Fairways and Greens

Kyeong Bae reads a putt in
Laconia

Futures Tour update: Bae wins in NH, Yoo in Morgantown; Lee wins bonus prize
As the Futures Tour season is winding down, the Korean ladies, who have been really consistent all years, are starting to ramp it up. At stake are five exempt cards for the 2006 LPGA season, and now three Koreans could potentially grab them.

A few weeks ago (July 22 - 24), the Laconia Savings Bank FUTURES Golf Classic was held in Laconia, NH. By the end of the second round, it looked as if another Korean player, Bo Mi Suh, was going to break through. She sat at 8 under par, and held a two shot lead over American Meredith Duncan and a four shot lead over previous tour winner and fellow Korean Kyeong Bae. But Bae received a little advice from her mother the night before the final round: 'Just trust yourself'. Bae's mother, a former world class table tennis player, had just arrived from Korea a few days earlier to watch her daughter compete.

Apparently, the advice worked. But at first, it still looked as though Suh might walk away with the prize. Alas, she struggled with her approach shots all day, and was forced repeatedly to gut out par saves to keep in contention. At one point, she, Seon-Hwa Lee (the top Korean on the Futures tour, and #1 ranked player), Bae and Kristy McPherson were all tied for the lead at 7 under. But McPherson missed two short par putts late, and Lee lipped out a birdie putt on 18. Bae, meanwhile, bogied 15, but came back with a birdie on 16 to regain a tie for the lead. She alone could prevent Suh from claiming her first win.

But then Bae bogied 17, giving Suh a one shot lead with one hole to play. It looked like smooth sailing for Bo Mi Suh, but Suh ended up in the trees with her drive on 18. She punched out and hit her approach to three feet. Bae, meanwhile, hit the middle of the fairway, hit her approach to 27 feet, then hit a spectacular birdie putt to put the pressure on Suh. And Suh, who had been making great par saves all day, amazingly missed the knee knocker, handing Kyeong Bae her second win of the year. This moved her to #2 on the money list behind Seon-Hwa Lee.

A few weeks later, after a couple of events where the top Koreans made top tens but did not contend, the tour played the Betty Puskar FUTURES Golf Classic in Morgantown, West Virginia. This is an event that Jimin Kang won last year en route to her finish atop the Futures Tour money list. This week, after two rounds, it was an 18 year old Korean rookie named Sun Young Yoo who found herself tied for the lead at 8 under heading into the final round. Yoo had been playing strongly all year, totaling 8 top tens coming into this week. In Morgantown, she impressed everyone on tour with her steadiness in the final round, following bogies immediately with birdies to keep her eyes on the prize. She got out to a great start with five birdies and two bogies in the first nine holes to take a two shot lead at the turn. From there, things got a little dicier, but she maintained her cool just like a pro. She bogied the 10th, but birdied the 16th, then made a tricky par save on 17 before putting the event away with a short birdie on 18 for a two shot win over American Brandi Jackson and a three shot margin over Korean Seon-Hwa Lee (no wonder Lee is the top player... she always contends!).

Yoo now moves into fourth on the money list with just two events to go to determine the five exempt cards for 2006. The list now consists of Lee at $54,259, Kyeong Bae 2nd with $45,419, Virada Nirapathpongporn just behind her at $45,128, and Yoo in 4th at $38,692. With the 6th place player at $33,650, Yoo just needs to play decently in the last two events to secure her card.

Seon-Hwa Lee has collected another prize on tour. She is the winner of the CHAMP Spikes Northeast challenge. CHAMP Spikes gives bonus money to the players who play the best, while using their product, at the four Futures Tour events played in the northeast of the US. Lee won the $1,000 top prize, while Sun Young Yoo (remember her?) collected a tie for fourth, worth $150. Congratulations!

For more details:

Bae wins in Laconia

Yoo wins in Morgantown

Jimin Kang won the Betty Puskar in 2004

Sun Young Yoo with her
trophy at the Betty Puskar
event

Jane Park defended her title at the
US Women's Amateur

US Women's Amateur
Although the Korean ladies dominated this year's US Girls' Junior (see story elsewhere this issue), and won the Amateur Pub Links, they did not do so well at the top amateur event on the schedule, the US Women's Amateur.

The news was good to start the week. In-Kyung Kim, coming off her win at the Girls, had the lowest two day score in the stroke play portion of the event, thus earning medalist honors and the top seed. Jennie Lee, who also did well at the Girls event, finished tied for second.

In-Kyung made it to the quarterfinals by defeating the defending champion Jane Park in 20 holes. This was even more indication that Kim was for real and a serious threat to win it all. But Jane Rah, the youngster who qualified for last year's Safeway Classic, pulled the upset of the day by beating In-Bee Park in the second round, 4 and 3. Rah then lost to Morgan Pressel in the next round.

The tournament ended for Kim in the next round, at the hands of Angela Park. Park, who claimed she had never putted this well in her entire life, was just too much for Kim, beating her 3 and 2. Though this got her into the semifinals, she was the last Korean left, and she fell easily to Morgan Pressel in the next round. Pressel went on to win her first USGA trophy by trouncing the other finalist Maru Martinez.

Speaking of In-Bee Park...
The commissioner of the LPGA has ruled on In-Bee Park's petition to join the LPGA tour early. He has decided to reject it outright. Apparently, he felt that she did not yet possess the requisite experience on the LPGA tour to get early admission to the tour. Of course, this is the ultimate Catch-22 situation. In-Bee and her coaches tried repeatedly to get sponsor's exemptions to various events, but the sponsors turned her down. Pressel and Wie, meanwhile, managed to get their maximum allotment of exemptions. When Park did get into fields (three times total), she managed to play quite well. In fact, she notched two top tens in those three events, and was in contention to win at the first one (and had an outside chance of capturing the second one). Meanwhile, how many top tens did Pressel manage, other than her admittedly fantastic second place tie at the recent US Women's Open? I doubt her percentage was as impressive as Park's.

As well, In-Bee had a pretty fine amateur record, close to as impressive as Pressel's, which included the win at the US Girls' Junior, two other runner up finishes there, and a few great runs at the US Women's Amateur.

If maturity is the question, again, it's hard to see how Pressel trumps Park. Park, after all, had to leave her homeland and move to a foreign country to continue her golfing career. She has always conducted herself with class and dignity, even in the face of defeat. She is not known for emotional outbursts like Pressel.

At least Pressel is able to go to Q-School in the Fall. Votaw's decision means that In-Bee will not be able to do even that, and thus cannot even qualify for the tour until 2006 Q-School (to get a 2007 card). It's not clear if she can choose to play on the Futures Tour next year, or if, in fact, she will even decide to go pro until next year.

More and more, it seems that there is a level of arbitrariness in these decisions that is increasingly troubling.

In-Bee Park at this year's US Girls' Junior
Championship

Christina Kim

Hole in one bonus pool on LPGA
Apparently, there is a new bonus pool on the LPGA tour that has been kept relatively quiet; and this bonus pool is led by two Korean players!

The “Three Simple Strokes Challenge” is a bonus payout program sponsored by Schick Intuition, the official razor of the LPGA. Any golfer who can collect three holes-in-one in official LPGA tournament rounds by the end of the season will win a $300,000 bonus check, the largest bonus ever given on the LPGA tour. Christina Kim notched her second hole-in-one of the year at the Weetabix Women's British Open. The other player on tour with two holes-in-one is rookie Sung Ah Yim, who got her two aces at the Corona Morelia Championship and the Corning Classic. At least two other Koreans have one ace this year: Gloria Park, who made one at the LPGA Championship, and of course Jimin Kang, whose ace helped her to win the Corning Classic.

Se Ri's homepage
Se Ri Pak has recently become a web master! She has put her own homemade webpage up on a Korean language website. If you want to check it out, click the link below. If you don't see Se Ri's website, you may have to turn off your pop-up blocker to get it to appear. Yes, it's in Korean, but there are some mighty cool photos of Se Ri here. See Se Ri and Birdie Kim go fishing, and check out what kind of meal she eats when she goes to Cheesecake Factory! You must not miss it!

Se Ri's Homepage

Money List
Jeong Jang leaps to the top of the Korean heap with her brilliant victory at the Women's British Open. She at last breaks through with a win on tour, and has now established herself as one of the truly great Korean players in the world. Meena Lee missed the cut at the British, but her top five finish at the Evian allowed her to move ahead of Birdie Kim into 7th on the money list.

Also making nice moves this week are Young Kim, who had her best ever LPGA finish at the British, a tie for third; and Christina Kim, who was solid at the Evian and shot the low round of the day on Sunday at the British.

Meanwhile, Kimmie missed another British Open cut; it seems like this is the only event she ever misses the cut at anymore; she also missed the cut here last year. Hee-Won Han also missed the cut, a rare event for her, but Grace Park managed her first top ten in months thanks to a great Sunday rally. The woes continued for Se Ri, who dropped out of a Major for the first time in her career owing to a finger injury. She only made it through nine holes on Thursday before quitting. Since she did not attend the Evian, she made no money this period.