Ahn's Major Breakthrough

Shi Hyun Ahn is a 19 year old rookie on the LPGA tour, but she has not been playing like a rookie. Right from the minute she first burst, incredibly, onto the scene with her win at the CJ 9 Bridges Classic in Korea last year, she has consistently impressed everyone who has seen her near flawless swing, incredible poise and brilliant smile. Alas, she can barely speak English, but Shi Hyun is trying, and she does speak the international languages of great golf and joie de vivre. I have no doubt she has made new fans everywhere she has gone.

But Shi Hyun's name recognition will doubtless make a quantum leap after her brilliant play at this year's second Major, the LPGA Championship. Simply put, with a few holes to play, she was the only player in the field who had a chance to stop the Sorenstam juggernaut from claiming another title. And though she fell short of that goal, she never stopped striving until the end, and made enough wonderful shots to convert even the hardest heart to the Seoul Sister bandwagon.

Shi Hyun Ahn never seems to stop
smiling

Grace came so close to winning the
LPGA Championship in 2003!

Coming into this week, Shi Hyun led the LPGA's Rookie of the Year contest, despite the fact that her win last year came before she was a rookie and thus did not count towards her total points. Her leading is even more impressive when you consider that this is arguably the best rookie class in at least five years, with two other very tough Korean players - Aree Song and Seol-An Jeon - both notching second place finishes this year, Song in the year's first Major, the Nabisco Championship. But despite this, she was most definitely flying under the radar as far as the favorites this week were concerned. Among the Korean players, all eyes were on Grace Park, who was the only woman in the world still with a chance to win the calendar year Grand Slam, and Se Ri Pak, the two time champion at Du Pont Country Club who had been slumping rather badly since winning her 22nd tournament to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame. Park in particular was feeling very confident: she had finished second at this event last year, losing to Annika after a brilliant final day charge allowed her to make up a lot of ground on her and force a play-off (which she lost on the first play-off hole). Since then, Grace had not missed the top ten in any Major, finishing 10th at the US Women's Open, 3rd at the British Open, and winning the Nabisco a couple months ago. She was second on the money list and already had several other second place finishes to go with her win in 2004. She wanted to avenge her loss badly.

Day one saw a lot of good scoring. The rough was high this year, but it had been cut before Thursday's first round, and thus a fair number of players finished the day under par. Se Ri Pak struggled a bit at first, moving to one over par, but righted the ship and finished her day at 2 under par 69. Grace Park played far better. She got out to a phenomenal start which included several irons very close to the pin on the front nine. She eventually moved her way up to 5 under par, which was a tie for the lead with Jennifer Rosales. But on her last two holes of the day, she made a couple of mistakes that cost her bogeys, and she fell back to 3 under. Not bad, but not what she was hoping would happen to her. Still, any time you can shoot in the 60s at a Major, you take it. She was in good position.

And so were a lot of other players. After the first round, the leading Korean player was Gloria Park, whose 4 under par 67 left her just one shot behind Rosales. Grace was at 3 under, while a whole lot of Korean players were at 2 under. Besides Se Ri, sitting at that score were Soo Young Moon, Soo Yun Kang, and two rookie stars: Seol-An Jeon and Shi Hyun Ahn.

Shi Hyun played well early

Shi Hyun in round 2

Then the rains came. Actually, it was not a lot of rain, but it was steady, and the drainage at the course is not the best. As a result, Friday morning saw the grounds crews scrambling to drain bunkers that were filled with water. It was possible that they would be done by afternoon and that half the groups would be able to get out and play, but that might give an unfair advantage to those groups over the other ones, who would have to play potentially 36 holes in one day on Saturday. So the LPGA decided to cancel play entirely on Friday. This gave the ladies an extra day to practice, but it also meant that Sunday would be a 36 hole marathon. And that meant the young and fit players would have an advantage over the others. Good news for Se Ri and Grace, who were among the best conditioned players in the field, and for young Shi Hyun Ahn, who is only 19. Shi Hyun, however, had never played 36 holes in a day before. Still, she wasn't overly worried about getting fatigued. Speaking through an interpreter, she later told reporters, "she was kind of worried that, you know, it's going to be hard and boring and tiring, but as she was playing, she felt good and her shots were good, so she had a good time and she enjoyed the game." She also felt her youth gave her an advantage: "(Since) she's one of the youngest players, she shouldn't be tired because they are all older players than her."