Slump Over? Farr Basic Wrap

As anyone who follows the LPGA knows, the last few months have not been good ones for Se Ri Pak. The once undisputed #2 player in the women's game has fallen on hard times. First her driving percentage went down; then her greens in regulation percentage started to suffer; and then, her confidence in general began to slip away. The result has been 8 consecutive tournaments where she not only did not manage a win, she did not even manage a top ten.

How bad a stretch of golf is this for her? You'd have to go back to 2001 to find a stretch of *three* consecutive events without a top ten (and she only had one such stretch from the start of 2001 to the start of the recent slump). And not since early 1999 has she had a longer stretch without a top ten (9 straight events including two missed cuts back then).

No one has been more frustrated about it than Se Ri. Rather atypically, she was even recently musing in the press about how she might take a step back from golf for a while, about how she misses some of the things she cannot have (like a social life and a boyfriend) because she works so hard at golf all the time. She has worked as hard as ever at her game, but the results have been quite lousy nonetheless, which has got to have affected her motivation.

Thankfully, there's one place on tour where Se Ri always manages to put on a good show. A course where she has done so well, so consistently, so often, that the event that is played there is jokingly referred to as 'Se Ri's annuity' by the people who run the event. That event arrived in the nick of time this week: the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic in Toledo, Ohio.

A typical expression from Se Ri in the
last few weeks: here she is pondering
her life at the Evian Masters

Se Ri takes a victory dive at last
year's Jamie Farr Classic

Her results have been nothing short of amazing in the past six years at this tournament. She has won it four times, just missed a playoff by one shot in 2000, and had a "miserable" 7th place finish in 2002, the only year she did not have a good chance to win right until the end. She has also set numerous records in Toledo. In 1998, she became the first player in LPGA history to shoot a 61 when she posted that number in the second round, then followed that with a ten birdie two bogey 63 to utterly take over the event. In 1999, she defended her title by winning the largest playoff in LPGA history, a 6 player affair. And in 2003, she became one of only a few players to ever win the same event four times. Another win would put her in even more august company: only Mickey Wright had ever won an event five times.

There are many theories as to why Se Ri and Toledo go together so well. For one, she is a fan favorite there. She also loves the town in return. Every year, she stays with a couple (Korean wife, Lebanese husband) who own a restaurant in town, and they allow Se Ri to have home cooked meals all during the week. The course itself just seems to fit her eye, as you would expect of a place where she has shot so many great rounds. Perhaps the fact that Jamie Farr, the tournament host, became famous playing a character stationed in Korea (Corporal Klinger on MASH, of course!) may even contribute to the good vibes.

Still, despite all her past success there, the Farr would not seem to be the best place for Se Ri to recover from her recent golfing woes. For one thing, the course is not very wide open, and the big problem Se Ri has been having has been keeping her drives in the fairway. How would she react to the course this year? Also, her putting has been less than great, and the greens here are subtle. Lastly, the rough was up more than usual this year, making awkward shots even more punishing than usual.

Still, once Se Ri got to the course on Thursday, all that became immaterial, and the Se Ri Pak of old immediately emerged. She started her first round by compiling four birdies and no bogeys on her front nine. She made yet another birdie on 12, but then bogeyed the next hole. Still, she was only one shot out of the lead held by the recent British Open winner Karen Stupples. Stupples would go on to birdie her final two holes, while Se Ri could only birdie the par 5 17th. Nonetheless, that gave her a 66 and solo second place; the best round and start she had had since the slump had begun.

Se Ri during round 1

Se Ri during round 3: haunted by the slump of
another well known golf superstar?

What was most encouraging to Se Ri fans was the way she did it: 15 greens in regulation and 10 fairways hit. How long had it been since Se Ri had put up those kinds of numbers? Too long, she would probably respond. Toledo had worked its magic for Se Ri once again.

The next two rounds were considerably tougher for Se Ri. On Friday, the wind kicked up, and those who played in the afternoon were particularly affected. Yet once again, Se Ri managed ten fairways hit. Despite the far trickier conditions, she was keeping her drives straight. Still, she was not getting her approaches as close to the hole as before, and was missing more greens, and as a result shot a one over par 72. Believe it or not, this was a tie for the worst round she had shot on this course in her LPGA career. Still, the tough conditions enabled her to stay near the lead (three shots back), and placed her in one of the last groups on Saturday.

She did not play super well on Saturday, but again, the course in general was playing harder than it had in years past, so she was able to hang near the lead. She hit a good number of fairways and greens, but just could not beg, borrow or steal a putt. By the 16th hole, she had made 15 pars, some just barely missing birdie, and a lone bogey.

Finally on the par 5 17th, she left herself a short birdie putt, and dropped it. She was now even par on the day. Unfortunately, her playing partner, the aforementioned Stupples, was doing very well. Se Ri needed another birdie on 18 to maintain pace.

And that's when she made one of her few big mistakes off the tee. Despite hitting a fairway wood, she still pulled her shot well right, into a bunker almost no one else ended up in. To make things worse, she had a terrible lie, and could not risk trying to hit from there over a water hazard some 170 yards distant. So she had to lay up. Her third shot was OK, but she hit a terrible pitch shot from there, and two putted for bogey. Where a birdie would have kept her close, her bogey, combined with a Stupples birdie, left Se Ri 5 shots out of the lead going into the final day (but only two shots out of second). Se Ri could still win, but she would need yet more heroics on her favorite course to do it. Did she have it in her?

This shot says it all about Se Ri's love/hate relationship
with her putter. From Round 3.