CJ 9 Bridges Classic

In the past six years, no nation has made more of an impact on a single sport than the South Korean ladies have made on the sport of golf. It's hard to believe that as recently as 1997, there were only a couple Korean golfers on tour, and those golfers did not have a single win among them. In 2004, there were more than 20 Korean golfers playing full time in America, and a startling, nearly unfathomable *nine* of them were among the top 30 players on tour. To go from almost no presence to such an overwhelming one in such a short time is a sea change of staggering proportions.

Needless to say, the people of Korea love their golfers. So it was only a matter of time before a Korean company tried to get the LPGA to hold an official event in South Korea. It came down to CJ, one of Korea's many huge conglomerates, to finally seize the opportunity. In late 2000, they proposed a new event, to be held yearly on the resort island of Cheju. It finally came to be in 2002, after an unfortunate postponement due to world events in 2001. That event, the CJ 9 Bridges Classic, quickly became one that Korean fans looked forward to with great enthusiasm, and that Korean players anxiously awaited as well.

Se Ri Pak was the first CJ 9 Bridges champ, in 2002

Ahn continued the Korean streak at CJ
with her improbable win in 2003

In the two years the event has been played, it has been fortunate enough to have two perfect champions to help increase its profile even more. In the inaugural installment in 2002, played in perhaps the worst golfing weather of the entire year, fans still turned out to watch the woman who started it all, the Golf Queen herself, Se Ri Pak, win the crown. Se Ri is simply huge in Korea. Whether she is playing at the top of her form or having problems, she always attracts crowds. Pictures of her skiing get printed in the papers. When she arrives at the airport from overseas, it's always an especially big event. To have Se Ri win the event in that first year gave it instant credibility. Now it really was Korea's LPGA event.

In the second year, a completely improbable story developed here that perfectly complemented Se Ri's win. Instead of having the most famous Korean player win, you had a complete unknown rise from the pack to challenge the big names on the LPGA tour. The young challenger, Shi Hyun Ahn, impressed everyone who watched her with her poise and winning smile. By the end of the week, she had become one of the youngest women in history to win an LPGA event, and one of the first ones in some time to win her very first LPGA event. Overnight, she became a sensation in her home country. If Se Ri had started the ball rolling, 'Cinderella' Shi Hyun Ahn had shown that even a young girl without the long list of credentials Se Ri had could win and become a star if she worked hard enough and excelled during the 9 Bridges. There are not many events on tour that can be credited with creating a superstar. The fact that 9 Bridges did it in 2003 with Shi Hyun Ahn added yet more luster to its legend.

So now, as the event approached and the ladies began to arrive in Korea, the press kicked into high gear, flooding the papers daily with news about the whereabouts and activities of the stars, speculating about who would excel and who would flop, casting about for the KLPGA player who might become this year's Cinderella. And most importantly, would a Korean player manage to again win the 9 Bridges, or would one of the other LPGA stars (notably Annika Sorenstam) steal their thunder on their home turf?

Whenever the Korean stars arrive home, you can bet that the media will be there to cover their arrivals (and often their departures as well). Those arrivals usually involve a representative from their sponsor giving them flowers while dozens of cameramen follow and snap pictures of them. Just to give you some idea of how popular women's golf is there, they give the same treatment to the non-Korean stars that come to tournaments as well. One can imagine Lorena Ochoa's surprise when she got off the plane after a 14 hour flight only to be surrounded by photographers. I'm guessing that does not happen often in the States.

Anyway, this year, most of the top star players arrived at the same time, making the newspeople's jobs much easier. Particularly poignant was Se Ri Pak's reunion with her father at the airport. As usual, even though Se Ri's career was probably at its lowest ebb in years, she managed to steal the show. After the trouncing she had endured at her previous tournament, the Samsung World Championship, where she finished 15 shots out of second to last place, she was doubtless happy just to be back with family again. Grace Park had also had a disappointing Samsung, but in her case, the disappointment had been that she didn't win. She was three shots in the lead with just a few holes to go, but suddenly starting making mistakes, allowing Annika Sorenstam to take the trophy. It had been her second consecutive second place finish (and second straight loss to a Swede), but she was not too bummed about it, and looked forward to another chance to win, this time in front of her home country fans. In fact, Grace had never won a tournament at any level in Korea before (keep in mind that she left the country for America when she was 12), so it would be especially meaningful if she were to win here.

Peanut gets a lot of flowers on her
arrival in Korea

Hee-Won Han teaches a lucky kid how to golf
'The Hee-Won Han way'

Shi Hyun Ahn and Soo Yun Kang prepare to
throw the first pitch (and hit the first ball)
before a game in the Korea Series

The next few days, several of the Korean stars showed up in various places, some making appearances for sponsors, some just there to thank fans or spread happiness. Aree Song made a public appearance shortly after arriving in Seoul at the famous Lotte Department store. She was there to sign photos and hobnob with fans. As you can tell from the photos we featured last issue, everyone enjoyed themselves.

The next day, October 21st, Hee-Won Han gave a golf clinic in the town of Gwangju. While she helped the fans, her doting husband, former baseball pitcher Son Hyuk, looked on approvingly. Apparently Son was forced to retire when he injured his arm, so now Hee-Won is the bread winner in the family! The next day, Hee-Won went to an orphanage in Seoul to cheer up the kids. They had a splendid time meeting a real life Seoul Sister (check out the gallery for a photo)!

One of the more entertaining public appearances during this time was made by Shi Hyun Ahn and Soo Yun Kang. It seems like these two are really getting along well lately. I get the feeling that the older Kang has taken Ahn under her wing almost like a younger sister. They always seem to be enjoying themselves when they are together. Anyway, they were invited to appear before a game of the Korea Series, the Korean version of the World Series. The teams that were going at it for the championship were Samsung and Hyundai (as you can tell, corporations, not cities, getting naming rights for teams in Korean baseball). Shi Hyun was to throw out the first pitch, and Soo Yun was to (try to) hit it. You can tell by the way Soo Yun is dressed that she wasn't exactly treating this like a serious athletic endeavor. But they seemed to get the job done without embarrassing themselves too badly (it's always risky when non-baseball players try to pitch or hit balls, especially before big games!).

Grace Park, meanwhile, made a public appearance for her sponsor, Nike. Unfortunately, there are no photos of this available, but presumably it went smoothly as well.