CJ 9 Bridges Classic

Se Ri Pak did not stay very long in Seoul before she left again (in fact, she usually goes home to Daejeon when she flies to Korea, but because she was going to leave again on Wednesday, she stayed in a hotel in Seoul for the intervening days). Se Ri left to attend a tournament she had been invited to in Japan, the Japanese Ladies Masters. Other LPGA stars Karrie Webb and Kelly Robbins also attended the match. One had to wonder how Se Ri would fare, with the rancid memory of the Samsung still on her mind, but actually, it was an OK result for her. Her first round in particular was strong, a 3 under par 69 that left her only one shot out of the lead after day one. The next two rounds were not as good, but still weren't that bad, and she wound up finishing one under par for three days, good for a tie for 11th. That beat both Robbins and Webb, and tied Akiko Fukushima, another former LPGAer. So if Se Ri was not exactly 'back', she certainly had returned to a reasonable form again.

Se Ri Pak at the Japanese Masters

The Master Card ad scanned from a Korean weekly

After finishing this event, Se Ri made an appearance at a special event hosted by Master Card. Apparently people won the right to play a few holes with Se Ri via a contest, and this was the day when the golf was played. You can see the ad for it, scanned out of a Korean magazine I found in the library. The ad follows the form of the Master Card commercials popular on American TV (and please forgive my rough translation of the Korean, I'm still learning the language!!):

The golf glove with the good feel that you continue to go back to* - 50,000 won

A golf hat that gives you the freedom (?) of 13 cm of shade - 40,000 won

A golf ball you make a hole in one with - 30,000 won

Getting the eternal memory of playing a hole of golf with Se Ri Pak - priceless

(* - Thanks to Kyung Pak for writing in and correcting me! I confused golpujang-kap (golf course price) with golpu-jangkap (golf glove))

Meanwhile, while several lucky Korean hackers were making eternal memories with Se Ri, the other players were arriving in Cheju to begin their preparations for the event. One player who was suddenly notorious thanks to her recent win was Christina Kim, and she inadvertently found herself in a swirl of controversy. You see, every year there is a Korea-Japan golf match-up called the Pinx Cup. The last two years, the Koreans have sent an all-star team and wiped the floor with the Japanese; before that, the Japanese had won two straight. Getting on this team is a pretty prestigious thing.

The team always consists of the top six Korean players from the LPGA, the top three from the KLPGA, and the top three Koreans from the Japanese LPGA. Well, when the roster was finalized, the top six from the American tour were Grace Park, Mi Hyun Kim, Hee-Won Han, Se Ri Pak, Christina Kim and Shi Hyun Ahn. The problem is, that Christina is not Korean, she's American. That hasn't stopped the Pinx people from using a player in the past; for instance, Pearl Sinn has played on the Pinx Cup team for Korea. But for some reason, a vocal contingent of fans started a heated discussion in an Internet forum about Christina being on the team. This erupted into a big controversy, and suddenly, Christina found herself answering a lot of questions about it. What made it more awkward was that she does not feel very comfortable speaking Korean, which was used by some folks as even more evidence that she does not belong on the team.

Christina had to answer a lot of
questions about her pending appearance
at the Pinx Cup

It turns out that Christina very much wants to represent the Korean team, and repeated that she would be very honored to do so. She considers herself Korean AND American, and though she does not speak Korean well, she does understand it pretty well. She argued that she used to speak Korean when she was younger, but when she went to school, she found it hard to keep up with her Korean skills when she needed English for her classes. She even found herself in the position of defending her choice of men (!). In an American article, she was apparently asked who she considers sexy in sports, and she replied Apollo Anton Ohno, the short track speed skater who won a few medals in the last Winter Olympics. Unfortunately, Ohno was also in the center of a controversy when a Korean skater won an Olympic race against him, but was disqualified, giving the medal to Ohno. This made him public enemy number one in Korea, and so naturally, cast a bad light on Christina for mentioning him favorably.

Still, it must be emphasized that not everyone shared a bad opinion of Christina over there. Most fans were glad to see her and were very proud of her. There are many pictures of her signing autographs for them. My favorite has Christina wearing a hat with the single word 'dork' emblazoned across the front. Only Christina Kim could get away with wearing a hat like that!

One of my favorite pics from the week. Dig Christina's hat!
I'm guessing her Korean fans here don't know what that means!!

The poster for the Buddha Cup.
Grace's team won!