Silver Medal

Hee-Won hung in there well on Sunday. Several players made great runs at the top, only to falter as they approached the last holes. Ochoa moved into a tie with Hee-Won at ten under, but dunked her tee shot on the 17th. Even though she saved bogey there, she wound up with a 9 under total. The bar was set.

Mi Hyun Kim also found herself in contention, just a few shots back of Hee-Won. But she was not able to make anything happen on the back nine, and wound up finishing 6th. Still, this was a vast improvement over her two previous events, both missed cuts. Mi Hyun now has 11 top ten finishes in 2004, but you have to feel she will not consider this a great year unless she can get at least one win before the season is over.

Meanwhile, Hee-Won continued to play with passion. A birdie on 12 moved her to 11 under, and with Ochoa's problems, that gave her a temporary three shot lead. Realistically, there was only one player who could still catch Hee-Won, provided she could play the final hard holes well, and that was her playing partner Catriona Matthew. Matthew had moved to 8 under herself, but then stalled there, missing a couple good chances to advance.

Peanut drives it in round 4. She finished tied for 6th
Reuters

Hee-Won on Sunday
AP Photo

On the 14th hole, the final par 5, Hee-Won hit two good shots to set herself up for reaching the flag. But her third shot was not good, and left her a mile from the hole. Despite her best efforts, she was not able to two putt from there, and walked off with a bogey. Fortunately for Han, Matthew did not take advantage, and only made par there. The lead was two shots.

But then Matthew turned it on, making a great tee shot on the 15th hole, then dunking the short birdie putt. Hee-Won had a chance at birdie herself, but was farther out and could not convert. The lead was trimmed to one.

Both ladies parred the 16th. Then came the water filled 17th hole. In 2003, Hee-Won won the tournament there with a 25 foot birdie putt. In a way, it had been helping her all day by causing problems for potential rivals. But now she had to put the ball on the surface. First, though, she watched while Matthew hit a great tee shot to put the pressure on. Hee-Won needed to answer.

Her response was a not bad iron, but not nearly as good as Matthew's. She was not able to make birdie, Matthew did, and everything was tied.

On 18, Hee-Won hit a pretty good approach considering how far out she was. Matthew's was less impressive. Advantage Hee-Won, but neither player made birdie from there, and so we went, for the second straight year, into a playoff to decide the title.

My general observation on playoffs is that the player who started the day higher on the leaderboard tends to win them. This would indicate that Hee-Won had the advantage. But Matthew had been so strong the final few holes that things didn't look that good for Hee-Won. And, indeed, after both hit fair drives, Hee-Won left her approach well away from the hole. Matthew put hers near enough, then sank it in two shots. Hee-Won's birdie try got her about four feet away from the hole, so she needed to make the four footer to prolong the match. But though she had been making good putts all day, this time she missed, and Matthew nabbed the trophy.

It was a defeat for Hee-Won, after she had come so close to making up for her so far lackluster season. But on the very positive side, it marked the second consecutive tournament that a slumping Seoul Sister had come close to winning an event (Se Ri Pak was just a shot out of winning the Farr two weeks ago). Her trend seems to be upward, and she has now moved to 16th on the money list. Perhaps next event, she will get the gold medal instead!

Sigh! Just missed during the playoff

Grace Park Misses Cut
Grace has been struggling since she had to withdraw from an event a few months ago with a sore back. She had a few weeks to rest and work on her game since her last appearance, at the British Open, where she finished 13th. But apparently she still isn't all the way back, as she missed the cut at this week's Wendy's Championship. Normally, it's her driving that costs her, but this week, that seemed OK. She was not hitting all that many greens, however, just 21 in two rounds. As a result, she shot a horrendous 3 over par 75 in the first round that included a double bogey and four other bogeys against three birdies. In the second round, she did even worse. Starting on the 10th hole, she shot bogey-par-bogey-par-par-bogey-double bogey-bogey on the first 8 holes to go 6 over par for the day. She fixed things after that, and hit two more birdies to somewhat recover, but her 76 still plummeted her to +7 and a missed cut. It was her first missed cut since last year's Kellogg-Keebler Classic in June, 2003.

Mi Hyun back on track
Mi Hyun Kim has been known the last few years for her amazing consistency. She doesn't win a lot, but she almost always cashes a good paycheck. And she almost never misses a cut. At one point, she had a streak exceeding 50 tournaments without a missed cut. But things hit a definite roadblock starting with the British Open a few weeks ago. Having missed her most recent cut there in 2003, she missed it again in 2004. She then played poorly at her next event, the Jamie Farr Classic, and missed the cut again. Mi Hyun had only once before missed consecutive cuts, and that was way back at the start of her rookie year in 1999.

Fortunately, her next event was one she had won in the past, the Wendy's Championship. This week, she played well most of the time, and not only made the cut but collected her 11th top ten of the year with a 6th place finish. Thus, she maintains her 7th place spot on the money list. She's still seeking her next win, though; her drought now stands at two years. Her last win came at the selfsame Wendy's tournament, in 2002.

Peanut in round 3
Reuters