Safeway Ping 2003: Other Notes

This week's tournament did not produce as many Korean players in the top 30 as last week, and more missed the cut as well. But this event does have the distinction of being the first LPGA event ever to feature not one, not two, but three Koreans in the top three. Besides Se Ri Pak, who won, and Grace Park, who finished second, Hee-Won Han continued her development into a top player by finishing in a tie for third. Although Han was driving it much shorter than almost any of the other players at the top of the leaderboard, she made up for that deficit with some great putting and iron play. On Sunday, she played with Se Ri Pak, who was smoking the field en route to a 64 and the win. Hee-Won could have been intimidated by that; instead, she fed off of it to shoot her own 66. No eagles, no spectacular par saves, just a solid dependable three birdies on the front, three on the back. This marks Hee-Won's fourth top three finish in her career. Sooner or later things will fall her way and the trophy will be hers.

Reuters/Jeff Topping

Pearl Sinn-Bonanni made her debut as a commentator for ESPN this week. She was frequently assigned groups containing one or more Korean player. On Friday she covered Suzann Pettersen's group, which also contained Christina Kim and Soo-Yun Kang. On Sunday she followed an all Korean group: Se Ri and Hee-Won. Afterwards she conducted her first interview, with Se Ri, and gave her a big hug to congratulate her for her victory. When Se Ri came out on tour, Pearl acted like her big sister, helping her to get acclimated to life in the States. Apparently she still feels a lot of affection for Se Ri. It was a touching gesture on her part.

As for her commentating, she still needs to work on it a little. There were a few times when she seemed a bit confused by what was going on. But she also matched that with many moments where she described the situation well. All indications are that she'll be great once she gets used to what she is doing.

Soo Yun Kang shot a 68 in the first round, and looked primed to make a weekend appearance. But she fell completely apart in the second round, shooting a 77 and missing the cut. This is a bit of a disappointment, coming off her 30th place finish in Tucson, but hopefully she will bounce back just fine. They even showed her once, Judy Rankin commenting that she has quite a good swing for a player who has less than $4,000 in career (LPGA) earnings. This of course ignores her numerous wins on the KLPGA, her several player of the year awards there, her beating top players like Annika and Se Ri at various tournaments, etc. If only the commentators would do a little more research on the Korean players before they speak!!!

The Kim Report:
Meanwhile, Christina Kim managed to make the cut after a ragged start, and finished 50th. Young Kim, however, missed the cut. Mi Hyun Kim started poorly, but three good rounds thereafter enabled her to finish 11th. Knowing Peanut, we should be seeing her game start to improve in the next few events.

Soo Yun Kang at the Ping
Reuters/Jeff Topping