Franklin American Mortage Championship Review

The Franklin American Mortgage Championship is a relatively new event, but the LPGA has a long tradition of playing in Nashville, Tennessee, where the Franklin is held. For years, the sponsor company of the event was Sara Lee, but a few years ago, they decided reluctantly to pull out of the event. Enter Franklin, which stepped in to create a new event in the area. Last year's edition of the tournament was attended by only a few of the top players in the league, owing to where it fell on the calendar, but this year, it attracted many of the top players, including a full complement of Seoul Sisters.

The big news among those players was the return, after a layoff of a month, of the top two Korean players, Grace Park and Se Ri Pak. Se Ri, indeed, had not intended originally to go to this event, but felt antsy to return to playing. She and Grace had both been missing in action since the Nabisco Championship in late March (although Grace had played the Tiger Skins Game in mid-April for charity). How would their return to LPGA golf go?

Se Ri Pak returned to action this week.
Still struggling, though.

Grace drives it in round 1

For Grace, things started off fine with a two under par 70, the second best score shot on that day (the leader, Kris Tschetter, shot a 3 under par 69). But Se Ri struggled mightily. Much like last year, when she came back to the Samsung after five weeks off and played horribly, she struggled intensely in this first round, eventually carding an 81, one of the worst scores of her career. She would, predictably, go on to miss the cut by quite a bit after following that performance with a much better but still unspectacular 73. All the old problems were still there, including her inability to hit fairways.

After two rounds, the Korean who was doing the best was Hee-Won Han. She shot two solid rounds and found herself at 4 under par, only a shot out of the lead. Jeong Jang and Grace Park were at 3 under, and looked poised to make a run on the weekend. Among the rookies, Young Jo found herself at even, five shots back, Sung Ah Yim at 2 over par, and Joo Mi Kim at 3 over.

What's happened in most of the events this year is that one or two players have distanced themselves from the rest of the field, so that the Korean players, even if they were playing well, never had much of a shot at the win. The same thing happened this week. This time, it was American up and coming player Stacey Prammanasudh who established a large lead. After two solid opening rounds she shot a 65 in the third round that put her well ahead of most of the field.

The Koreans were not able to keep up. Christina Kim had one of her few good rounds so far in 2005, and moved up to 6 under par. Jang and Grace were both solid and shot identical 70s to move to 5 under. Young Kim positioned herself for yet another good finish with a one under that left her in a tie for 13th. But Hee-Won Han struggled to a 3 over par 75, dropping down the leader board. And Joo Mi Kim sat in 20th, with a real shot at her first top 20 of her young LPGA career.

Sunday went much as you would expect. Prammanasudh played well, making relatively few mistakes, and won without too much trauma. The Koreans all pretty much belly flopped. Both Grace and JJ shot over par rounds, the only two players who finished in the top ten to do so (it seems to be happening a lot this year that the Koreans play badly on Sunday. They seem to be in a collective slump, not just Se Ri). They still snagged 10th and 9th place, respectively, but should have finished better. Thankfully, Christina Kim refused to say die, and after a so so front nine, blistered the back with a number of great irons and putts. On one hole, her putt very nearly lipped out, but fell in at the last minute. She comically put her hand to her mouth, cracking up the gallery. She knew she got away with one there! On the final hole, she went for the green on the par 5, set up an eagle try, but just missed it. Grace, who was in her group, was off the green, but her eagle try stopped half a roll away from falling. It was one of her few highlights of the day.

Grace in round 2

Hee-Won in round 2

Joo Mi Kim is slowly getting used
to the States, but she's still 100% Korean

Meanwhile, Joo Mi Kim struggled somewhat, carding a 73 that left her just outside of the top 20. Still, her 23rd place finish was her new best, and showed that she is starting to become acclimated to playing in America. Young Kim just missed her chance to score another top twenty, also finishing in 23rd after shooting a three over par 75.

So Sunday was a bit of a letdown, but the Koreans still put a lot of players in the top 25, and kept up, for at least one more week, their trend of placing at least one player in the top five every event (this time, it was Christina, whose final hole birdie gave her a 9 under total and tie for third).