#1 With a Bullet

On Friday, many of the Korean players got a chance to play the morning round, which would hopefully equalize things with the leaders who had played the morning round on Thursday. But as sometimes happens, it didn't, because the Friday afternoon weather was perfect, without any wind to speak of.

Se Ri quite frankly collapsed in this round. It was by far the worst one she had shot all year. She struggled to a horrendous 4 over par 40 on the back nine, which she played first. Among the lowlights were a double bogey on the 14th hole and a bogey for the second day in a row on the treacherous par 3 16th. She also somehow bogeyed the par 5 18th. She hit only about half her fairways, and probably was putting herself in terrible locations for aiming at the green. Another bogey at the par 5 3rd left her at 5 over for the day and 7 over for the tournament. The cut looked like it would be +5. Could she make it?

Se Ri had a lot more fun in the pro-am than in the tournament

Grace drives in round 2
(Reuters)

Grace Park, however, took full advantage of her situation. Despite being tired and not hitting her irons very well, she played a typical Grace Park round: a few mistakes but lots of birdies. In the end she amassed seven birdies against just 2 bogeys, and shot a 5 under par 66. This was good enough for a tie for second, but one of those players who had played the morning on Thursday returned Friday afternoon with a scorching 64, the low round of the tournament. That player was Becky Morgan, a Welsh woman who had yet to win on tour. She held the halfway point lead at 11 under par with a four shot cushion over Grace and Young-A Yang.

That's right, Young-A Yang. Yang followed her 66 on Thursday with a 69 on Friday to move to 7 under. The improbable success story was continuing, but for how long? And what's more, she wasn't the only Korean who was suddenly having her best event of the year. While almost all the top players struggled (Aree Song also did not play well, Mi Hyun was still stuck well back, and both Se Ri and Jung Yeon Lee missed the cut), several others were making hay. Soo Yun did not follow up her first round well, shooting a 2 over par 73, but still she was in the top ten. Jeong Jang, who had had very little to crow about in 2004, herself managed a 5 under par 66 on Friday, and also was in the top ten with a four under par total. She even made an eagle putt on the par 5 15th, something the short player rarely accomplishes. And Young Kim, a talented second year player who had not had a single top ten thus far in 2004, shot a 3 under par 68 despite a run of three bogeys in a row to start her day. 6 birdies in your last 12 holes will do that for you.

On Saturday, Grace played in the final group with completely unknown Taiwanese rookie Amy Hung and Becky Morgan, while Young-A Yang and Jeong Jang were in the second to last group. For Yang, the real test was starting now. Up til this point, she had been content merely to have strung together two great rounds that left her with a good chance for a big paycheck. Now, however, she wanted to see just how well she could do. And indeed, up until the 8th hole, the answer was: quite well. She made birdie on the par 5 3rd, but really made noise when she dunked a shot from the fairway on 8 for an eagle. Suddenly, she was at 10 under par and right in the thick of things. But just like that, everything fell apart. She bogeyed 9 after hitting the ball into the water. On Friday, she had also hit it into the water there and gotten a triple bogey that knocked her back from 10 under par to 7, her eventual ending score. Clearly this was not her favorite hole! Problems continued with a double on 12 after missing two relatively short putts, and another bogey on 13. But to her credit, she stopped the bleeding at that point, and a final hole birdie left her even par for the day. Not bad, but still four shots out of the lead.

Young-A had her dicey moments on Saturday
(AP Photo)

Grace on Saturday
(Reuters)

Grace Park really struggled on Saturday. Usually this is when Grace picks up the pace, but she just could not get her game going. Particularly bad were her short irons, usually one of the strengths of her game. Every iron seemed to be short and to the right today, and she missed a gaggle of greens. Perhaps she, too, was feeling the effects of all her travel. But despite her struggles, she still shot one under on the front nine. A bogey on 12 after an errant drive knocked her back to even, and she followed another bogey at 14 with a birdie on the par 5 15th.

Then came the 16th hole. This par 3 seems simple, but it has a green so treacherous it has become legendary. Grace for one hates the hole, and suggested in an interview that someone should blow it up. It apparently heard her and did not treat her well today. After missing the green with another frankly miserable iron, she was not able to get up and down and made bogey. But she did birdie the final par 5 to finish even for the day. Considering how much she struggled, that result was nothing short of a miracle. It left her at 7 under par with a shot to catch the leaders on the final day and one more chance to play in the final group.

The leader was Becky Morgan, but she herself only managed an even par round and stood at 11 under. The surprise was Sherri Steinhauer, who once was a great player but had done next to nothing of note in the last five years. Apparently her game returned on this, the site of her last LPGA win, and after a brilliant approach on 18 and an eagle, she sat at 10 under and only one shot out of the lead.

Grace may have been four shots back, but she was in good position nonetheless. This course was one that could cost one a lot of bogeys, so if Grace could make an early move, perhaps the inexperienced Morgan or Steinhauer, who was not often in contention anymore, could be pressured into fading away. At any rate, Grace now had a chance to address one of her biggest bugaboos: namely, that she had never won an LPGA event when she did not have the lead going into the final round.

Grace contemplates on Sunday