Safeway International Review

Each year, one of the most eagerly anticipated events on the LPGA calendar is the Safeway International (formerly known as the Standard Register Ping) in Phoenix, Arizona. This event manages to attract virtually every one of the top 100 players on the LPGA tour year in and year out, and with the addition of top sponsor exemptions like Michelle Wie, it tends to be one of the deepest fields the ladies will face all season. Combine that with the fact that it occurs the week before the year's first Major, and you have a recipe for excitement.

And, generally speaking, this is an event where the Korean ladies have shone. Two years ago, their performance here was the brightest in their history. Coming into the last round, Se Ri Pak was three shots behind Annika Sorenstam, and was also behind Karrie Webb. But she played an incandescently brilliant final round, so that, with a few holes left, she had a one shot lead. Her only competition? Grace Park, who herself was playing a masterful round. The two Korean superstars duked it out in one of their few mano-a-mano battles. Reaching the 17th hole with a one shot lead, Se Ri put her drive into the water, got her third shot onto the green, and was faced with a 45 foot par save. Miraculously, she made it, and went on to win the event by one shot after Grace just missed putting a wedge into the hole from 100 yards on 18. Whew!

Se Ri sinks a clutch putt on the way to winning
the 2003 Ping Banner Health

Shi Hyun meets the press at last year's
Safeway International

At last year's event, Se Ri was already starting to slump a bit, although she still put together a decent performance. The two Koreans who stood out that year were Grace Park, who managed a third place finish, and Shi Hyun Ahn, who played well enough to get into the final group on Sunday, only to let the pressure get to her on that day. She ended up fifth.

What a difference a year or two makes. Coming into this event, Se Ri Pak was struggling like she never had before. But her performance here was really not completely awful. On both of the first two days, she found herself two or three shots under par at one point during her round, only to suddenly lose confidence with her driver (again), and drop back to even par. She shot a 72-73 for those rounds and easily made the cut, although this left her 13 shots out of the lead held by Lorena Ochoa. On Saturday, she played only two holes before she suddenly quit, crippled by back spasms. So we'll never know if she was on the way to a good performance, or was destined to fall back in the pack like she has all year. Her playing partner that day, Christina Kim, suddenly found herself alone, and promptly shot a breezy 68 to move up the standings.

Shi Hyun Ahn, meanwhile, has struggled all year, and things did not change this week. She shot a 77-72 to miss the cut by two strokes. Her struggles would continue at the Nabisco, although at least there some light appeared at the end of the tunnel.

Grace Park lives in Phoenix when she is in the States, and has done so since she was a teenager. Nothing would make her happier than to win her hometown event. In 2003, she was so serious about this that she treated it like an 'away' event, not hanging out with her friends after her rounds but merely going back to her house afterwards to relax and prepare for the next day. It almost worked then, as only Se Ri's amazing par save prevented her from snatching the trophy. She was a little farther from the prize in 2004, but again, snagged a top three finish.

Alas, so far in 2005, Grace had really struggled with back troubles. It had started in Mexico, but even in Hawaii, before she had the injury, she was not exactly playing at her best. Still, by the time she reached Phoenix, things were dire. She was getting daily acupuncture and massage to deal with the pain, and had to skip the pro-am, something the ladies are only allowed to do once or twice a year. Through a series of Herculean efforts, Grace managed to not only play the first three days, but put herself into contention. After the second day, she was at 6 under par and tied for 5th, thanks largely to a great 5 under par 67 she managed on Friday. This still left her 6 back of Lorena Ochoa, but well positioned for a top five if things went well. On Saturday she struggled, but still managed to eke out a 73 to hold at a tie for 9th. But Sunday proved to be too much, and since she was more interested in defending her Nabisco championship than winning in Phoenix, reluctantly she joined Se Ri in dropping out of the event. That she was able to do so well with such crippling injuries was a testament to her incredible will and talent, but sometimes even those things aren't enough to make the difference.

Grace Park finished third last year

Kangsy shone early. Here she is during
round 3

The surprise Korean achiever of the week was not Hee-Won Han, who had already collected two top five finishes in her first two starts (she would finish a respectable 20th place this week). It was Soo-Yun Kang. Kangsy got out of the gate well with a top notch 68 that left her three shots out of the lead. But in the second round, she hit her stride, at one point draining several consecutive birdies to vault up the leaderboard. By the end of her round she was in the lead, shooting a 6 under par 66 that also proved to be the lowest round of the day. But in the afternoon wave, Lorena Ochoa, who had started the day with a three shot lead on Kang, herself had an excellent 5 under par 67, good enough to maintain a two shot lead over Kang going into the weekend.

Soo Yun hung tough on Saturday, although things were not going her way. She gutted out a two under par round to move to 12 under par for the week, now just one shot behind Ochoa, and three shots ahead of the next player in the field, Annika Sorenstam. Indeed, she had a chance to tie Ochoa on the final hole, but just missed a five foot birdie putt, slapping her thigh in frustration as the putt skidded past the hole.

But Kang's problem when she's been in this position in the past was that she would completely lose it on Sunday, ballooning to a high score and falling out of contention. Last year, she had two good chances to win an event going into Sunday, and both times shot high scores that knocked her down to 8th or 9th place. Could she avoid that happening again?

Not this week. Kang immediately got off to a horrible start on Sunday with a bogey on the first hole, and continued to rack up bogies as time went on. By the 9th hole on Sunday, the event had become a two person race, and Soo Yun was not one of those persons - Ochoa and Sorenstam were. Although she improved on the back nine, she was still not able to make a birdie, missing several short opportunities.

Finally, she came into the par 5 18th hole. She still had not made a birdie all day, and was now two shots out of third place. She had about 60 yards to the hole, and hit a short wedge. Blam! The ball went right into the cup, not even a bounce! The crowd went wild, and Soo Yun had her first chance to smile all day. Her eagle on 18 meant that she still did not manage a birdie all day, but at least this time, her final round collapse did not cost her a good finish; she ended up third. Clearly, Soo Yun has the talent to win an event on tour; but she needs, like Mi Hyun Kim, to get better at handling the pressure when she gets into a position to win. The way she played in Phoenix leads you to believe she'll have a few more chances this year to prove herself; hopefully the next time, she'll be ready!

Soo Yun takes a peek at the ball during
round 4