But again she stumbled, with a bogey on 10. Now she was two shots out of the lead, for Sorenstam had backtracked to 5 under. Grace did have the par 5 11th to play, but her track record on that hole was up and down, with a birdie on two days and a bogey the other one. This time she played it wonderfully. Her first shot found the fairway, and her second shot was a masterpiece, a high arcing fairway wood that plopped down only four feet away from the hole, then stopped dead, to the delight of the crowd. The eagle putt was huge, for if she made it she would move into a tie for the lead, the first time she had been on top of the leaderboard since Thursday. Well, she drained it all right, and the game was on! For the rest of the round, it would be a war, as she and Sorenstam were the only two under par most of that time. Grace almost certainly had the second place locked up; but could she take the trophy?

Lining up a putt on Sunday
AP Photo/Pat Crowe II

So close! Grace may have missed this putt, but she sure
looked good doing it!
AP Photo/Pat Crowe II

Well, she continued to play solid golf, but she was not making birdies. As she reached 16, the last par 5 on the course, she was still tied for the lead at 5 under. But this hole had not given her much luck all week, even though it was the easiest on the course. This time she chose to use a fairway wood off the tee instead of driver, in the hopes of keeping it in the fairway. This was an odd choice. Grace's length and ball height is such that she should have been able to cut the ball around and over the trees to trim significant distance off her second shot. Instead, she hit a straightforward wood, but this one did not cut and ended up in heavy rough. She did advance it out of there somehow (showing her great strength), but landed again in the heavy rough. Now it would be a challenge to make birdie. She did get her ball out of that soup and gave herself at least a try at birdie, but in the end she had to settle for par. Since she knew Sorenstam would probably birdie this hole, she knew she needed to get another birdie to keep pace.

Next came the par 3 17th. A short hole, but not an easy one, especially to putt. Grace hit a wonderful 8 iron to within a few feet. She had a great chance at birdie, and showing her clutch skill, converted it to take sole possession of the lead. Mere moments later, however, Sorenstam made her birdie tap in on 16, and they were again tied at 6 under. Upcoming now was the 18th hole for Grace. This was a tough one. But if she could find a way to birdie it, she would put a lot of pressure on Annika to come up with one more birdie herself. Grace hit two pretty good shots, but did not hit a particularly good first putt. Fortunately, she saved the par, and now had to wait to see if there would be a playoff.

Annika had a reasonably good chance on 17 but couldn't convert, and parred 18 as well. So suddenly, Grace Park found herself in her first ever playoff, and at a Major, yet! And to make it worse, they would play the tough 18th hole again. The weather suddenly got mistier, and visibility was reduced. This would be a severe test, but Grace was playing much better than Annika. Grace's final round was a 67, Annika's a 72. But all that would mean nothing if Grace could not hold on for one more hole.

Both ladies hit the fairway on their tee shots with fairway woods. Grace went first. She had a long approach shot. Unfortunately, she gave up the ghost right here with a slightly heavy second shot. It still would have been OK had it been two feet to the right, but instead it landed in some nasty greenside rough. Annika hit the green and was about 15 feet away. Grace was not out of it yet, but she needed to come through with her short game. The shot out of the rough was excellent, but still left her a good 12 - 15 feet from the hole for par. Annika put her putt two feet away. So it all came down to a long par putt for Grace. If she nailed it, she still had hope; if not she would almost certainly lose. You couldn't help having flashbacks to the Kingsmill event, where Grace won it with a similar length putt. But this time, her putt was a bit off, and though she tapped in the bogey, she knew what was coming next. And indeed, Annika made the putt and took the trophy.

But Grace was the real winner this week. She proved for the first time that she can compete in the Majors. And if just one or two breaks went her way, it might have been her dancing on the green. But regardless, she now has experienced golf at its most intense, and doubtless will be far more ready the next time this situation arises. As Grace said to her fans following her great performance, 'even though I got disappointed with the way I hit my second shot in the playoff, I am thankful for the opportunity and learned a great lesson from being in the situation I have never been in before. I gave my best and I have to take what I got. ' And besides experience, she got to move ahead of Se Ri Pak into second place on the money list. Grace is here to stay, she's only going to get better, and you can bet this won't be the last time she has a chance to win a Major. And maybe next time it will be her turn to do the dance of victory!

Grace chips during the playoff
Reuters/Beverly Schaefer