Fall From Grace

The Wachovia LPGA Classic, hosted by LPGA Hall-of-Famer Betsy King, is a tournament that has been good to Korean players in the past. Mi Hyun Kim made it one of her two victories in her Rookie of the Year campaign in 1999. A few years later in 2002, Se Ri Pak treated her faithful fans to arguably one of her very greatest finishes when she caught up to and then blew past the field en route to a tournament record 21 under par finish and the win. Even last year, Se Ri gave the faithful a good jolt when she came from behind, captured the lead, and seemed all but assured of winning. Alas, she faltered, and the player who ended up collecting the crown, despite a brilliant Se Ri eagle on the final hole, was Candie Kung. It was the second of three wins Kung had in 2003.

This year, the Seoul Sisters came into the Wachovia, as it is now known, in a bit of a collective slump. But after several events in a row where no Korean came even close to contending, the last two weeks had shown some promise that things were returning to normal. At the Jamie Farr tournament, Se Ri Pak, who had been totally absent from the top ten since May, suddenly showed her old form, at least in spurts, and was able to come within a couple of Meg Mallon chip-ins from taking the title. Then, at the Wendy's Tournament, Hee-Won Han emerged from her season long hibernation with a great four days and a loss in a playoff. So now, at least, the Korean players were coming achingly close to getting a win. Could anyone take the next step and grab a third trophy for Korea in 2004?

Happier times: Se Ri Pak kisses the trophy
for the 2002 Wachovia Classic, then called
the First Union Betsy King Classic

Shi Hyun Ahn had a good week in Kutztown

There was more than a little hope that that someone might be Se Ri. After eight straight miserable tournaments, she had that second place finish to remember from the Farr. And indeed, on the first day at the King, she played decently, carding a 70 that left her only four shots out of the lead. When she had won in 2002, she had also started with a 70, getting progressively better every day, until by Sunday she shot a blistering 63 to win it all. But that was not to happen this week. On Friday, she was feeling under the weather, and after nine holes during which she struggled mightily, she decided to save herself any more trouble and dropped out of the event. Se Ri has played events sick in the past, and won them in fact. But back then she was willing to stick it out because she was playing well. Clearly, it was not worth playing a whole round when the only thing that could come of it was to get even sicker.

Fortunately, other players who had been hibernating for a while picked up the slack. Hee-Won Han, who at long last had started to pick up steam, continued her sterling play with a first round 67. Grace Park, who had not shown much consistency since her back problems forced her to quit Rochester, notched a 68 to put her in the hunt. Shi Hyun Ahn, another player who had struggled with injuries, likewise reemerged with a 67 of her own. And Soo Yun Kang, who had not been able to achieve too much in 2004, shot her own 67. Four players, each of whom could have used a win to boost their season, were making early statements in the event.

On Friday, the Korean who made the biggest noise was Grace Park. How wonderful it was, after seeing her struggle so much in the past few months, to see Grace out there, making gorgeous swings, nailing putts, moving up the leaderboard seemingly without effort. Grace was still having trouble keeping her drives straight, but her putting more than made up for it, and by the end of the day, she had a 66 to go with her first day 68. This left her in fourth place, however, because American journeyman player Jill McGill had scored a 64 to follow up her first day 66. Still, there were two more days, and Grace was clearly feeling confident again.

Hee-Won's second round was only an even par 72, however, and thus she lost a bit of ground on the leaders. But Shi Hyun Ahn showed she was going to be a force this week by following up her 67 with another one on Friday, and Soo Yun did her one better: her 66 left her in a tie for second place behind only McGill. Grace and Ahn were tied for fourth. The Seoul Sister bandwagon was becoming a steamroller.

Grace lets fly on Saturday

Saturday was a scorcher, as you can tell from the sweat on Grace's shirt.
Here she commiserates with good pal Soo-Yun Kang, her playing partner on the weekend

On Saturday, a day Grace would later characterize as the hottest she had played in all year, she showed that she had only been warming up until now. Playing with her good friend Soo Yun Kang, she was clearly relaxed, and by the time she got to the 14th hole, had put together a solid round of two under par. But that's when she really increased the heat. On 14, she hit a great drive, then a magnificent sand wedge to three feet for an easy birdie. A couple of holes later, on the par 5 16th, she hit what might be the shot of the year for her. After her drive left her under a tree, with not a very great look at the green, she chose to bomb a three wood instead of laying up. It was a spectacular shot, easily getting past the tree and running all the way up the fairway, onto the green and within 10 feet of the hole. She then proceeded to nail the eagle putt to move into a tie for the lead. She followed that up with another birdie on 17, and a sand save on the par 5 18th for yet another birdie. 5 under in the last six holes, and a 65 that tied for low round of the day (ironically, with fellow Korean player Gloria Park). That resulted in her moving to 17 under par, the three round record for the tournament, and gave her a one shot lead over McGill. Even better, it put her in a very comfortable spot. Grace had never lost an event at any age when leading going into the final round. She certainly didn't want to start doing that now!

Grace was joined near the top by Soo Yun, who putted it well and shot a 68 to move to 15 under and third place. So in the final round, they would again be together, only this time slugging it out for the trophy.

Grace made it known that she wanted the trophy badly. But things just didn't go her way on Sunday, right from the beginning. She started with six straight pars before she finally broke the jinx with birdies on 7 and 9. That put her at 19 under, a three shot lead at the time. Several players were making runs from behind, including Lorena Ochoa and Hee-Won Han, but the players closest to her, Kang and McGill, were not playing so well. Soo Yun had been all right until a disastrous quad bogey on 8 knocked her right out of the tournament (the lowlights of that hole included not one but two out of bounds shots). So if Grace could only hang on, she could still collect her 6th career win. Probably just a few under par would be enough.

But then she made a few key mistakes, and suddenly things got very tight indeed. On 10, she hit her iron over the green, and could not get up and down. She then missed a short birdie on 11 that would have corrected the problem. She had another unfortunate bogey on the par 5 13th, when she ended up in the bunker and could not get up and down from there. At that point, she had fallen to 17 under par, but still had the lead. But Ochoa made a birdie, and Grace then hit a terrible tee shot on the par 3 15th. Missing the green on that side made getting up and down almost impossible, and indeed, she was not able to do it. Bogey.

Grace did birdie the final hole, but by then it was too little too late. Afterwards, she was very frustrated with her round. Without taking anything away from Ochoa, who shot 65, Grace admitted that shooting an even par round was just not good enough to win, and that even a halfway decent performance from her would have been enough.

Nonetheless, it marked Grace's first real shot at winning an event in some time, so hopefully it shows that she, too, is not far away from a renaissance this season.

Grace and Soo Yun hug after it was all over