Major Grace

'I'm ready. I've been ready. I'll be ready'.

With those words, Grace Park proclaimed in round 3 that she was at last prepared to take the next step in her career and win a Major. The four time LPGA winner had contended in Majors before (twice in 2003), but had never before been able to take that final step into the winner's circle. With her brilliant, jaw-dropping performance in the final round of the Nabisco Championship, she announced long and loudly that this is a player to be reckoned with, a superstar that just might be good enough to unseat both Se Ri Pak and Annika Sorenstam and become the new #1 player in women's golf.

Up until this week, the Korean players have increasingly come to dominate play on the LPGA tour. Two weeks ago, they nabbed an incredible 7 of the top ten spots at the premiere event of the year. Several heretofore unknown players, such as Seol-An Jeon, have impressed in 2004. Shi Hyun Ahn and Jung Yeon Lee have stepped up as possible future stars. But until this week, only one Korean player had ever won a Major: Golf Queen Se Ri Pak. And she has won four. Not that other Koreans hadn't come close: Mi Hyun Kim grabbed second place at the 2001 British Open, only to lose to her compatriot Se Ri. Hee-Won Han led the LPGA Championship for nearly three rounds last year before falling back to 11th..

But the player who had come closest to getting a Major without succeeding had been Grace Park. In a continuation of her meteoric rise to the top, which saw her climb from 23rd on the money list in 2001 to 6th in 2002 to 3rd last year, Grace had also started contending in Majors. It all came to a head at last year's LPGA Championship. Trailing Annika Sorenstam by a bunch going into Sunday, she rallied magnificently, catching the Swedish player on the back nine. That day Grace was not able to make the final few putts she needed to put herself over the top, and ended up in a playoff with Sorenstam. She ended up losing that playoff, coming oh-so-close to tasting the ultimate glory in her sport.

Grace holds court for the press after
round 3
(AP Photo)

Grace was so close to winning a Major last year
she could taste it!

Grace notched a 2nd place finish at the
first event of the year

Grace had another shot at it in the British Open. But despite shooting one of the best final round scores, again she just missed out, finishing behind Se Ri Pak and Annika Sorenstam. Still, another top five in a Major signaled she might be ready to go.

Coming into this year's first Major, Grace Park was arguably the hottest player on tour. She had a second place and a third place in her first two events, was sitting on a streak of 12 consecutive top tens dating to last year, and stood second on the money list behind Sorenstam in 2004. But all of the publicity before the event centered on Annika's bold desire to win the calendar year Grand Slam, and on 14-year old Michelle Wie. The bandwidth for women's golf coverage is so narrow that those two stories literally took 95% of it, leaving Grace's great play and Se Ri Pak's attempt to complete the career Grand Slam and enter the Hall of Fame off the American media's radar.

But Grace knew she was ready to go. She confided to her fans on the LPGA's message boards that she was feeling very good about her game, and had been telling everyone who cared to listen all year that she believed this was going to be her real breakout year. Apparently, despite her greatness in 2003 and 2002, she felt she still had not reached her full potential, but that this would be the year that that all changed.

But like often happens with Grace, she did not get off to the best of starts in this tournament. She started with an even par 72, 3 birdies and 3 bogeys. Still, in a Major, an even par score is not a bad one, and though she sat six shots behind teenager Aree Song, who blistered the course on the first day with a 66, she still was well in the tournament. Se Ri Pak also shot a 72 on the first day, but her round was far more chaotic. She opened with 5 straight pars and a bogey, but then reeled off three straight birdies to move to 2 under par. She followed that with a bogey at 10, two birdies at 11 and 12, a bogey at 13, a birdie at 14, and another bogey at 15. After a par at 16 she ended with two more bogeys to finish the day with six pars, six birdies and six bogeys. It's difficult to tell exactly what is going wrong with her game, but Se Ri clearly is not playing at the top level of which she is capable.

The other hot Korean player coming into this week was the rookie sensation Shi Hyun Ahn. Ahn had managed two top fives in her first two starts of the year, but struggled mightily in California, with a 77 on Thursday followed by a 78 on Friday. She went on to miss her first LPGA cut in her first Major. She'll be back.

Grace during round 1
(AP Photo)