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2005 Safeway Classic
Gallery2, Gallery3, Gallery4, Results
Hole 14: This is a tricky par 4 with a very narrow fairway. Both ladies hit the fairway easily, but JJ hit a bad approach into the bunker. It kinda plugged there, and she didn't even get her third to the green. Her par save was about 15 feet, and was right on line, but stopped on the lip. Argh! Back to 6 under. Young hit a great approach to three feet, and MISSED THE PUTT! Made par, though. JJ 6 under (again tied for lead), YK 4 under.
Hole 15: This one was painful. Both ladies hit low shots into this green for some reason. Young's ran 8 feet past the hole, and not only did she miss the birdie, she missed the one foot par save. Hard to believe. JJ saved par easily. JJ -6, YK -3
Hole 16: A par 3 with an elevated green. JJ's shot went onto the fringe behind the green. From there she made the birdie! Sweet! Young had about a five footer, and she too made birdie. That's more like it! JJ -7, YK -4
Hole 17: This par 4 has the hardest green on the course. With three levels and massive slope, if you don't get the ball on the right level, you're in for a rough ride. Today the flag was on the middle level. Young hit the right level, but just the edge, and it rolled all the way back down. From there, she hit a pretty good first putt, but still couldn't save par. JJ hit the correct level and left herself with just a five footer. But no dice, she made par. JJ -7, YK -3
Hole 18: Man, it's hard to even recap this one. I'll start with
Young. She had a 12 footer, and just missed it. JJ missed the green, but
hit a masterful chip to about a foot and a half, then.... Oi. She lipped
out the par save. Then, faced with a similar length bogey putt, she lipped
that one out, too. Man o man. What a terrible disaster! To play so masterfully
all day, only to give two shots away for absolutely nothing. Still, she
finished with a 67, and Young with a 69. Both pretty strong rounds.
JJ drives in round 2
Young Kim during the pro-am
SeoulSisters.com exclusive photo
Hee-Won hit one great iron after another
on Friday
After this, I went to where I thought Se Ri was going to be, and... No Se Ri! I can't believe how hard it is to track that woman down. Later, I would discover that Se Ri had in fact dropped out of the event. Apparently her finger, which she injured in Britain at the British Open, was actually broken. She not only had to drop out of the Safeway, but will be sidelined for at least a month to recover. And doubtless she will not return, if she returns, in her best condition. Boy, it has been a miserable year for Se Ri Pak.
So, with Se Ri out of the picture, I next tracked down the defending
champion, Hee-Won Han, who was playing with Christina Kim. Like Jang,
Han was playing some great golf today. Could she put herself into contention
on this day when most everybody was shooting good scores? You bet your
sweet bippy she could!
Hee-Won's group started on the tenth tee. By the time I caught up with
them, they were finishing up their first nine holes. Hee-Won was already
at 4 under par, and the fun was just starting. Christina was one over,
and Juli Inkster was 2 over par.
Why was Han playing so well? It quickly became apparent when, on the first
hole, she hit a perfect drive, then nailed her approach shot to 6 inches.
Easy birdie, 5 under par. On 2, her tee shot landed near the pin but released,
and she made a dicey up and down which included a five foot par save.
While this was going on, yet another Korean was having her way with Columbia
Edgewater. Rookie Sung Ah Yim has not been super consistent in 2005, but
has shown she can play well enough to contend. A few weeks earlier, she
had nearly won the Jamie Farr Classic outright, just missing a birdie
putt on the final hole that would have sealed the deal. On this first
day, she was already at 7 under par, tied for the lead, after 11 holes.
I happened to see her play the 12th hole, where she nailed an 8 foot birdie
putt to go to 8 under and the outright lead. She would go on to play the
remaining holes in even par, and would hold a share of the lead by day's
end. As I walked back to catch up with Hee-Won, I passed Soo-Yun Kang.
She was in the group just behind Hee-Won, and was at 3 under herself.
But her best was yet to come on this day.
Found Gloria Park at the fifth green (a par 5), where she made a birdie
to move to 5 under. In the next group, Hee-Won's third shot landed right
next to the flag here, and she had a short birdie which she easily made
to move to 6 under. Christina, meanwhile, reached the green in two, just
missed her eagle and had to settle for birdie.
Gloria in round 1
(click to enlarge)
Christina during the pro-am
SeoulSisters.com exclusive photo
Han was not able to make a downhill 8 footer for birdie on 6, but Christina hit an iron to three feet and did make her birdie. On the par 5 7th, Christina sizzled with a second shot that landed no more than three feet from the hole. Virtually a tap in eagle, which she made. I wondered if she ought to consider changing her name to 'Eagle' Kim after that one. Hee-Won's second was just short, but her chip was gorgeous, hitting the hole and bouncing out. Easy two foot birdie to move to 7 under, with Christina at 3 under.
On the par 3 8th, Hee-Won hit yet another fantastic iron. I'm telling
you, this woman is one of the great unsung iron players in the league
when she is on. But alas, she did not make the short birdie, which would
have moved her into a tie for the lead at 8 under. Christina bogied. Meanwhile,
the leaderboard showed that Soo Yun Kang had also moved to 5 under, along
with Gloria and JJ. And Yim was at 8 under, Han at 7 under. The leaderboard
was littered with Korean players. I have never seen anything like it in
all the years I have watched LPGA golf. And it was only going to get better
as the week went on (or worse, depending on your point of view, I suppose).
I stayed to watch Soo-Yun play the 8th hole. She had just made an eagle
at 7 to move to 7 under, tied for 2nd. She hit a good iron to this hole
but was not able to make birdie. I then hurried down to watch Hee-Won's
final hole of the day. She made par. Next, Kang played her approach to
within about ten feet of the hole, then nailed the birdie to move to 8
under and a tie for the lead. She did a powerful double fist pump when
the ball sank, which provoked a nice rise from the crowd around the green.
Meg Mallon, her playing partner, gave her a nice hug afterwards.
Even when other players were in a position to keep up with the Seoul Sisters, strange things happened to them. I watched as Luciana Bemvenuti came into the 18th hole at 8 under par, only to put her approach into the water. As if her eventual double bogey weren't bad enough, she did an improper drop, a spectator saw it and told the officials, and she was penalized two more strokes. Instead of finishing the day tied for the lead, she ended up at 4 under par, 4 shots back. Ouch!
Just about the only Korean blooded golfer who didn't do too well on day one was high schooler Rebecca Kim, who struggled in her first LPGA round and finished with a 3 over par 75. But she certainly wasn't too disappointed, glad to even have had the opportunity to play against the best in the world.
Soo-Yun nails a birdie on hole 9 to move into a
tie for the lead
