Ahn's Major Breakthrough

Round 2 was finally played on Saturday. The pairings were the same as they had been for Thursday action, but this time the afternoon players played in the morning and vice versa. For Se Ri it was not a particularly great round. She did manage a wonderful lengthy birdie putt on the 14th hole, which generated roars of appreciation from the crowds, but that proved to be her only birdie of the day. Meanwhile, three earlier bogeys had knocked her backwards. She finished the day at 2 over 73 and even for the tournament. Not a bad place to be, normally, on this course. But unfortunately for her, several players went low again on Friday, and the winning score in 2004 would prove to be far lower than usual. So she would have to wait to score her fifth Major win.

Grace Park fared better. She notched three birdies and two bogeys for a one under par 70 that left her at 4 under. She played in the morning, and so had to wait to see how well that would place her on the leaderboard. As it turned out, not badly: the leader after two was none other than Annika Sorenstam, who finished the day at 7 under for the event.

Grace in round 2
(AP Photo)

Gloria Park put herself into contention
(Reuters)

Several other Korean players were within shouting distance of the lead going into the marathon session on Sunday. Soo Yun Kang was best placed: she followed her Thursday 69 with a Saturday 68 and was only two shots out of the lead. She would play in the second to last group on Sunday. Grace ended up in the third to last group. Gloria Park and Shi Hyun Ahn were both at 3 under and would play together. Though there would only be one more day of competition, the event was only half over, and lots of stuff could potentially still happen.

And lots did. In the morning session on Sunday, the early pace was set by none other than Christina Kim. Christina, though still only 20, has made quite a big splash this year on tour, notching several top tens and putting herself in contention a couple times as well. Now she added Major contender to her resume. She started the day at one over par, certainly not the best place from which to launch a Major bid. But she birdied four of her first five holes, and went on to shoot a 30 on the front nine. She admitted later, "It was a mind-numbing experience. I felt like I was 17 inches off the ground, just wafting down the fairway. I had found my chi. I wasn't thinking about anything. Then I started thinking I have so many holes left to play, and that's when I stopped playing so well." Well, maybe not as well, but certainly not badly: she followed her 5 under par front nine with a bogey and three more birdies on the back to record a blistering 7 under par 64, the low round of the tournament. Suddenly she was at 6 under with an outside chance to grab the title.

Grace had a little more trouble, and it was at least in part because of a leg injury she incurred on Saturday. She described it more as a bad cramp than an injury, but after it happened in her Saturday round, she played, in her own words, 'horribly'. But it was a mark of her greatness that she hung in there and still managed a one under par round to remain in contention. On Sunday, though, the injury may still have been bothering her. She started her day with two bogies, and though she rebounded with three birdies on the front nine to finish one under on the front, she was never able to get near the momentum going that Christina had achieved. Her morning total ended up being another one under par 70, leaving her at 5 under total.

Then there was Shi Hyun. Playing with Gloria, she put together a pretty solid 2 under 69 that consisted of 4 birdies and one bogey on the front nine, and another bogey on the back. Gloria shot a 68 herself, and both ladies went to the locker room feeling good about their scores.

Except for one thing. Annika Sorenstam came out and had an out of body experience much like Christina Kim had earlier in the day. But unlike Kim, she was already in the lead. By the time she was done, she had shot her own 64, and now sat at 14 under par, 6 shots ahead of anyone in the field. For all the brilliance the Korean players had mustered, it seemed almost unthinkable that any of them could make up 7 - 9 shots on the world's number one player in just one round.

Grace during round 3, Sunday morning
(Reuters)

Shi Hyun drives in round 4
(Reuters)

Shi Hyun started the final round 9 shots out of the lead. No player had ever come back from so far back in a Major to win. But Shi Hyun had just one goal in mind: to play her very best and never give up. And she did just that, vaulting herself to the upper reaches of the leader board with a nearly perfect final round. She hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens. She was decently long even on the wet grass. But most importantly, she did not make a bogey. On the front nine, she put together two birdies and no bogeys and moved to 7 under par, where she was joined by Grace and Gloria. Sorenstam, meanwhile, was not playing great golf, but her two bogeys on the front were offset by two birdies. She still had a 7 shot lead, and was probably already trying to figure out where she was going to dinner to celebrate her 7th Major win.

But then it started to get verrrrry interesting. On hole 9, Sorenstam hit her approach over the green, into some thick rough. She hit a flop shot out, but it only went a few feet and still ended up in thick stuff. She chipped out of there, but missed her bogey putt. Double bogey to fall to 12 under. At the same time, Ahn made her birdie on the par 5 11th to move to 8 under. Suddenly the deficit was only four shots. Next, Sorenstam hit one of her less impressive drives, and walked away from 10 with another bogey. The lead was now three. She also bogied the par 5 11th, again by missing a short putt. Ahn made another par on 13, and the deficit was two. In a little more than an hour, Shi Hyun had made up 7 shots on the world's number one player. Suddenly, it looked like a race again.