Fairways and Greens

World Congress on Women's Golf
For the first time in history, representatives of all the major women's golf tours in the world got together to discuss issues pertaining to the growth of women's golf. This event, titled the World Congress on Women's Golf, was organized by the LPGA, the world's biggest women's golf tour, and took place May 20 - 22, 2004 in New York City. Among the organizations represented were the Ladies European Tour, the LPGA, the Japanese LPGA, the Australian Ladies Professional Golf Tour (ALPG) and the Korean LPGA.

The World Congress in action

The first day of the event got things off with a bang, as Ty Votaw, Commissioner of the LPGA, announced that the 2007 Women's British Open will be played on the Old Course at St. Andrew's, the birthplace of golf. The women have never held a professional event there, and they were thrilled by the opportunity to play on one of the greatest courses in the world. Se Ri gushed about it, and hoped aloud that she would be the one to hold the trophy in the end. She could do it if she avoids those pesky pot bunkers!

The other big announcement came a couple days later. Starting in 2005, the five tours have agreed to create a World Golf Ranking for women. An official ranking has never existed before. The ranking system will be similar to the one the men already have, with results from the last two years weighing into a player's standing.

One disappointment was that there was apparently no progress made on a new team golf event like the Solheim Cup to feature international golfers not eligible for that competition (including, of course, the Seoul Sisters!). Stay tuned, though; the money that could be made from such an event is doubtless a great motivator towards getting that done.

Grace has added a lot of sponsorships the past year,
the most prominent of which was with Nike

Grace has yet another new sponsor
It seems like this season, Grace cannot turn around without making another new splash somewhere. Her most famous splash, of course, came at the Nabisco Championship, when she blew away Sorenstam's attempt to win the calendar year Grand Slam by capturing the year's first Major, then celebrated with the traditional dive in the 18th green lake. But another thing that has happened this year, continuing from last, is an explosion in Grace's endorsement deals.

It's hard to remember that, until the beginning of last year, Grace had no major endorsement deals at all. Then, just before the 2003 season started, she signed with Nike to play their equipment and wear their clothes. Nike was stingy in using her in 2003, but this year (next month, in fact) she will be featured in a Nike TV commercial with several other Nike (male) golf stars and that lovable (?) head cover, Frank! Just go to Nike's web site sometime, and it's difficult to remember that once upon a time, Gabrielle Reece (yes, the volleyball star) was the face of Nike women's golf. All signs of Gabby have been removed, replaced by Grace's glam poses as she models the latest Nike swag.

But Nike is only the tip of the iceberg. Grace also snagged a sponsorship with Rolex which resulted in her first TV commercial last year (which aired often during the Solheim Cup). She got her second TV commercial not long thereafter when she signed a deal with Pantene to represent them in Korea. Then, just a few weeks ago, Anheuser-Busch announced that Grace will be one of four LPGA players to represent them in the next year. The parameters of that deal have not yet been revealed, but more TV commercials are not out of the question.

And this week, Grace added yet another corporate friend to her bag. She revealed that Sybase is a sponsor of hers, and was shown during the final round using a handheld device to download her stats from the LPGA's website. Like with her other deals, it's unclear at the moment exactly what the extent of her relationship is with Sybase, but with each deal she nets, Grace comes closer and closer to breaking into the mainstream, which will doubtless help not only her but the LPGA.

Grace on Cold Pizza
Grace also made her debut American talk show appearance this week. While in New York for the Sybase Classic, she dropped in on ESPN's fledgling morning show, Cold Pizza. This show is like a frat house version of Today, mixing a little news and a lot of goofing around, with a focus on sports. Grace actually showed up three times during the episode, if you were sharp enough to catch her. The first time was during a segment about a guy who was trying to join the World Poker Tour. As he was talking about what was involved, there was a group of other guests gathered around a table, preparing to play a few hands of poker with him. The back of Grace's head was clearly visible at the table! I just hope that the wealthy Ms. Park (if you don't believe me about the wealthy part, check the above article out!) didn't get taken to the cleaners by this card hustler! Well, if so, she could always get him back if she could lure him out onto the links to play $10 a hole.

A little later came Grace's segment. They showed several colorful pics of Grace, then introduced her; as she walked down a stairway towards the interviewer, phony applause followed her down, which was classic. Grace did quite well. She was articulate, and didn't seem very nervous. They talked a little about her Nabisco win (Grace repeated her familiar stories from that week), and about shopping and reality TV (turns out Grace is a big fan of reality TV, including those makeover shows and American Idol). The one bit of controversy came when the host asked Grace about her opinion regarding Ty Votaw (the LPGA's Commissioner) and his relationship with one of the LPGA players. Apparently a small group of players have been bound and determined to get rid of him because of this. But it doesn't bother Grace, and her reply was that she didn't see that it hurt the tour, and everyone was entitled to their opinion.

Grace appeared one more time briefly. One of their next guests was an American Idol contestant, and just before she came on stage, the camera showed her and Grace chatting up a storm backstage. The host thought it proved how interesting Cold Pizza was, as this was a place where worlds collide (in this case, the LPGA and American Idol). Grace, by the way, was asked if she was a good singer, and she quickly responded 'No! I'll stick to golf!' Sounds like a good plan to me, although I'd watch a 'Korean Idol' show if Grace were one of the contestants!

Money List
Se Ri Pak finally ran out of steam this week, playing two of her worst rounds of the year to miss the cut by a mile. It was her first missed cut in 31 events. It's a pity, because a win this week would have put her on top of the money list, but she'll be back. Meanwhile, Grace didn't win, but her solo second put her on top of the money list. She also leads in Player of the Year standings and scoring average, and Annika Sorenstam better watch out! The big test comes in the next month and a half, as two Majors and big money events are contested.

Jung Yeon Lee also missed her first cut of the year, and in fact none of the top players on the money list except for Seol-An Jeon and Grace did particularly well this week. But that gave several lower ranked players, such as Young Kim and Jeong Jang, a chance to make a move. And doubtless the biggest surprise was the other Young one, Young-A Yang, who had not finished better than 71st this year but came within a slow play penalty of her first career top 5. She made the biggest move this week.