2003 ADT Tour Championship: Vare is the Love?

Se Ri Pak has had to live with quite a bit of disappointment the last few years. Oh, she has played phenomenal golf since 2001, with 13 wins and two Majors from the start of that season until the final week of the 2003 season. She had also managed to break $1.5 million in earnings the last three seasons, a very impressive feat that few had ever before managed.

But still, looking down at her finishes in the Vare Trophy, the Player of the Year, and the money list, you see a sort of consistency that borders on frustration: in each of those majors achievements, in every year since 2001, Se Ri has been second to Annika Sorenstam. Clearly ahead of anyone else, but second nonetheless. As well as Se Ri has been playing, she just has not played well enough.

Se Ri in round 1 of this year's ADT Championship

Last year, Se Ri was sick as a dog at the ADT

This year, things were no different. Despite the fact Annika played in nine fewer events in 2003 than Se Ri did, she still had clinched the Player of the Year and Money list titles by the time the tour entered its final event of the year, the ADT Championship in Florida. But the fact that she had played so few events came back to haunt her in the third post-season award category, the Vare Trophy. For, despite the fact her scoring average was well below Se Ri's (and the fact that Se Ri's average was well above what it had been in years past), Annika had disqualified herself by not playing enough rounds of golf to meet the minimum requirement for the prize. And even if she finished all four rounds of the ADT, she would still not be able to meet that requirement.

Annika had a chance to be magnanimous about it, but instead chose to be petty, which was unfortunate. She complained long and loud about it, first to Commissioner Ty Votaw, then to the press. Her disappointment was understandable, as this is a great honor she was seeking, and in all likelihood she would have won it had she met the minimum requirement. But it's not like she couldn't have known this requirement at the start of the year. In fact, she herself once won the Vare Trophy because Laura Davies, who had the better average, did not play enough rounds. If she was not aware of it, her agent should have been; this was a fubar that could have been avoided.

Here's what's really strange: by the time we started hearing rumblings about this in the press, shortly before the Longs Drugs Challenge, the situation was not reversible. Had Annika played in the three events she skipped at the end of the year from that point (the Longs, the Tournament of Champions and the CJ 9 Bridges), she would have made enough rounds to qualify. Why did she not make every effort to do so as soon as she found out the situation? If it were truly important to her, you think she would have gladly canceled appearances in a men's skins game in Singapore to accommodate her winning this prize. It's a bit hard to understand.

Anyway, I don't believe Annika's mistake should taint the achievement of the real Vare trophy winner in 2003. This is golf, after all; is there any sport where the rules, and following them carefully, plays a more important part? You could win the US Women's Open by ten shots, but if you forget to sign your scorecard, you're out of there. No win. And that's actually a more unfortunate situation, because at least there, the player had done everything necessary to claim the prize, whereas Annika still needed the formality of three - four more events to claim hers. But that's the way golf works.

Grace celebrates an eagle during
her practice round
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