Fairways and Greens

Eun Jung Lee at the Women's
Pub Links

US Amateur Public Links
Each year, this is one of the most prestigious amateur tournaments in the country. Two years ago, Michelle Wie became the youngest person in history to win the women's version of this event, and she lost in the finals last year to a relatively unknown Taiwanese golfer named Ya-Ni Tseng. This year, Michelle decided to skip the event; but that's because she wanted to play in the men's version of the event. The winner of that event traditionally gets offered an invitation into the Masters, and Michelle was aching to become the first woman to ever be given such an invitation.

But she left the women's event in good hands, for this year, a bunch of Korean and Korean American golfers made a strong showing. The event is played in two stages: first there is a stroke play stage. The top 64 players after this get paired and play rounds of match play until only one player is left standing.

After the stroke play was done in the women's Pub Links, two players were tied for best score. One of them was Angela Park, a 16 year old of Korean origin from Brazil who currently resides in California. Angela ended up being eliminated in the second round, however. But when the field was finally narrowed down to just four players, three of them were Asian, and two of them had Korean blood. One of them was Eun Jung Lee, a 17 year old from South Korea who lived in California during the summer months so as to compete in events like this one. The other was Jane Rah, a 14 year old whose previous claim to fame was qualifying to play in last year's Safeway Classic as a 13 year old. Lee and Rah played each other in the semifinals, and Lee beat her rather handily, 5 & 4. In the other semifinal, American Tiffany Chudy of Miramar, Florida, beat the defending champion Tseng 4 and 2.

So the final ended up being a battle between Lee and Chudy. The final was played on Saturday, July 16th, and was a 36 hole match consisting of a morning 18 and an afternoon 18 holes. In the morning, the match went totally Chudy's way. By the end of the first 18, she had a four hole lead on Lee, and looked to be in firm control. But in the afternoon, Lee started to turn things around. She made birdies on the 6th, 8th and 9th holes, and trimmed the deficit to 2 holes. But though she would cut it to one hole, Chudy fought back to win the 13th when Lee 3 putted this par 3 hole. But Lee still felt confident, and after they squared a few holes, Lee managed to win the 16th hole with a birdie from 12 feet, then squared the match on the last hole when Chudy missed a four foot par save. That meant extra holes to settle things, the first time this event had gone to more than 36 holes. Fortunately it didn't go much longer; on the first playoff hole, Chudy put her drive in trouble, and though she fought valiantly, she could not save par, and Lee won!

Meanwhile, Michelle Wie was keeping herself busy in the Men's Public Links. As the only girl (and youngest contestant) in the tournament, she struggled on day one, but played better on the second day and easily made the 64 player cut. She then managed to make it through three matches, some just barely and some easily, before finally losing in the quarterfinals. A pretty amazing feat, it was the first time in history that a female had ever made the 'cut' in a men's USGA event. She didn't make it to the end, but she showed that she's capable of it, which ought to worry her opponents in 2006!

This came just a week after Michelle played her third PGA event at the John Deere Classic in Illinois. She put herself into great position to make the cut, and by the middle of her second round, was several shots ahead of the cut. But she suddenly made a few severe mistakes, including a double bogey on the 6th hole (she had started on hole 10), and a bogey on 7, and just like that, ended up missing the cut by 2 shots. Still, it was another close call for the young teen, trying to become just the second living woman to make the cut in a men's professional golf tournament (after Se Ri Pak, who finished tenth at the SBS event in 2003).

Congrats! She got the trophy!

Michelle Wie

Rebecca Kim

Safeway Open winner Angela Kim
Each year, the organizers of the Safeway Classic hold an event called the Safeway Open. The winner of this event gets free entry into the LPGA's Safeway Classic in August. Last year, Jane Rah (whom I mentioned above) was the player who won this event. This year, 30 golfers participated, including amateur stars such as In-Bee Park and Jane Park, but the winner was a local girl: an Oregon High School Junior named Rebecca Kim. Rebecca had recently been on a hot streak, having won several prestigious amateur events previous to this, and she kept it up at the Open. She shot a one under par 70 despite a head cold; this consisted of six birdies, three bogies and a double bogey. Jane Park finished second with an even par 71, while In-Bee Park finished third at 72. Congratulations to Rebecca Kim!

In Bee Park at this year's Takefuji Classic

Seon-Hwa Lee with her trophy

Seon-Hwa Lee wins Futures Tour event, sets record
Seon-Hwa Lee is another of the many talented Korean teen players on the Futures Tour who is trying to get onto the LPGA tour in 2006. She made a big step towards that in the past few weeks. Last week she just missed out on her first win, finishing second to former NCAA and US Amateur champ Virada Nirapathpongporn at the CIGNA Chip In For A Cure Connecticut FUTURES Golf Classic. This allowed Nirapathpongporn to take over the lead on the money list from Lee and fellow Korean teen star Kyeong Bae.

The next week at the Albany Futures Golf Classic in Albany, New York, however, Lee didn't take any chances. She started the week with a 67 and didn't look back. In the second round, she shot a brilliant 66 to take a three shot lead. Then in round three, she went 6 under par - on the front nine. Her 29 left her at 15 under par with a commanding 8 shot lead. Though she would go one over on the back nine, she cruised to an easy 7 shot win. Her 14 under par total tied the all time Futures Tour record for 54 holes also held by Lorena Ochoa and Christina Kim (heard of them?). Further, because Nirapathpongporn finished 10th and Bae 5th, Lee was able to wrest control of the money list from both of them. She now has a roughly $3,000 lead over Nirapathpongporn and a $7,000 lead over Bae, who is in third. With a couple months to go in the season, she's looking good to get her exempt card next year for the LPGA tour.

Money List
Meena Lee has been the player of the last few weeks. After notching a runner-up finish at the HSBC Match Play Championship, she finished in the 30's the next week at the Farr. Undaunted, she rebounded to win the Canadian Women's Open. As a result, she moved from 45th on the money list all the way to 7th, just a few hundred dollars behind Birdie Kim for the top Korean position. Another rookie, Sung Ah Yim, carded her best finish of the year at the Farr; she just barely missed a birdie putt for the win. Meanwhile, the Big Four players, except for Hee-Won, continue to struggle to find their games. Se Ri was not even able to get a top ten at the Farr, a tournament she has won four times in the past. Kimmie has been steady but unremarkable.

The other player to watch is Gloria Park; she continues to put up good results, her most recent being her playoff loss at the Farr.