Kellogg's 2003: Elfin Magic

This week's tour event is sponsored by a cereal company and a cookie company. The cookie company, Keebler's, has as their mascot a lovable elf named Ernie. He lives in a tree with a bunch of other elves (I guess it's more cost effective to share), where they make delicious cookies all day and night. Granted the labor board may want to look into the hours those elves keep, but you can't complain about the result. When asked, Ernie always says the special ingredient that makes their cookies great is 'elfin magic' (no preservatives in elfin magic I'm told!).

The LPGA has their own elflike character in the form of Mi Hyun Kim. The shortest player on tour (at least the shortest great player), Mi Hyun scrapes in at five feet tall if she's lucky. But lately, Mi Hyun has been sorely lacking in the special ingredient of elfin magic. Oh sure, she hasn't played badly; she rarely does. But so far in 2003 she has not often contended, and has but two top tens to show for her efforts on the year.

Mi Hyun and friend

The Never Compromise 'Stubby'
Putter

Her biggest problem the last few tournaments has come from the magic wand that usually is her greatest source of strength. Namely, her putter. She's been able to get the ball to the green OK, but the darn thing just hasn't found the hole once there as often as she would like. And so this week, at Ernie's LPGA event, Mi Hyun debuted a new weapon of choice for putting. And the thing must have had some magic in it, because it's hard to see how it would work otherwise. You see, in putters, as in a lot of other golf clubs, if you are having trouble getting the hit you want, one solution is to go with a bigger club face. More club face, less chance of missing. But Kimmie took the opposite tack. This putter head has quite frankly the smallest club face I have ever seen. It looked to be scarcely bigger than the ball it was meant to strike. The kind of putter where it looked like whiffing might actually be a possibility. What could she possibly be thinking? Could this bizarre device possibly be the answer to her putting woes?

The club is known as the 'Stubby' (aptly named), and is produced by Never Compromise. Kimmie had been using it as a training device for a while, but it was illegal until Never Compromise redesigned it to meet the rules. The theory is that the face, just the size of the ball, is so small that it forces you to concentrate better to get a clean hit. Chris Birdseye, Mi Hyun's caddie, said, "It's very solid because it's one piece of metal. It feels good, she said." And so she decided to put it in her bag for the first time this week.

Well, whether the club was responsible, or it merely helped her to focus more on the task at hand, the results were very encouraging, as Mi Hyun ended up among the leaders in putting for the week. And it started right away in round one with an excellent effort. Indeed, round 1 may have been her best round of the year to date. How about hitting 17 of 18 greens for starters? That resulted in but one bogey on the day as compared to seven birdies. She also hit 13 of 14 fairways and despite that had 29 putts, very good for hitting so many greens. Her 6 under 66 placed her firmly in the top ten. But unfortunately for her, Annika Sorenstam, playing on what must count as her favorite course in the world (judging by her results here), shot a 10 under 62, a new course record, and Rosie Jones later in the day matched that. So despite a great start by Peanut, she was still 4 shots out of the lead.

Mi Hyun putts at the Corning Classic
Reuters/Gary Wiepert