Fairways and Greens

Ju Kim wins on Futures Tour
Ju Kim has had an interesting career on the Futures Tour. In 2001, she was in line to finish third on the money list and get her exempt card for the LPGA for 2002, when fellow Korean Jung Yeon Lee nipped her by a mere $210 on the money list thanks to her performance in the final event of the year. Undaunted, Kim kept plugging away.

In 2003, despite not having won a tournament, she led the Futures Tour money list coming into the Ann Arbor Futures Golf Classic (in Ann Arbor, Michigan, natch!) But though she was her usual steady self throughout the event, going into the final round she had a six stroke deficit to Stacy Prammanasudh, the Oklahoma golfer who turned pro this year. Playing three groups ahead of Prammanasudh, however, Kim had a blistering start, birdieing five of her first seven holes. The leader had three birdies herself in that span, however.

On the back nine, however, she began to chip away at the lead, finally catching the leader on the 16th hole when she birdied and Prammanasudh double bogeyed the 12th. Ju Kim went on to win by one shot over Lisa Hall (nee Hackney), the former LPGA rookie of the year who has fallen on hard times. Prammanasudh was third. It was Kim's first win of the year, and increased her lead on the Futures Tour money list to more than $4,000.

More details can be found here

Wie wins a big one
On this site, I have opined that Michelle Wie needs to stop focusing so much on professional women's tournaments and men's events and focus on improving her resume in junior and amateur events. Up until this week, she had not won so much as a single significant event in either the women's or girls' ranks. Well, that changed in a big way this week when Michelle won the US Women's Amateur Public Links championship, one of the most important events in Women's amateur golf. It was her third try, and in so doing she became the youngest woman by four years to ever accomplish this feat.

It was not easy, though. In the finals she was matched with the formidable (and formidably named ) Virada Nirapathpongporn, who was the NCAA women's champion in 2002. For much of the 36 hole final, Nirapathpongporn was in the lead (an aside: between writing about Virada Nirapathpongporn and Stacy Prammanasudh, I'm starting to get writer's cramp! Koreans have such short, easy to type names in comparison!). But Michelle came back from a 4 down deficit in the morning round and again from a deficit in the afternoon round to win 1 up. A few more wins like this and she will have lived up to the enormous press attention she has been getting.

Got Links here: http://www.golfdigest.com/newsandtour/index.ssf?/newsandtour/gw20030627wie.html

Jang keeps the streak alive
At every tournament this year, at least one Korean or Korean American player has managed a top ten. However, at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, it looked like that record was in jeopardy. The top four Korean players were skipping the event to prepare for the Open. That left Soo Yun Kang as the top representative, but she had a bad week and missed the cut. Fortunately, Jeong Jang, Christina Kim, Young Kim and Michelle Wie had all gotten top tens this year, and all it would take was one of them to get hot and the record would stand.

Well, it was a close one, but Jeong Jang hung in there for an 8th place finish. Christina Kim missed the cut and Young Kim had one of her worst ever rounds on Sunday to drop to dead last. But Soo Young Moon, who was playing her first LPGA event (she has focused on the Futures Tour this year, where she currently stands fourth on the money list), notched an 18th place finish. Congratulations to the two ladies, and good luck to everyone at the Open!

JJ drives in the final round of the ShopRite
Reuters/Tim Shaffer

Money List
Grace has once again overtaken Se Ri Pak for second on the money list! Grace beat Se Ri by one shot at the Rochester tournament, but because she was solo third, whereas Se Ri was tied for fourth, she won significantly more money. It's been a real battle between those two all year! Meanwhile, Soo-Yun Kang notched another top ten, but did not move much up the rankings, and Mi Hyun Kim has yet to catch fire this season.