Grace Park

Grace Park really jump started her career in 2002. After two decent seasons that were quite frankly below what everyone expected of her, she finally started to play like the superstar everyone thought she could be in 2002. In fact, her start to the season was particularly explosive, as she notched top ten after top ten, and broke her previous best score at a professional several times. But Grace only managed one top ten in a Major out of four attempts in 2002; like Mi Hyun, she has yet to take that next step and really contendoften in the big events. And despite shooting a lot of great rounds, she struggled with consistency and a tendency to have that one bad round that knocked her out of an event, How does her 2003 compare so far?

In 2002, Grace had played in nine events by this point in the season. She did not have a win, but she had played extremely well in many of them. She withdrew from the Office Depot due to injury. In the other eight events, she did not finish worse than 18th. Seven of the eight finishes were top tens, with four top fives. But she probably would have won several of these events had she managed to be a little more consistent in her off rounds. A good example is the Longs Drugs Challenge, where she knocked herself out of the event with a first round 76, fired a second round 74 to barely make the cut, then shot 69-65 on the weekend to vault into fifth place. You make that first round a 72 and Grace would have taken the trophy.

On top of the great finishes, the other thing that stands out about her start in 2002 was the sheer number of great rounds she shot. Her previous best LPGA round was 66. It took her all of two rounds to break that in 2002, with a 64 at the Takefuji. She would have another 64 and a 65 in the early events as well. But those were matched with terrible rounds like her first round 76 at the Longs Drugs Challenge; an opening 75 at the Nabisco that knocked her out of contention (though again she finished 9th after a weekend surge); or the two 74s she shot at the Ping Banner Health (she would finish 18th there). Thus her scoring average was 70 on the nose, but one can see how it could have been much better with a little more consistency.

In 2003, Grace has had a much more inconsistent year. She started very strongly, with two top fives. She had a legitimate chance to win the opening event of the year, The Welch's Circle K, but was not able to get over the hump in the final round. In the second event, in her hometown of Phoenix, she blistered the field with a final round 65, but was nipped in the bud by an excellent performance by Seoul Sister Se Ri and finished second. Then she hit the wall, and her next three events varied between mediocre and downright awful. Then she climbed back up, notching a tenth place, followed by a win at the Michelob, before winner's fatigue sent her to a 21st place finish at the Asahi Ryokuken.

So in 8 starts, she has a missed cut, 4 top 20s, and 4 top tens. And three of those top tens were top fives. If she is not in contention, she is well out of contention. But on the other hand, she has been legitimately in contention three times, and won one of those (and had an excellent chance until the last hole and a miracle par save by Se Ri Pak to win another). Compare that to last year, where she usually was not in contention even though she finished well almost every week. Her scoring average, meanwhile, is excellent again this year: 70.11, although that includes the hyperinflated Welch's Circle K scores. She has not had quite as many really low scores as in 2002, but not as many really bad ones, either. And once again she leads the league in birdies.

And let's not forget the most important fact: Grace is currently third on the money list. If she can continue that level of play it will be a banner year for her.

But then there's the Major. Unlike Peanut and Se Ri, Grace has yet to play really well in any Major. That is, contend to win the thing. She did not help her cause in that respect by missing the cut at the Nabisco this year. Like Mi Hyun, this was her worst performance of the year. No player who wants to stake a claim as one of the game's best can do so without sooner or later making a statement in the Majors; a positive statement, that is.

Like Mi Hyun, Grace has had to adjust to a new club contract. And like her, it has not been easy. She has had particular problems with her Nike irons, having to send them back to the shop for recalibration while she went back to her Ping irons for her recent win at Kingsmill. She is spending the next two weeks off working on her game; getting used to her irons will be a prime concern no doubt.

Grade:

A-