Money list total: $464,543 (27th)
Scoring Average: 71.55 (31st)
Player of the Year Total: 30.75 (28th)
Wins: 0
Majors: 0 (1 top ten)
Top 2's: 0
Top 5's: 2
Top 10's: 6
Missed cuts: 4
Birdies: 338 (8th)
Eagles: 5 (91st)
Greens in Regulation: .711 (12th)
Other notable stats: 93rd in driving accuracy (69.4%); 136th in putting (30.70); 82nd in putts/GIR (1.84); 70th in driving distance (252.7 yards); 16th in Rounds in the 60's (26); 21st in Rounds under par (43)

Notable achievements:
Managed 6 top tens in 2004, including a 4th place finish at the McDonald's LPGA Championship, the year's second Major.

Greatly improved GIR (from 50th to 12th in league)

Putting and driving accuracy got much worse.

One of the best in the league at making birdies.

Assessment:
Gloria Park continues to be a player capable of great things who is fairly erratic. She was in some ways a bit more consistent in 2004 than she usually is, although she did have a stretch early in the season where she missed 3 of 4 cuts (after that she would only miss one more cut all year).

But it was also a season with some strange results. For instance, her driving accuracy went noticeably down in 2004, yet despite that, her greens in regulation improved markedly. One can only guess she wasn't missing the fairways by a lot and thus was still leaving herself pretty good approaches into greens. Her putting also plunged into the cellar; in 2003, her average was 62nd in the league, but it was a hideous 136th in the league in 2004.

Gloria did not have too many great tournaments in 2004, and didn't really come too close to winning. But she also notched 6 top tens, a decent amount for her, and finished within the top 30. So an average year for her.

What she should work on:
Consistency, consistency, consistency. This continues to be the mantra for her. As well, she really needs to look into what's going on with her putting and correct it as soon as possible. When someone takes a plunge like that, it sometimes spells disaster, and sometimes is just a momentary aberration. For her sake, let's hope it's the latter.

Notable achievements:
Aree managed a career best second place finish at the Nabisco Championship; it was also her best finish in a Major.

Aree finished second in the Rookie of the Year standings to Shi Hyun Ahn.

She had three top five finishes and was among the league leaders in sand saves in 2004.

Aree Song was the youngest player on the LPGA tour in 2004.

Assessment:
Aree Song was the most hyped rookie of her class before the year started. She had already notched two top tens in two different Majors by the time she arrived on tour. The Commissioner of the tour had to give her a special exemption to play on tour because she was younger than the minimum age requirement of 18 when she started the year (she turned 18 at the Chick-Fil-A Championship).

Aree started the year with a bang with a top 5 in her very first LPGA event. But it was at the Nabisco that she made her biggest splash. She was tied for the lead with Grace Park going into the final round, and thus played in the last group on Sunday. With one hole to go, she was two shots down, but played the best hole of the year by reaching the island green in two and making eagle to force Grace Park to make birdie to win. At that time, it looked as though Aree had the Rookie of the Year title locked up.

A few weeks later, Aree turned 18 during the Chick-Fil-A Charity Championship. She had a great chance to win that event too after three solid rounds, but her fourth round was a disaster, and she plummeted all the way to 23rd place.

There weren't many highlights after that, as Aree played decent golf the rest of the year, but did not really get herself back into contention. Meanwhile, Shi Hyun Ahn played progressively better, eventually catching and surpassing Song for the Rookie award. She also got a chance to play on the Pinx Cup team, where she tied one match and lost the other one. Still, it was a very good rookie season for the young player, and there are plenty of indications that she has a lot more in store in the next few years.

What she should work on:
Aree is one of those players that's very fundamentally sound, as you would expect, since she's been working with David Leadbetter since she was 13 years old. The big glaring problem right now is her driving accuracy. This is not typical for her, so she needs to get to work in the off season getting her drives a little more straight. Improving her greens in regulation percentage would also be helpful, but improving driving should help that stat.