Seoul Sisters Back In Korea

Here's another little update on what the Korean players have been up to since they put away their clubs for the season.

Grace delivers 100 million won to charity (roughly 100K dollars)
On December 20th at 2:30 PM, Grace delivered 100 million won to a Seoul Social Welfare charity. She dropped by the hospital ward they operate to say hi to some of the patients and to cheer them up, wearing a fetching nurse like outfit.

The money came partly from Grace and partly from a campaign launched by her father, the owner of the Samwon Gardens restaurants in Seoul, to raise money for neighborhood charity, which he called 'neighborhood love'. Grace Nightengale was a big hit with the patients, as you can see!

After that, Grace finally had a chance to go skiing!

Grace presents a check for charity and meets with a sick fan

Ah! Cake! And Grace gets yet another award...

Grace Park Encouragement Event
On the 28th of December, at the Hyatt Hotel in Seoul, golf officials threw a big party for Grace called the 'Grace Park Encouragement event'. In every one one of the 500 seats was a little gift souvenir box that contained a golf ball personally signed by Grace; she had stayed up all night to prepare these boxes, after getting back from her little ski vacation. Ol' Grace is even giving back at a party intended to thank her! But you gotta wonder why the people who attended didn't give her 500 gifts instead? It's supposed to be a day to encourage Grace, after all!

(Although, as you can tell from the photo, she did get a nice cake out of the deal at least!) (And bonus points to any true Grace fans who can name the tournaments at which each of those photos behind her were taken!).

Around the middle of January, Grace will return to America, where, among other things, she will engage in a six week intensive physical training regime. Don't be surprised if she comes back even stronger and longer for 2005! She says that her main swing focus will be on improving her position at the top of her swing, with her swing coach Peter Costis. S'funny; it always looked pretty good to me!

Shi Hyun was Everywhere
Shi Hyun Ahn seemed to appear about a dozen times in the news at the end of 2004. After her award duties, she participated in a special event to help Koreans learn the dangers of drunk driving. She appeared with a number of other well known people, including a member of Parliament, in front of the Galleria Department Store in Seoul, handing out information to startled drivers about this important topic. As you can tell, she managed to have a little fun as well. And she dressed, as usual, in quite a fetching manner!

Shi Hyun then proceeded to appear on a half dozen television programs in the space of a week. On the 17th of December, she went to tape an episode of 'Happy Together', a wacky Korean show that mixes a game show with comedy. But there was a bit of controversy. In fact, according to a recent article, Shi Hyun has recently become one of the top search categories on a popular celebrity search engine. Why would that happen in the middle of the LPGA's break, when she's not even playing golf?

Seoul Sisters fans may recall that Se Ri Pak last year also appeared on this show. It has several segments, the most popular of which is called 'Chengpan Noraebang', or, roughly, 'Big tray Karaoke'. Three celebrity guests and the two comedian hosts are given a song, and one at a time, each guest has to sing one of the lines from the song, word for word. If anyone makes a mistake, the pans come crashing down on their heads, and they have to start over. The fun comes in watching these famous people have to deal with this goofy situation.

Shi Hyun encourages a stunned motorist to stay
sober behind the wheel!

Shi Hyun gets ready for another appearance

Shi Hyun in the dress she wore to the
Seoul Music Awards

She thought this was going to be good for a few yocks, but apparently, a large number of Internet fans took this the wrong way, getting the impression that Shi Hyun was rather full of herself and believed that she was really gorgeous. This started a large debate on the Internet about whether or not Shi Hyun really was a beautiful gal or not, or whether she was properly humble about it. And that's why she suddenly zoomed to the top of the search engine rankings. At least that's what I think this was all about; it definitely strikes me as a cultural thing (I doubt that a pretty lady joking about her looks in America would outrage anyone).

It got bad enough that Shi Hyun even issued an apology, insisting her appearance and whether she is pretty is not that important to her, and that she would rather be judged by how well she plays golf. She also claimed that the producers of the show encouraged her to go through with the shtick, although it wasn't clear if it was their idea or hers. Even her sponsors, Elord, weighed in, expressing disappointment that things had turned out the way they did. Whew!

Shi Hyun filmed the 'Happy Together' appearance on the 17th of December in the morning. In the evening of that day, she filmed another TV appearance on a show on another network. This time the network was MBC, and she appeared on the show 'Sunday Sunday Night'. The segment she appeared on was called 'Brain Survivor'.

As if that weren't enough, she filmed another guest appearance for yet a third show on the 18th at 6:30 PM. This time, she was guesting on KBS' 'Love's Request', which looks to be a program where people request songs for folks to sing. (I wonder if Shi Hyun sang? Nah!). Then on the 19th, there she was again, this time on MBC's 'Mother's Song', on their special year end edition, and followed that with yet another TV appearance on the 20th, this time on KBS' 'Sports World' year end wrap. Whew! She's almost as ubiquitous on TV over there as Jessica Simpson is over here!

Shi Hyun on 'Happy Together'.
(After she removed the mask!)

Se Ri poses for fans before she hits the slopes

Se Ri Hits the Slopes
Se Ri Pak also received a little recognition before the new year. She was named one of 16 Korean Movers for her work with Charity. Several other top movie stars, athletes and prominent figures were also named, including Korean cinema superstars Sol Kyung Gu and Choi Min Shik. LG Telecom will donate a tidy sum to charity in the names of every winner.

Se Ri then had a chance to (finally!) get a little rest and relaxation. Here you see her resting before going out on the slopes to participate in her favorite non-golf activity, snowboarding. Naturally, even here she was corralled by some fans, who wanted to get their pic with the gregarious superstar. Naturally, she obliged!

Se Ri shot a 66 at Namboo Country Club in late December with a few friends. But she did not plan to start her real training until January 10th, when she returns to Orlando to hook up with her coach Tom Creavy. Hopefully, she has gotten a good rest away from her clubs in the last month (the practice round notwithstanding). Her first tournament of the 2005 season will be the SBS Open in Hawaii in late February.

Some more Players Plan their next season
Mi Hyun Kim had an even shorter off season. Encouraged by her results in 2004, she headed back to America to start her training shortly after the Pinx Cup ended in early December. Mi Hyun is focusing on strength and rhythm for 2005, and hopes to continue her good results while this time snagging a win or two, which she failed to do in 2004 despite 15 top tens. In fact, Mi Hyun had the dubious distinction in 2004 of making the most money in one season in tour history without a victory. She definitely wants to change that for 2005!

Shi Hyun Ahn returned to LA after the 29th, to begin her heavy training at Palm Springs.

Hee-Won Han returns to America as well to train. She recently got her driver's license in America, much to her happiness, and on the 20th of December celebrated her first year anniversary with her hubby Hyuk Son. To celebrate, they are taking a car vacation in America! Sounds appropriate, now that she can drive! When she's done with that, in January she will start her training, which will include yoga in an effort to increase the flexibility of her body.

Hey! It's Shi Hyun Ahn again!
Here she is behind the scenes at the
drunk driving awareness event.

Soo Yun Kang and Dong Guk Lee won
the Female and Male Comeback
Athletes of the Year awards.

Il Mi Chung has a new sponsor!

Soo Yun not Done!
Soo Yun Kang managed to snag another award of her own. On December 28th, she was awarded the Comeback Athlete of the Year Award, Female Version (there was also a male Comeback Athlete of the Year). It might strike you as odd that she would get this; what was she coming back from, after all? Well, it had been two years since Kang had won in Korea, when she won the 2002 Hite Event on the KLPGA tour. This year she ended that 'drought' with a win at the PAVV Invitational on the KLPGA tour. So she came back, see? Personally, I think she never went away, but an award is an award!

Chung Gets Early Birthday Gift
Il Mi Chung, on January 11th, announced a new sponsorship deal with a Kiga, a Korean golf company, for one year at 150,000,000 won. She did not have a sponsor in 2004, and the combination of that, moving to play for the first time in the States, and not making a lot of money besides made it a rough year for her. This deal will enable her to start afresh and concentrate on her golf without worrying where her next meal is coming from. Her previous sponsorship, with Korean company Hansol, had ended before she left Korea in 2003. Il Mi came home last year briefly to renew her visa, and while here, talked with the company about a possible contract; recently, they signed this agreement. And just in time for an early Birthday present (She turns 33 on January 15th)!

Best of luck to the Seoul Sisters as they enjoy their holidays and get ready for next season!

BONUS! But meanwhile, check out the next page to see some end of the year pics I've collected that I haven't posted before. Lots o' pics of Se Ri, and a few of Grace, Mi Hyun and Shi Hyun that you haven't seen before. Least not round here. Click below to check 'em out!