Magazine 2003 Asahi Ryokuken

Volume 1, Number 6 May 21, 2003

Pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Results

Fortunately, Mi Hyun picked up the pace immensely on Friday. Whereas in round one, she had three bogeys on the front side, and a solitary birdie on the back, in round 2 she made nary a mistake all day. She hit 15 greens on the day (not bad at all!) and 11 fairways, had only 29 putts, and was even driving it well, averaging nearly 260 yards. When you get those kind of stats going, you know you'll produce a good score, and Mi Hyun did. Though she missed a few very makeable birdies and was a trifle frustrated, she could be proud of her 4 under 68, which made her one of the big movers of the day. Starting in 83rd, she ended the day tied for 18th.

But perhaps we shouldn't have been so surprised that Mi Hyun made the cut. Mark Piras, a sports writer at the Beaufort Gazette, wrote me an e-mail recently, mentioning the interview he had just done with Mi Hyun. Besides praising her as a wonderful person (which we all knew, right?), he also said that he did a little research and discovered something interesting: Mi Hyun has the longest streak in the LPGA currently of consecutive made cuts. She has not missed the cut since early 2001. By making this cut, she moved her streak to 52 straight; the next longest, at 31, is held by Beth Daniel.

Peanut practices during the
pro-am

Mi Hyun congratulates a pro-am partner

But though Mi Hyun had a great second round, she was still a mile out of the lead. Still, she had to be feeling pretty confident with her game, right? Well, she continued her solid tee to green game on Saturday, hitting even more greens (16) than the day before. But something went wrong with her putting, in the same sense that 'something went wrong' when the Hindenburg tried to land. To put it mildly, she had one of the worst putting performances I can ever remember from her, an abominable 35 putts, including a 4 putt on the 5th that led to a double bogey. I can scarcely recall Peanut ever having a four putt or a 35 putt round. She limped her way to a 74, and even a roller coaster 70 on Sunday couldn't help her very much when it came to contending. She ended up finishing tied for 28th.

So that left Hee-Won Han, the perennial bridesmaid of the Seoul Sisters, to try to salvage something for the team. Something about the way Hee-Won has been playing this year, though: there's a newfound confidence there, and consistency. She's hitting a ream of fairways, putting well, and not throwing out a lot of poor rounds. As a result, she has hovered around the top ten on the money list all year, and a good finish in the Asahi would be enough to move her back into that august group.

Well, her first round was not exactly something to write home about; but it was still the best any of the Korean players were able to come up with, a 2 under 70 that left her in 13th place. It was basically a model of consistency (there's that word again): 16 pars, two birdies, no big mistakes. But it was in the second round that Hee-Won gave all the fans of the Korean ladies reason for hope: like Mi Hyun, she shot a 4 under 68. Alas, she finally had her first bogey of the tournament, but five birdies made up for that. When you hit 16 greens, you know things are going your way. That score left her in a tie for 6th place, 4 shots out of the lead, and thus the only Korean who had a realistic chance of taking the crown.

Hee-Won had the 'Seoul' top ten for
the Sisters this week
Reuters/Tami Chappell

Alas, much as Mi Hyun had a putting nightmare in round 3, Hee-Won had a long game nightmare. Whereas she hit 15 and 16 greens in her first two rounds, in her third round she hit only 8 greens. Despite excellent up and downs on a number of holes, she quickly ballooned to 3 over on the front nine. At least she could be proud of her driving; she even nailed a 278 yarder, one of the longest I ever recall her hitting. But it was not until the 11th hole that she scored a birdie, and that was after four bogeys earlier in her round. Give her credit: she climbed out of the hole she had dug, notching three birdies on the back to score a depressing but not disastrous 1 over 73. But this left her in 9th place, and more importantly, 8 shots out of the lead. Fortunately she did not let this bother her too much, and a 2 under 70 allowed her to maintain her 9th place standing, thus grabbing the only top ten for a Korean at the event. That's her 4th already in 8 starts, showing that, yes, consistency is fast becoming her new watchword.