Highlight and Lowlights

Se Ri's Sighs:
When Se Ri Pak won the British Open in 2001, this gave her three years to win the Nabisco Championship to become the youngest player to ever achieve the career Grand Slam. But in 2002, despite hanging around the lead for three rounds, she couldn't get it done and finished 9th, and last year, though only five shots out of the lead coming into the last round, she shot a horrible 78 on Sunday to finish 15th.

Alas, her last chance for this particular record has come and gone. Had she won the Nabisco this year, she would have beaten Karrie Webb's record for youngest Grand Slammer by a mere three days. Instead, her 16th place finish was her worst ever in this event (believe it or not!). It's also, amazingly, the worst finish she has had in any event (including the men's event she played in) since the beginning of last July, when she finished 50th at the US Women's Open, and only her second time out of the top 10 in all that time. One more stat: this is the first year since 2000 that Se Ri has not won one of the first three events she entered in a season. So she clearly has some work to do to get back to the level she was playing at before, let alone to move to the next level.

Young Korean Americans on the rise!
Congratulations to Christina Kim on her first career top ten in a Major. Christina finished 8th. People tend to forget that as recently as last year she was the youngest person on tour, and is still only barely twenty. Christina may have a few surprises in store for us this year. Meanwhile, amateur Jane Park, 17 years old, also made a decent showing, finishing tied for 24th in her first Nabisco. The runner-up last year at the US Women's Amateur Championship, this week Park far outdistanced the winner of that event, Virada Nirapathpongporn, who missed the cut.

See How She Flies!:
Some other players had notable achievements this week. Young Kim is a second year player that has a most unusual record. She only played in two Majors last year, the LPGA Championship and the British Open, and managed top tens in both. Could she keep the streak alive? Well, on Saturday she shot the low round of the day, a 5 under par 67, that moved her into a tie for tenth. Things looked good, but her Sunday round was not so powerful, and she fell into a tie for 16th with Se Ri Pak. Still, three top twenties in her first three Majors. Not bad at all!

Don't Cry for Lee, Argentina (couldn't resist that pun, guys!)!:
Jung Yeon Lee might have suffered a setback in her bid for her first win on the LPGA tour when she shot a 75 in the final round of the Nabisco Championship, but her star is most definitely on the rise. This is her second top ten of the year, but her first top ten (in fact first top 40) ever in a Major. Since her second place finish at the Longs Drugs Challenge last September, Lee has managed one great finish after another, and has had top tens in all but one of her last six events.

And Otherwise...
Soo Yun Kang finally made her first cut of the year, although she still only finished 62nd. Meanwhile, super rookie Shi Hyun Ahn finally stumbled to her first missed cut of her LPGA career. But it gave her a chance to catch up on her 'Rookie Hours'. All rookies are required to spend a certain amount of time learning about how LPGA tournaments are run by helping volunteers. You can see Shi Hyun enjoyed her task by checking out this week's Parting Shot!

Se Ri ended her Nabisco week once again in
disappointment

Se Ri practices before the tournament

Jung Yeon Lee had another strong week