2005 Year in Review

October

Hee-Won was the only one of the Big Four to win
an event in 2005

Grace looked poised to win at the Samsung
after two rounds, but a disaster was awaiting

Seon-Hwa Lee and her Hite trophy. That's a lotta beer!

Meet Jee Young Lee, the newest Korean winner
(CJ 9 Bridges Classic)

Se Ri enjoyed the event from the commentator's booth!

Player of the Month: Hee-Won Han
Event of the Month: Office Depot Championship

Five Koreans had won tournaments to this point in 2005. They all had one thing in common: they had never won before on the LPGA tour. When were the veteran Koreans going to take a trophy?

It finally happened at the Office Depot at the start of October. Hee-Won Han had been playing well, but not well enough to qualify for the Samsung World Championship later in the month. You almost get the feeling she was trying to prove a point: for at the two events preceding that event, Han was the best player overall in the league.

She started with the Depot, played at the new Trump golf course outside of Los Angeles. The tough course required precision, which in turn slowed the rounds to a crawl. The event, though only three rounds, wound up finishing on Monday afternoon. Jeong Jang and Soo-Yun Kang both played well (though Soo-Yun had to recover from a poor first round to do it), as they had for the last several months; but it was Hee-Won Han who came out on top. She was practically flawless, on a course that punished even the slightest mistake (as Jang found out on the 8th hole of her final round). JJ wound up 6th. Kang, meanwhile, pushed Han the whole day, but in the end lost to her good friend by two strokes. Afterwards, Soo-Yun tried to douse Han with champagne, but the wily Hee-Won was too quick and ran away.

The next week, Hee-Won played the Longs Drugs Challenge, and once again seemed almost flawless. By the final nine, she had the lead, and looked poised to take her second straight title. But she made a small mistake on the par five, which prevented her from getting a birdie, and Nicole Perrot caught her. Then on the next hole, Perrot made a birdie where Han had parred. And that was the difference; Hee-Won finished second. She had moved all the way to 7th on the money list, but still was not in the field at the Samsung. So, she returned to Korea to play in events there.

Meanwhile, the Samsung featured the professional debut of Michelle Wie, who turned pro and promptly became the richest woman in the room by signing huge deals with Nike and Sony. She played well at Samsung, too, but a poor drop in the third round, coupled with a failure to realize it was illegal, caused her to be disqualified. Meanwhile, Grace Park, who played with Wie in that round, had taken the lead after two rounds. Grace had nearly won on this course in 2004, and was psyched to have a chance to win this time. But her waterloo came on a par 3, where her tee shot dribbled down a hill into some rocks. She could not contact the ball after one swing, so took a drop way down the hill. She ended up with a quadruple bogey and never contended again in 2005.

The player who had the best chance of winning the event was Gloria Park, but she couldn't get it done when it counted and finished third. Annika blew everyone away again.

While the Samsung was going on, Han returned to Korea to play in the Meritz Financial tournament. Mi Hyun Kim and the Song twins were the other special guests there. But it turned out to be the unknown Woori Choi who collected the title, with Seon-Hwa Lee finishing second. Han ended up fifth, Kimmie 7th.

The next week was the Hite Open, sponsored by the Korean beer company Hite. The conditions were terrible at this event, and no one finished under par. The winner was Seon-Hwa Lee, the Futures Tour money list winner, who now moved to third on the KLPGA money list. Bo Bae Song finished just a shot back, while Soo-Yun Kang was 6th and Kyeong Bae was 8th.

Then came one of the biggest event on the Korean golf calendar, the CJ 9 Bridges Classic. No Korean in the field had forgotten how an unknown KLPGA player named Shi Hyun Ahn had used this tournament as a catapult into the LPGA and national fame. With the top KLPGA players impressing more and more, one had to wonder if one of them could follow suit in 2005. No non-Korean had ever won the event, so national pride in a way was on the line.

As it turned out, the weather was frightful, but the results delightful. The Koreans had never before dominated the event like they did this year. The winner, leading from start to finish as Se Ri Pak and Shi Hyun Ahn had done before her, was Jee Young Lee, the winner of the Korean Women's Open. Jee Young was not even seriously threatened all week; if she had not stumbled a bit in round 2, she might have won by 8 shots. This is with Annika and Paula Creamer in the field, not to mention all the Korean stars. So Lee now joins Ahn on the LPGA in 2006.

Finishing fourth (tied with Jeong Jang) was Hee Young Park, reminding everyone again that this is a talent to watch. Kimmie finished second, her best result of the year, with Grace Park, in defense of her title, in 6th. All in all, 8 of the top 12 were Koreans, and 5 of the top 6. Wow.

Se Ri Pak couldn't play, but she was still there. Only instead of being out on the course competing, she was in the anchor's booth commentating. It was her TV commentating debut, and she did a pretty good job of it, too.

Young Kim could not pull out the Mizuno trophy despite
a good try...

...But Christina did get a trophy at the Tournament
of Champions

The weird trophy awarded at the ADT-CAPS event.
How exactly do you kiss this thing?

Song Hee Kim

November

Player of the Month: Christina Kim
Event of the Month: Mitchell Company Tournament of Champions

The LPGA journeyed from Korea to Japan for their next event. The Mizuno Classic was so much the domain of Annika Sorenstam that she had won it the previous four years, and was certainly favored to do so again. The previous two years she had won by nine shots. But in 2005, a different player led after the first round. Despite the fact Sorenstam shot a 64, it was Young Kim, with a 63, who led after round one. Young maintained her lead with a 67 in round 2, but Annika lurked, and one had to wonder if Young could possibly keep up the fight. Still, in a year when so many Koreans had won their first event, why not Young Kim, one of the more talented winless players on tour?

It was not to be. As expected, Annika ripped off another huge score on Sunday and cruised to her fifth straight win at the event. Young shot a 70 and wound up third. JJ collected yet another top ten, a sixth.

Next was the penultimate event on the schedule, the Tournament of Champions. Only players who had won events on tour were invited, and this year they had quite a collection of Koreans participating thanks to all the first time winners. But none of them did particularly well, surprisingly. Except for one player: Christina Kim. Since the Solheim, Christina had not been doing all that well, but that all changed when she shot a 67 in the first round, then followed that with a second 67 to share the halftime lead with Rachel Hetherington. Both ladies were four shots ahead of the rest of the field, so it looked at first like it might be a match play situation on the weekend. But they both stalled on Saturday, and the rest of the field caught them. On Sunday, though, they reasserted themselves, and with a few holes to go, were again neck and neck duking it out for the title. Although Rachel nearly caught her, Christina hung on, thanks to a great lag putt on the 18th hole, to take her second career title. She joined a group featuring the Big Four and Gloria Park as the only Koreans with multiple wins on tour.

The final event of the LPGA season was the ADT Tour Championship. Annika had done very well at this event over the years, and looked to repeat. But Soo-Yun Kang and Hee-Won Han came darn close to stealing her thunder. Particularly Kang, who came into the final few holes just a shot behind Annika. She gave herself two good chances for birdie but made neither, and wound up tied for second. Still, a great way to end the season for Kang!

Over in Korea, the season ended with the ADT-CAPS Championship. Kyeong Bae was poised to break the all time record for most money won on the KLPGA tour in a season, a record held by (who else?) Se Ri Pak. But Bae needed to win this event to do it, and she came up a bit short, finishing third. That was still good enough to win the money title over Bo Bae Song, who needed to win herself to beat Bae (she finished tied with Bae in third). The winner was a player named Hae-Jong Kim, who was rewarded for her troubles with a hunk of granite. At least it looked like that!

At the end of the month, the Futures Tour had its annual qualifying tournament, Q-School. The winner, by a large margin, was a Korean amateur named Song Hee Kim. After a decent start, she shot 66 in round 2 and 63 in round 3. She end up winning the tournament by five shots at 18 under par, setting in the process the all time record for Q-School by nine shots. In third was another Korean amateur, Ha Na Chae, and two more Korean amateurs, Angela Park and In-Bee Park, finished fifth and sixth respectively. Looks like there will be some great representation by Korean amateurs on the Futures tour next year!

December

Soo-Yun practices at the Pinx

New LPGA star-to-be Na Ri Kim

Young Kim hosts the
KLPGA awards show

Jee Young Lee has a new sponsor...

And so does Meena Lee (on the right)

Player of the Month: Grace Park
Event of the Month: Pinx Cup

The Pinx Cup happens the first weekend in December every year, and pits the top golfers from Japan and Korea in team competition. This year, the event happened at the same time as LPGA Q-School, meaning two of the top Japanese players, Ai Miyazato and Shinobu Morimizato, were unable to play for Japan. However, owing to the way things had gone in 2005, Grace Park and Se Ri Pak were also not present to play for Korea (although Mi Hyun Kim got in as a wild card). Korea's captain this year was Soo-Yun Kang, a well deserved accolade after the great year she had had. But Kangsy made a major mistake right out of the gate when she drew straws to determine which of the 13 women on her team would sit out on day one. That player turned out to be Meena Lee, a player who under no circumstances should have sat out. The KLPGA's Kyeong Bae pulled her weight, winning her match, but both Bo Bae Song and Hee Young Park lost theirs. Only one of the Korean JLPGA players won, and when Gloria Park and Birdie Kim also lost, the Koreans found themselves in a deep hole.

Fortunately, Soo-Yun Kang, Kimmie and JJ all won their matches, which meant it all came down to Hee-Won Han on day one. She had a five foot birdie putt on the last hole to give Korea the lead. But she missed it, and thus the two teams were tied after the first day.

Which was fortunate, since the second day never happened. For the first time, snow (!) forced the cancellation of the second day of the Pinx Cup. Japan and Korea tied, also a first. Let's hope Korea can win it back in 2006!

Meanwhile, at Q-School, three Korean golfers earned exempt cards. Two of them had already been exempt on tour in 2005, but had lost their playing privileges due to poor play: Seol-An Jeon and Sae Hee Son. The third player was KLPGA starlet Na Ri Kim, who will be a rookie on tour in 2006. She also was the top finisher at the event among the Koreans, tying for 9th. The event was totally controlled by Miyazato, who beat the rest of the field by an astounding 12 shots. Perhaps it's just as well she wasn't at the Pinx Cup!

The next day, the KLPGA had its annual awards ceremony. Among those scoring trophies were Jeong Jang, awarded the Best Korean player on an international tour; Bo Bae Song, best Korean (domestic) and best scoring average; Kyeong Bae, money list winner; Ga Na Lee, shot of the year (a hole in one during her KLPGA win); Hee Young Park, rookie of the year; and Jin Joo Hong, best dresser. Co-hosting the event was Young Kim, who won the part in an audition when she proved more adept with a microphone than Hong. Young proved so popular as a host that internet search sites all over Korea showed a marked increase in traffic as fans tried to find photos of her in one of her two evening gowns from the night.

The next week, another new team event made its bow: the Lexus Cup, which pitted some of the top Asian players in the world from some of the top players from everywhere else. It sounded pretty lopsided, and indeed it was. Although captained by Grace Park, the Asian team was thoroughly outmatched and were easily beaten. In fact, on each day, the International squad made twice as many points as the Asians. Hopefully the Asians will either pick it up next year, or they will change the format to be a trifle more fair.

Hee Young Park ended her year in style with a second place finish at the Phuket Thailand Ladies Masters in Thailand. Meanwhile, Soo-Yun Kang was having fun: she had been hired by Woori Financial to be their spokesperson in a TV commercial, and she also appeared elsewhere promoting them.

December is also the time when new sponsor deals tend to be signed. Thus, Joo Mi Kim was released by her sponsor of three years, Hi-Mart, only to be snapped up by a new sponsor in early January, Hite Beer. Hi-Mart then signed Jee Young Lee as their new spokesperson. For a while, it looked like Jeong Jang might replace Mi Hyun Kim as a sponsoree of KTF (Kimmie's deal was about to expire), but Kimmie was resigned by the telecom giant in December. Joining her on the payroll is Meena Lee, which means that JJ is still without a sponsor. Meena and Birdie Kim, another sponsoree of KTF, showed up at a KTF event in late December and signed autographs for fans.

One more announcement shocked fans in December: Gloria Park told the press that she would soon be announcing her engagement. Will she become the second married young LPGA Korean on tour, or will she quit the tour once she ties the knot? Even she wasn't sure. But make sure to pay attention to the Korean golfers in 2006; you never know what might happen next!!