What Happened to Se Ri?

Se Ri talks to the press before the
Welch's / Fry's Championship

Let's get it out of the way. Yes, Se Ri Pak missed the cut at the Welch's / Fry's Championship. What makes this all the more amazing is that there were nine Korean players who finished in the top 30 in this event, certainly some kind of record for success for the Koreans. What happened? Does it bode badly for Se Ri's season, or was it an aberration?

It's easy to say that Se Ri just had a bad two days and let it go at that. After all, everyone misses cuts now and then, even her. Yes, she had been perfect in cuts made since April of 2001, but had missed eight cuts total in her career. And she had a couple of close calls in 2002, notably at the U.S. Women's Open, where her putting was so bad the first two days that she was last in the field in that statistic for those days. Nonetheless, she managed to squeak in as the last player to make the cut at that event, and went on to blister the course on the weekend to finish 5th. So a missed cut is not a completely unbelievable event for her.

Still, she just doesn't seem to have a lot of bad rounds, and even at the Open, she was 2nd in greens in regulation over those same two days she was last in putting.

As I see it, there were a few factors that contributed to her problems. First of all, Se Ri has never had a good record on courses where a lot of players are going really low. All Pak fans know how she rises to the occasion on tough courses, and in 2002 she won three of the five events where the winning score was the highest, a truly telling statistic. But this tournament was yielding record low scores on a regular basis. Just to compare: in the entire history of the LPGA, only five times had someone managed to shoot 61 or better. In this one event alone, three players did it, and about a dozen more managed 62 or 63. Especially on the first two days, where the weather was perfect, the pin positions easier and the ladies more rested, the players went to town on this course to a degree never before seen on tour. Contributing to the low scores were the short length of the course, the desert air which made the course play even shorter, and the non-penal nature of the rough. If everyone can reach all the par 5s in two, another of Se Ri's advantages go out the window, and if off line shots are not penalized with tough up and downs, then Se Ri's accuracy does her no good.

Also, unlike at the U.S. Open, Se Ri was not hitting her irons particularly well. She had a total of 24 greens in regulation during her two rounds; certainly not terrible, but for her a so so performance. This put all the pressure on her putting, and for any player, Se Ri included, putting can be a very fickle thing.

Perhaps the biggest factor was her problems with her driver. Simply put, she was not putting her drives into good places. Se Ri felt it was necessary after this tournament to go to San Diego and get fitted for a new driver, which seemed to do the trick the next week in Phoenix.

Despite all that, she had a pretty good first round. 67 is nothing to sneeze at, even on a course yielding 61s, and all she needed to do was put together a 70 or 69 in round two to easily make the cut. It was round two, though, where her putting let her down. She ended up with 33 putts that round, despite the fact she hit the same number of greens as in round one. One hole they showed told the story: the par 3 17th, a 120 yarder over water. Se Ri hit a beautiful wedge five feet past the hole, then missed the putt. By the time she started, she knew she was going to have to make those kind of putts to stay in the tournament, and perhaps she got a little to anxious to produce them.

So the made cut streak is history. What happens next? Hard to say. Based on what I have read about her preparations, she seems well and truly ready to take on the world this year on tour. Surely she is as hungry as she's ever been. So hopefully, if her health stays good, this will stand out as a solitary low point in a season of highs.

AP Photo/Wily Low

AP Photo/Wily Low