Fairways and Greens

LPGA Wins the Wendy's Three Tour Challenge
Every year, the three main professional golf tours in the USA (the PGA, LPGA and Champions tours) get together for a two day golf tournament at the Lake Las Vegas Country Club in Las Vegas, Nevada. Teams of three players from each tour team together to play three rounds of six holes each; the team with the best total score after each 6 holes wins a certain amount of money, and the team that wins the most money over 18 holes is declared the 'winner'. Each team plays from its own set of tees on each holes, calculated so that the players will be approaching the greens with more or less the same clubs; thus, the ladies play much shorter yardage than the men. Still, it's a good chance to see how the different pros deal with it when distance is largely taken out of the equation as a factor.

By and large, the LPGA has done all right in this event, but have only won it twice. However, this year they were equipped with a strong team that included Grace Park, who was in the midst of her greatest streak of golf all season (she played this event right after winning in Korea and finishing second in Japan), Cristie Kerr, who had managed three wins in 2004, and Hall of Famer Juli Inkster. And this year, they managed to make it competitive all the way through.

Grace and Juli in particular played very well. Grace was paired against Craig Stadler, who had thoroughly outplayed her during an exhibition match earlier in the year, and long driving John Daly. This time, Grace showed what she was capable of. She hit every green in the first six holes, but only managed one birdie. Inkster was striping her approaches close right and left, and collected a couple birdies of her own. But Kerr struggled a bit, and the LPGA finished third during the first six holes. Still, the Seniors and PGA tied, so the money was carried over to the next nine holes.

Grace played better on the next six. She collected a birdie right off the bat on 7, then after a solid par on the tricky par 3 8, which involves a long water carry, she got close to the green in two on the par 5 ninth, and got up and down for birdie. On Tuesday, when the second day of the competition started, she added two more birdies after more great shots. But once again, her teammates didn't quite match her output. Though they were in good position to win against the Champions when Grace finished, the other two ladies made some crucial mistakes, and the Champions tour won the first 12 holes as a result. This gave them a big edge going into the final six holes. All they had to do was finish solo second or win to collect the title.

But in the third round, all three LPGAers played marvelously, and they easily won that section with a total of 7 under par. Grace missed a couple greens early, and was not able to birdie the final par 5. But she played the tricky par 4 16th masterfully, dunking a longish birdie putt in the process. By contrast, John Daly ended up double bogeying after hitting his drive into trouble, and Craig Stadler also bogied the hole. Grace followed that with a fantastic iron on the par 3 17th to a few feet for an easy birdie, and a great up and down to inches on 18. In the end, Grace shot a 7 under par 65 for 18 holes.

The overall title came down to the final hole. Fred Couples needed to tie Peter Jacobsen. If Jacobsen beat Couples, the Champions would win. If not, the LPGA would win. Couples might have been questionably motivated, but he nonetheless dunked the par, and the LPGA won for only the third time in history. Grace was quite happy, giving thumbs up signs to the camera with a big grin on her face. Congratulations, ladies!

I don't have any pics of Grace at the
Wendy's, so here are some other
nice pics of Grace in action from 2004

Bo Bae Song (left) and Jeong Jang (right)
are psyched to represent Korea in next month's
Women's World Cup

South Korea's World Cup Team Named
From February 11 - 15, 2005, in George, South Africa, there will be a renewal of the Women's World Cup tournament. This is the only professional tournament in the world that allows countries from all over the world to submit teams to compete against each other for a world championship. As mentioned previously in this magazine, the countries who participate are determined by the top players on the LPGA and European Tours. Naturally, South Korea, which had the second ranked player on the LPGA tour in 2005, was one of the 24 countries asked to send a team.

The individual countries would then determine the teams, although at least one player was to be the player whose ranking allowed that country to qualify in the first place (unless that representative didn't want to go, of course). The Korean golf association who picked the team decided that the two representatives should be one player who plays on the LPGA tour, and one who plays domestically (that is, in Korea). Thus, Bo Bae Song, the top KLPGA player in 2004, was selected to the team.

The LPGA player, meanwhile, would have been Grace Park, but she declined. In fact, the top four players in ranking from Korea - Grace, Se Ri Pak, Hee-Won Han and Mi Hyun Kim - all declined, no doubt because of the long travel required and the earliness in the season of the event. Thus, Jeong Jang, fifth ranked among the Koreans on the LPGA tour, was next asked, and she accepted.

Good luck to Bo Bae Song and Jeong Jang!

P.S. I was asked by the lady who is designing the programs for this event to help them with biographical information about Bo Bae. Fortunately I had a little and passed it on to them. They in turn sent me this website, and told me to check it periodically for possible info. I'll let you know if they tell me anything else!

http://www.womensworldcupofgolf.com/index1.php

Se Ri Pak and Colin Cann - Splitsville
As we went to press, a big news story hit the newswires. Se Ri Pak and her caddie, Colin Cann, have decided to stop working together.

Se Ri started working with Cann in 2001, and almost immediately, the move paid dividends. Cann had been the caddie for Annika Sorenstam early in her career, helping her to 18 wins including two US Women's Opens. Then in 2000, he caddied for one season for Grace Park, but they decided to split because their styles didn't mesh very well: Colin liked to provide a lot of data for his player, while Grace was more of a feel player who felt overwhelmed by too much information.

Se Ri and Colin hit it off right from the start. In fact, the very first event of 2001, and thus their first official outing, resulted in a win for Se Ri. She would go on to win 14 times with Colin, including two Majors.

Colin's wife was pregnant with their first child late last year, and so Colin did not accompany Se Ri to Asia. Instead, she went with a guy named Eric Tuscan as her caddie. Colin took a few months off to help care for his new baby, but joined Paula Creamer when the young American star played Q-School late in 2004. Creamer would go on to win Q-School by five shots, and Cann decided that he enjoyed working with the up and coming player. Thus, on January 10th, just before Se Ri was to start her Winter training, he called her to resign as her caddie.

In fact, Se Ri was thinking about making a change anyway. Apparently, she felt that they had grown a bit apart during her prolonged slump in 2004, and that he was often confusing her with his club suggestions on course.

Se Ri has decided to employ Tuscan as her new full time caddie. Tuscan was recommended to her by her coach, Tom Creavy, who is an old friend of his. Although the two have not teamed to win yet, they did play together four times in 2004, starting at the CJ 9 Bridges Classic, and have not finished worse than 11th together.

It's hard to say whether this sudden split will shake Se Ri up, or whether it will be good for her in the long run. But it certainly is another in a long line of ups and downs in her tumultuous career.

Se Ri and Colin at this year's Canadian Open
Exclusive SeoulSisters Photo by Bob McIntosh

I believe this is Mr. Tuscan, Se Ri's new
caddie, with her at this year's
CJ 9 Bridges Classic
(click to enlarge)

Meet Hana Kim
Last month, eight Korean and one Korean-American secured exempt status for the 2005 LPGA season. That one Korean American was a newcomer named Hana Kim, and her story has already attracted some interest over in Korea.

Hana was once upon a time one of the top junior golfers in the US. She grew up in Southern California, but went to college at Northwestern University. She stayed there two years, then transferred to UCLA, where she won one college tournament and was part of UCLA's 2004 national championship team.

Interested in pursuing an advanced degree, she nonetheless decided to give golf another shot after her graduation. She qualified for the Futures tour, where she played eight events in the summer of 2004, but only finished 131st on that tour's money list. She then surprised many by securing her exempt card at LPGA Q-School in the Fall. She'll have at least a year to see what she can do in the big leagues.

Hana has a younger sister named Ina who is also quite an accomplished young golfer. Ina is in her Senior year at Northwestern, and who knows, might try out for the tour herself in a few months...?

Regardless, welcome to tour, Hana, and best of luck!