2004 Report Cards

Money list total: $682,669 (11th)
Scoring Average: 71.34 (27th)
Player of the Year Total: 51.00 (14th)
Wins: 1
Majors: 0 (0 top tens)
Top 2's: 2 (+ 1 outside of tour)
Top 5's: 3 (+ 1 outside of tour)
Top 10's: 5 (+ 2 outside of tour)
Missed cuts: 2
Birdies: 226 (49th)
Eagles: 8 (48th)
Greens in Regulation: .683 (33rd)
Other notable stats: 14th in driving distance (262.1 yards); 156th in driving accuracy (60.2%)

Se Ri holds the trophy from the Michelob Ultra

Notable achievements:
Became the first Korean player to qualify for the LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame when she won the Michelob Ultra Open in May. She also became the second youngest woman ever to qualify (after Karrie Webb).

Se Ri came within a shot of becoming a five time winner at the Jamie Farr Classic; only one player has ever managed to win the same event five times.

Assessment:
Without much doubt, this was Se Ri Pak's worst season since joining the LPGA in 1998. It started out as simply an average season for her, with top tens in four of her first six events, and nothing worst than a 16th place. Hardly phenomenal numbers, but nothing to be terribly embarrassed about. Besides, she usually got off to a slow start, so it was nothing terribly surprising. When she won the Michelob Ultra in May, it looked like things would proceed according to plan.

But then Se Ri suddenly hit a slump so dire that nothing in her previous career could have prepared her for it. There was a simple reason for it, too. All of sudden, she seemed incapable of hitting a fairway. Rounds with 50% accuracy were not uncommon, and she even had a few rounds where she hit only 3 or 4 fairways all day. Her driving accuracy had been her primary weakness in 2003; virtually everything else about her game was solid that year, but she finished 106th in driving. But even that was genius compared to where she ended up in 2004; by the time the season was over, she had plummeted to 156th in the league, with an abysmal 60% driving accuracy.

This in turn affected every other part of her game. Missing so many fairways made it impossible to contend in Majors, and for the first time in her career, she did not manage to get a top ten in any of them in a calendar year. In her last 8 Majors, she has only contended once, an unprecedented slump for her. Her greens in regulation percentage, once her strongest stat, slumped below 70% for the first time. She struggled mightily from the sand, and her putting was not great. Worst of all, she found herself frustrated and distracted on course for the first time. She openly mused about how she needed time for herself away from golf, something she had never done before. Her mind is her very greatest weapon, and with it malfunctioning, she could not even hope to put together a decent tournament.

Thus, she had a lengthy stretch midyear without a top ten. She had two scores in the 80s (before, she had only once failed to break 80 in her entire career). She had some tournaments that were so bad, they not only were bad for a player of her skill but bad for a pro of any skill level. The nadir came at the Samsung, where, after a five week break, she still shot two of the worst rounds of her life on the weekend to finish in dead last, 15 shots behind the next player. Kudos to her for not dropping out, but that had to demolish what was left of her confidence.

It's interesting to note that she managed a second place finish at the Jamie Farr in the middle of her slump, which is played on her favorite course on tour. Clearly, her driving is more a mental issue than anything fundamentally wrong with her swing. And she showed flashes of brilliance throughout the year in her other departments (and even her driving at times was decent). So the game is still there, it's just buried under a thick coat of frustration and burnout.

What she should work on:
Obviously, her number one swing concern continues to be her driving, which just keeps getting more and more unpredictable. But there is a more insidious problem that is leaking into her game. She admitted that she was feeling more and more pressure on herself as she got closer to getting into the Hall of Fame. When she finally did it, she seemed to have hit a wall. Clearly, what she needs more than anything else is to rest and regroup, and hopefully she will do that in the off-season. Then, she needs to make sure her schedule during the year is such that she gives breaks to herself now and then. Nobody can play at the top of their games if they are pushing themselves all the time. If she can get back to being comfortable and happy within herself, everything else should return.