocre performance this year. Hopefully she is beginning to understand that she cannot simply will herself to a victory, even on a course she has played in record fashion the two previous years. Even Sorenstam understands the importance of pacing yourself. She very carefully plans her schedule so she is at her best in the important events. If Se Ri is ever to be #1, she needs to plan her time just as meticulously. Perhaps next year we will see her achieve her every goal thanks to just such a plan.