Jinnie from the Block

After one has watched the Korean golfers in action long enough, it is easy to assume that the country has produced nothing but phenomenal players. Any leaderboard on the LPGA tour is bound to be dotted with Kims, Parks and Lees, as well as the occasional Kang, Han or Ahn. But in fact, The Korean golf boom encompasses players from all skill levels. There are the Major winners like Jeong Jang; the Hall of Famers like Se Ri Pak; the super skilled and steady like Hee-Won Han; the rookie sensations like Seon Hwa Lee. But there are also great players trying to break through to the next level, like Young Kim; veterans trying to find consistency, like Il Mi Chung; and players working hard just to keep their tour cards, like Seol-An Jeon.

Ji Yeon Lee, or Jinnie as she is sometimes known, is one of those journeymen players on the LPGA. She joined the tour in 2003, but during most of that time has been a conditional player who has had to fight hard to even get into fields. She turned pro in late 2001 and played the Futures Tour in 2002, but did not play well enough there to earn an LPGA tour card. At the end of that year, she qualified for the LPGA as a conditional player, but did not play the tour at all in 2003. Rather, she worked on her game some more, returning to Q-School in late 2003 to see if she could get an exempt card there. It didn't happen, and so in 2004, she played the tour as a non-exempt player. She didn't earn her exempt card on playing tour that year (she finished 140th on the money list), so once again returned to Q-School in 2004. This time she wound up 25th in that tournament, and after a playoff won a coveted exempt card for the 2005 season. But the best finish she had in 19 starts was a tie for 16th, and she only made 6 cuts that year. So once again, she was forced back to Q-School, and this time she was only able to earn non-exempt status. Such is the life of a lower tier player in professional golf. While the top players jet around the world, earning lucrative endorsements, the majority of golfers struggle from week to week just to get by.

In 2006, Lee has not played a lot of events. But in the events she has played, her results have been a bit better than her norm. This has been the year of the Lees in some ways, as profiled in this magazine's second issue. Seon Hwa Lee, of course, has dominated the Rookie of the Year race to date with one top 20 finish after another (not to mention three second place finishes). Meena Lee has already won a tournament, the Fields Open in Hawaii. Sarah Lee came close to joining her when she finished second at the Safeway International after leading most of the year. And Jee Young Lee, another rookie, who got onto tour in the first place by winning an event in 2005, has had a solid rookie campaign to date, which included a recent top ten finish at the Michelob Ultra Open.

The weakest of the Lees in terms of performance has been Jinnie. Besides her non-exempt status, she has other disadvantages. Standing barely five feet tall, she does not have the power of Jee Young or Sarah. Short players usually make up for their height with accuracy and superlative short game. She certainly has the former wrapped up: she is usually in the top ten in driving accuracy, hitting over 80% of her fairways. But her short game is definitely not in the same league as Meena Lee's, who is also a short and accurate driver. Even her name makes it hard to stand out on tour; there are actually three JY Lees on the LPGA in 2006 (although Sarah Lee has changed her name to 'Sarah' to stand out from that crowd). Ji Yeon sounds a lot like Jung Yeon or Jee Young, the other two JY Lees on tour.

But perhaps the Lee mojo has rubbed off on her a bit. She started the season decently with a 46th place finish at the MasterCard Classic in Mexico. But at the Takefuji Classic, the next event she was able to attend, she finished 17th, one of the best finishes of her career. It's a mark of how tough it is for a non-exempt player that she was only able to get into two fields in the first two months of the season. She did play the next week as well, though she only finished 77th there. Still, a paycheck is better than a missed cut.

So Lee was playing well by her standards. There was no indication, however, that she was about to take her game to the next level. But that's exactly what happened when she attended the Franklin American Mortgage Championship in Nashville, Tennessee. This event is one of the less popular on tour, allowing non-exempt players a chance to play to replace the stars that don't show up. It hasn't been particularly good to the Korean players over the year; a Korean has never won it. And with most of the Korean stars skipping the week, it didn't look likely that that trend would change in 2006.

But one star who was in the field was Grace Park. Grace has had flashes of her old brilliance in 2006, but by and large it has been a tough slog for the world's former #2 golfer. But on the first day she came out firing and produced a 6 under par 66 that put her near the top of the leaderboard. She had done the same thing at the first event of the year, but proceeded to fade after that. Hopefully things would go differently for her this time. Her round consisted of seven birdies and one bogey. The damp conditions definitely played in her favor; they made the course play longer, and Grace, who not only hits the ball long but high as well, is a player who is relatively unaffected by wet fairways. Although she still wasn't driving the ball that confidently, everything else seemed to make up for it. If there was a Korean in the field who had the experience and talent to win this, it had to be Grace. But there was a lot of golf yet to be played.

Several other Koreans did well on day one. Young Kim shot a 5 under par 67. Young seems to be in the habit of putting herself in contention, then fading a bit at the end of the week. Perhaps this would be the week she ended that trend. Another player who had struggled a lot in 2006, even more than Grace, was Gloria Hee Jung Park. Gloria was not even in the top 100 on the money list thanks to her disastrous play to date. But on this day, she shot a 4 under par 68 to put herself on the leaderboard. Rookies Kyeong Bae and Sun Young Yoo both shot 69s to finish tied for 17th.

Then there was Jinnie Lee, who shot a 4 under par 68 to tie for 11th. It was one of the best rounds of the year for the young player, but previous results indicated that her success was not to last. But previous results can be wrong, and on Friday, Jinnie duplicated her feat with another 68 to move to 8 under total. Suddenly, she went from being a well placed Korean on the leaderboard to the top Korean. The leaders were playing well, though, and the top player, Angela Stanford, had pulled out to 12 under. If Jinnie were going to contend, she would have to continue playing at the same high level.

The other Korean ladies by and large did not keep pace. Grace Park followed her wonderful first round with a disappointing even par 72. She still sat at 6 under, but was now 6 shots out of the lead. Still, with two full rounds to go, that was not a bad place to be. Rookie Sun Young Yoo, who had not had a very good rookie year to date, followed her first round 69 with another 69 to join Grace at 6 under. Young Kim also shot a 69 to join Jinnie Lee as the top Korean on the leaderboard at 8 under. Gloria Park also shot a 72, just like Grace, and sat at 4 under total. Still a fairly decent result for the struggling star, considering all the missed cuts she had endured to that point in 2006.