2005 CJ 9 Bridges Classic

The CJ 9 Bridges Classic is the only official LPGA event held in South Korea, and every year at this time, the golf crazy denizens of that country get psyched to cheer on their favorite daughters as they take on the best in the world. Because the event is co-sanctioned by the KLPGA, the top twelve golfers on that year's KLPGA money list gain automatic entry into the field. They all realize the same thing: one good week, and an improbable victory, and their lives could change forever. After all, it has happened before.

The event was originally set to premiere in 2001, but military action on the part of the Americans in response to the events of 9/11 caused the cancellation of it that year. The next year, therefore, was the official beginning for the event. There was a lot of hoopla, as you can imagine, as this was the first LPGA event to take place in Korea since the Korean explosion had started in women's golf. The enthusiasm was barely dimmed even though the weather became positively arctic on the weekend. In the end, the event had a fairy tale ending, as the greatest Korean golfer of them all, Se Ri Pak, won the event for the home country fans.

Se Ri with the 2002 CJ 9 Bridges trophy

When Shi Hyun Ahn won the CJ 9 Bridges
Classic in 2003, it proved that a
KLPGA golfer could beat the LPGA golfers

But as far as the KLPGA players are concerned, the events of the next year had far more significance. In 2003, most of the top players on the LPGA participated, and Se Ri Pak was back to defend her title. But it was a little known KLPGA player who shocked the world by capturing the first round lead, shooting a 7 under par 65 to tie Se Ri's tournament record in the process. That player was named Shi Hyun Ahn, and if she was unknown at the start of the week, by the end of the week she was one of the most famous women in South Korea. For despite being challenged by stars like Se Ri Pak, Grace Park and Laura Davies, Ahn held her ground throughout the weekend. Coming into the final hole, a par 5, she had but a one shot lead over Se Ri. Not only did she not fold under the pressure, she produced an eagle to win the event with flare.

Ahn's win catapulted her into immense popularity that persists in her home country to this day. It also gave her a two year exemption on the LPGA tour, and she took advantage, finishing in the top 20 on the money list in 2004 and winning the tour's Rookie of the Year award. She also was invited to appear on numerous television shows, including the MTV Music awards, and even got to throw a ceremonial first baseball at a game. For all these things, the media in Korea called her thereafter 'Cinderella' Ahn Shi Hyun. But the nickname didn't really fit; for though, like Cinderella, her life had changed literally overnight, it had been the result of years of hard work to get to that point, not a lucky break that a prince just happened to find her attractive. Still, it was a compelling story, one that the other KLPGA players were not likely to forget.

In 2004, Se Ri was not playing up to her former standards, but another Korean star was making up for it. Grace Park had been born in Korea, but had lived in America since she was 12. Unlike most of the Korean players on the LPGA tour, Grace had not played the KLPGA tour growing up. Hence, she had never won an event in her home country when she played the CJ that year. She changed that fact in a majestic way, winning in wire to wire fashion over another crowd of top players. There was to be no KLPGA Cinderella that year.

But in 2005, it seemed that the KLPGA was producing more homegrown talent than ever before. Every event another player rose to the occasion and won. Would one of those players be able to contend, and possibly win, the CJ 9 Bridges?

Would it be Bo Bae Song, who had been perpetually one of the top players in Korea since joining the tour in 2004, and who had already won a European Tour event in Singapore in 2005, becoming only the second Korean (after Se Ri Pak) to do that? Would it be the talented young rookie Na Yeon Choi, who burst onto the golf scene in 2004, beating Se Ri Pak at the ADT-CAPS championship while still an amateur? How about Kyeong Bae, who already had an LPGA tour card thanks to finishing third on the Futures Tour in 2005, but who was also first on the KLPGA tour money list.... could she manage to win it? Or Ga Na Lee, with a recent win at the Lordland Cup? Or Hee Young Park, a rookie star that her fellow pros had selected as the one with the best swing among all the Korean women golfers in the world, including Se Ri, Grace and Michelle Wie? All those KLPGA stars would get a chance to tee it up at this year's event.

A new tradition in 2004: the winner would
get a ceremonial hanbok (Korean outfit)
as a prize. Grace Park won the event in
2004.

Jee Young Lee

There was another pro who had produced impressive results in 2005, but who was not given the same attention as those mentioned. Her name is Jee Young Lee. Lee, a 19 year old rookie on tour, had already made a huge splash just a short while into her pro career when she won the Korean Women's Open in the Spring. As you can imagine, this is one of the most important events of the year in Korea, and winning this event, especially considering the weather was pretty harsh that weekend, was quite a coup. But since then, she had not done much else, and so was only 6th on the KLPGA money list when the CJ began. Not many were thinking that, if there were to be a KLPGA Cinderella in 2005, it would turn out to be Jee Young Lee.