2005 Office Depot Championship

The golf tournament sponsored by Office Depot has had an unusual history on the LPGA tour. At one time, there were even two Office Depot tournaments, one of which was located in southern Florida. Back in 2001, that Office Depot was won by Grace Park, who beat Karrie Webb, then the world's number one golfer, in a tense duel for Graceps second career LPGA win. Meanwhile, the City of Hope Classic, which became the Kathy Ireland Greens.com Classic in 2000 (when it was won by - you guessed it - Grace Park), transferred to Los Angeles in 2001, where the sponsorship was taken over by Office Depot. So that year, there were two Office Depot events, one played in January in Miami, Florida, at the famed Blue Monster course, the other played in March in Los Angeles at El Caballero country club (actually in Tarzana, California, but not far from LA).

In 2002, Office Depot discontinued the Miami event, and Se Ri Pak won the Tarzana event. El Cab is a very tough course, and it ended up being a duel between two of the top players on tour: Se Ri Pak and Annika Sorenstam. Se Ri won that battle, though, by a single shot. The event was staged there again in 2003; this time, it was Annika who won, while Se Ri finished second. In 2004, however, they decided to move the event. That year, it was contested at the Wilshire Country Club, right in the heart of Los Angeles and not far from that city's Koreatown. This was a great chance for the LA Korean fans to root for their countrywomen up close (LA has the largest Korean population in the United States), and even though Annika Sorenstam ended up winning, Mi Hyun Kim finished fourth, and several other Korean golfers gave their fans something to cheer about.

Grace Park won the Greens.com tournament
in 2000; it turned into the Office Depot
in 2001. Not to be confused with the Office
Depot of Florida, which she also won in 2001.
Confused?

Se Ri Pak won the event in 2002

However, the LPGA decided not to hold the event there again in 2005. But Office Depot still wanted to have the tournament in LA. Fortunately, there was a course that was looking for some publicity, and a course owner who had worked with the LPGA already. That owner was Donald Trump, and rather than say 'You're fired!' to the LPGA, the head honcho of the popular 'Apprentice' TV show offered the tour a chance to play on his brand new course in Rancho Palos Verdes, south of the city.

Trump had bought this lovely oceanside course a few years ago when landslides had caused several of the holes to slide into the water. At great cost, he had the course rebuilt in an attempt to turn it into the premiere golf course in the state (and considering some of the classic courses in California, such as Pebble Beach, this was quite a tall order). The job done, the LPGA was the first group that got a chance to compete on the course (in fact, it only opened to the public after the event was completed). In the process, the Office Depot's dates were changed from spring to early October. Yet another change for an event that seemed to have a lot of them.

The players were stunned by the course. Every hole had a phenomenal view of the ocean, something few if any other golf courses in the world can boast. If the Donald went a bit overboard with the knickknacks (perhaps a course does not really require as many artificial waterfalls as this one has), the views coupled with the challenging wind coming off the ocean made for a course that won raves from the players. But though it was beautiful, the extremely undulating nature of the course would give many of the players fits all week. It became imperative to keep your ball out of the rough if you wanted to have any chance. And when a golfer did land in the thick stuff, almost inevitably, an official would have to be called to give a ruling, which slowed pace to a crawl. Lastly, the greens were large and full of bumps and ridges; it became necessary to not only hit the green to have a chance at birdie, but to hit specific spots to give oneself those chances. You could be ten feet away from the hole and in potential bogey territory if you were not careful.

Hee-Won Han lives just down the coast in San Diego. At the previous event, the John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic, she had shot a very unusual (for her) 80 in the first round and went on to miss the cut for only the second time in 2005. That event occurred two weeks before the Office Depot, so, since Hee-Won had a little more free time than she was anticipating, she returned home to work with her well known swing coach, Dean Reinmuth. On the first day of the Depot, he accompanied Hee-Won and her husband to Trump National, and followed her as she played her practice round with Birdie Kim, giving her advice along the way. This careful swing work did not uncover any flaw in Han's swing, but it did help her to gain confidence in her technique again after her missed cut, something that would come in real handy as the week progressed.

Hee-Won in round 1

Soo Yun Kang on Sunday

In the morning wave, Soo-Yun Kang was playing her first LPGA event in a month. In the intervening time, she had returned to Korea to participate in several events there, as detailed in past issues of this magazine. She started out well, with two early birdies, but in the middle of her round hit a rough patch, with four bogies in six holes. The old Soo-Yun might have collapsed at that point, but the new version dug deep and found a way to grind back to par for the day. Unfortunately, that still left her in 50th place.

Several other Korean players had more successful days. Gloria Park continued her strong play with a five under par 66 (this is a par 71 course, with five par 3 holes), and Mi Hyun Kim and Jeong Jang both produced four under par 67s. All three of those ladies played in the morning wave as well (in fact, Mi Hyun and Jeong, the Super Peanut and the Ultra Peanut, played together in the same group). By the time the morning wave was done, the lead was at 6 under par, so all three of those ladies were in good shape.