Michelob Ultra Open Special Report

HOLE 9 - Par 4 - Drives off the tee, finds the center of the fairway. Approach shot is on the green, falling about 10-12 feet short of the pin. First putt misses about 4 inches left, and ran about a foot past the hole. Taps in for par. [4/7 fairways, 5/9 GIR, 17 putts]

HOLE 10 - Par 4 - Drives off the tee and goes right again, about 5 yards off the fairway, with no obstructions in her way. Second shot gets her out of the rough, but is well short of the green. Third shot is a pitch shot, which falls short and barely makes it to the collar of the green. First putt from the collar is 4-5 feet short. She makes the 4 footer for bogey. [4/8 fairways, 5/10 GIR, 19 putts]

HOLE 11 - Par 4 - To the right off the tee again, into the rough near a tree. Second shot gets to the green, but released and ran to the collar on the back of the green, again robbing her of a GIR. She two putts for par. [4/9 fairways, 5/11 GIR, 21 putts]

HOLE 12 - Par 4 - She hit driver off the tee, and finds the center of the fairway. Approach shot lands on the green, about 10-12 feet from the pin. First putt a little weak, ending up about a foot short. She taps in for par. [5/10 fairways, 6/12 GIR, 23 putts]

Scott took this pic of Se Ri after her second
round. She doesn't seem too distraught!
SeoulSisters.com photo by Scott Sturycz

Happier times: Se Ri wraps up the win at
last year's Michelob Ultra

HOLE 13 - Par 3 - She hits the left side of the green from the tee, but it bounces hard and ends up in the first cut just past the collar off the left of the green. She putts from the first cut, and it curled left and ended up about 2 feet short. She tapped in for par. [5/10 fairways, 6/13 GIR, 25 putts]

HOLE 14 - Par 4 - She hit 5 wood off the tee, and finds the fairway. Approach shot lands on the green, about pin high, 12 feet or so to the left. She makes the 12 foot birdie putt. [6/11 fairways, 7/14 GIR, 26 putts]

HOLE 15 - Par 5 - She hit her driver a mile, but it landed in the fairway and ran off the left side near some pine straw at the base of a tree in the rough. Second shot goes too far right and ends up in the rough as well. Her third shot falls about 5 yards short of the front of the green. She chipped up for her fourth shot, and ran it about 7 feet past the hole. Par attempt goes about 3 feet past the hole on the comeback putt. Makes the 3 footer for bogey. [6/12 fairways, 7/15 GIR, 28 putts]

HOLE 16 - Par 4 - Long tee shot, finding the middle of the fairway. Her approach shot went a little left, bounced on the fairway between two greenside bunkers, and landed on an upslope in the front of the back left greenside bunker. She chipped up, and then two putted for bogey again. [7/13 fairways, 7/16 GIR, 30 putts]

HOLE 17 - Par 3 - Flag is far back right of the green. Se Ri gets on in one, but is up in the front of the green, about 50 feet or so from the pin. Good lag putt leaves her about 4 feet short of the hole. Made the par putt. [7/13 fairways, 8/17 GIR, 32 putts]

HOLE 18 - Par 4 - Off the tee she ends up on the right side of the fairway. Approach shot is on the green, about 7-8 feet left, and 2-3 feet past the hole. First putt misses just to the right of the hole, and runs 3 feet past. She made the 3 footer for par. [8/14 fairways, 9/18 GIR, 34 putts]

She seemed to be in pretty good spirits throughout the round. You could see a little disappointment on her face after a couple of the really bad shots, but none of the real anger or disgust that she showed last year when she missed shots at the same event. Plus, when she came out, she took a LOT of time to sign autographs for people, and take a picture or two. She didn't look overly upset at all. I'm wondering if she's almost resigning herself to accepting these kinds of results. Her whole immediate family was there as well (Mom, Dad, and both sisters). Dad obviously wasn't ecstatic about the performance, but he also didn't seem overly upset with her (at least not publicly). The family was very nice, chatting with other fans that followed Se Ri through the round.

Se Ri is still popular with the fans. Here she poses for a shot
with two lucky fans.
SeoulSisters.com photo by Scott Sturycz

Hopefully we'll soon be seeing Se Ri smiling like
this again!

Thanks for the report, Scott! It sounds like Se Ri is at the state I pretty much expected her to be in: she's still hitting her share of good shots, but is also making a lot more mistakes than before. And you're not going to have a good day on the course when you hit 34 putts, no matter how many fairways or greens you hit. What's most encouraging is that she didn't seem to have too many of those really wild drives in this round, the kind that have been haunting her all year (fan reports I have received from earlier in the year talk of her hitting drives that not only miss the fairway, but miss it by 40 to 50 yards to the right or left; in this round, it seems she only had one stinker like that). And best of all, she's not skulking around the course in frustration and anger at her performance. She has enough troubles right now without beating herself up all the time.

I don't know how much longer Se Ri will be going through this phase, but hopefully she knows that she has a lot of fans wishing her all the best, win or lose. To which I can only add, Go Se Ri!