2006 Florida's Natural Charity Championship

In the first six events of the 2006 season, the Korean golfers have made an indelible mark on the LPGA tour. They won the first two events, in both cases in playoffs involving two Korean players. They had their chances to win the next four events as well, but each time were just shut out at the last minute. Coming into the seventh event of the year, Koreans occupied 9 of the top 20 spots on the money list.

One of the more interesting coincidences is that the two Korean golfers who won those first two events were both second year players: Joo Mi Kim and Meena Lee. One of the golfers who contended for a while at the event Kim won was yet another second year golfer, Sung Ah Yim. Yim would fade in the end, and Kim, a golfer whose career in many ways paralleled Yim's, would go on to take the trophy. It was not the first time their paths had crossed. Both, as mentioned a moment ago, were second year players. Both were 21 years old. And weirdly, both had scored their most recent top five finishes at the same event, the 2005 Safeway Classic, where Yim finished 5th and Kim 4th. And they both had finished nearly identically on the money list in 2005, with Yim gaining a slight edge by finishing 43rd to Kim's 50th place showing.

Previous to Joo Mi's win, Yim had come closer to getting a win than Kim had. The event had been the 2005 Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic. Coming into the last hole, Yim only needed a birdie on the final par 5 to win the event outright. However, she not only missed that putt, she also missed the par save, and thus failed to qualify for the playoff eventually won by American golfer Heather Bowie. Now her good friend Kim won her first good chance to get a trophy and had 'one up' on Yim. But Yim would get a chance to even the score in their friendly rivalry soon enough.

The seventh event of the 2006 LPGA season was the yearly stop in Atlanta, Georgia. For several years, this event was sponsored by Chick-Fil-A, a fast food chain, and was presented by LPGA Hall-of-Famer Nancy Lopez, who lives in the area and who had won her 48th and final LPGA event at this tournament in 1997. Under the name the Chick-Fil-A Charity Championship, Se Ri Pak had won the event in 2003, outlasting Australian Shani Waugh in a memorable four hole playoff. The next year, several Korean golfers had a shot at the trophy, including Se Ri, who had to settle for a good finish following a final hole eagle, and Mi Hyun Kim, who had the lead coming into the final few holes, but squandered it, allowing Filipina golfer Jennifer Rosales to capture her first LPGA victory. In 2005, Annika Sorenstam, who was playing arguably the best golf of her life, won the event with laughable ease by ten shots.

But as the 2006 event approached, Chick-Fil-A decided to abandon their sponsorship. The people who ran the event struggled to find someone else to pay the bills, and in the eleventh hour, an orange juice company named Florida's Natural signed to pick up the tab. Thus you had the weird confluence of a Georgia golf tournament called Florida's Natural. But hey, anything that allowed the tournament to continue was fine with the LPGA! One unfortunate byproduct of all the last minute negotiations was that the tour was not able to secure television coverage for the event. It thus became the first LPGA event of 2006 with no television coverage whatsoever.

Regardless of that, Annika was returning to defend her title, but she had not been at her usual early season best in 2006. She had won the first tournament she played this year, the MasterCard Classic, although by only a shot over rookie Seon Hwa Lee. But she had not been much of a factor at either the Safeway International or the Nabisco; the latter event she had won by nine shots in 2005. So doubtless she was really hankering to get back to her winning ways at this event.

And she wasted little time getting going. In round one, Annika shot a 6 under par 66 that left her just one shot out of the lead after the first day. Generally speaking, when that happens, she's a pretty good bet to contend, if not outright win. But several other stars made their presence felt as well, including Cristie Kerr, who shot a 65 on the first day and who had already notched several top tens in 2006; Karrie Webb, fresh from winning the first Major of the year (she shot a 67); Juli Inkster, who herself had won just a few weeks earlier (she also shot 67); and young American star Natalie Gulbis, who had knocked on the door of her first win all year, and who also shot 67.

Notably absent from the top of the leaderboard were the Koreans. In fact, no Korean was in the top ten after day one. The Koreans who had managed the best first rounds were Jee Young Lee, Meena Lee, Young Kim and the aforementioned Sung Ah Yim. All four ladies shot 4 under par 68s and sat in a tie for 12th. Four more Koreans, including Jeong Jang, were at 3 under. Fortunately there were still three days to go, and these women were close enough that they still had a chance to get back into the event if they played well.

If the saying 'what a difference a day makes' were ever true, it was true on Friday, day two of the tournament. The Koreans had played well on day one, but despite that had failed to challenge for the lead. On day two, several Korean golfers shot lights out golf and climbed to the top of the leaderboard. In just one day, the event went from being one of the most disappointing for the Koreans in 2006 to potentially the greatest.

One of the first Koreans to make a splash in the morning session was Sung Ah Yim. Yim had been having a decent season up to this point in 2006, but had not yet had a truly great event (although, as mentioned before, she had come close with a decent showing at the SBS Open). After that top ten, however, she had a few missed cuts and a few middle of the pack finishes. But she had shot a respectable first round 68 here, and in round 2, she improved on that immensely. She got out to a great start with an eagle on the par 5 sixth hole. She would go out in 4 under par. On the back nine, the good play continued, as Yim made a 15 foot birdie putt on 12, a three foot birdie on the par 5 13th, a four foot birdie on 14, and a three footer on the final hole. Her final tally of 8 under par 64 vaulted her to 12 under for the tournament and the lead. After her round, she revealed that she had not really practiced all that much in the off-season (unusual for a Korean!) because she had been attending University. She will be graduating this year, though, and if this round is any indication, it looks like she has found a good profession to take on after finishing school.

But Yim wasn't the only Korean kicking butt this morning. Starting about an hour later, rookie Jee Young Lee soon had her own magnificent round going. The rookie had already shown she could play on the LPGA by winning the CJ 9 Bridges Classic in 2005 before she was even a member of the tour (in fact, it was this win that got her onto the tour in the first place). She had had a decent rookie campaign up to this event, but it had paled in comparison to that of fellow Korean (and fellow Lee) Seon Hwa Lee. Jee Young hadn't yet scored a top ten, but had a 22nd and a 15th place finish on her resume in 2006. At the previous event, the Takefuji Classic in Las Vegas, she had managed her best finish of the season yet, a 13th. Jee Young continued that streak by compiling a 7 under par 65 on this day. Since she started the morning at 4 under, like Sung Ah had, she ended up the day at 11 under in solo second place.

And the Koreans were still not done. In the afternoon session, another Korean star grabbed the spotlight, only this one was a little more veteran than the morning stars: Hee-Won Han. Hee-Won has the capability to get on a roll, and when she does, she can put up some truly gaudy numbers. She did just such a thing on her front nine. She made birdies on her first two holes, then birdied 4 (thanks to a chip-in), 5, 6, 8 and 9 for good measure. By the time she was done with her front nine, she was a stunning 7 under par for her round. Her 29 was the lowest nine hole score anyone had shot all year. Alas, she was not able to keep it going on the back nine, making two birdies and one bogey on that side. Still, her 8 under par 64 tied Yim for the lowest score of the day, and moved Hee-Won to 10 under for the event and a tie for third. So just like that, the three Korean stars had moved to the top of the leaderboard and insured an all Korean final group on Saturday.

Several other Korean golfers had good days, though not quite in the same league as those three. Jeong Jang notched a 68 to move to -7, while Meena Lee's 69 also put her at that score. This score positioned them in a tie for 12th. At 6 under total were Christina Kim and Sun Young Yoo, a rookie who made her first cut of the year here by shooting back to back 69s. A shot further back were Young Kim, Mi Hyun Kim and another rookie, Kyeong Bae.