Fairways and Greens

Joh captures US Women's Public Links Championship
The US Women's Amateur Pub Links Championship is one of the most prestigious women's amateur golf tournaments in the country each year. It has been the site of a lot of history for Korean and Korean American women. Back in 1988, Pearl Sinn (pictured) managed a rare double when she won this event and the US Women's Amateur in the same season. She then repeated as the WAPL champion in 1989. She would go on to be one of the first Korean stars on the LPGA tour.

In 2003, this event became the first (and, as it turned out, the only) major amateur title won by Korean American sensation Michelle Wie. She defeated Thai star Virada Nirapathpongporn in the finals one up that year. Her win made her, at 13 years of age, the youngest to ever claim the trophy. The next year, Wie came close to repeating as champion, but found herself the victim of a defeat on the final green by a one up score. Her conqueror was the Taiwanese amateur Ya Ni Tseng. Then in 2005, the tournament saw a new Korean victor. Eun Jung Lee defeated Tiffany Chudy in a playoff after they were all square following 36 holes of play. Lee won the title on the first playoff hole. The medalist that year was yet another player with Korean blood, Brazilian born Angela Park.

Well, Angela Park, Eun Jung Lee and Michelle Wie have all turned pro in the meantime, so would another Korean player step up and keep the tradition of Korean excellence at this event alive? Would this article be here if it hadn't happened?

Yes, this year there were numerous Koreans in the hunt for the title, as is becoming increasingly common in women's golf. This tournament consists of two parts. The first part is a two day stroke play competition. The top 64 players from that part are paired into match play brackets, and they continue to play each other round by round, losers going home, winners advancing, until only two players remain. The preliminary rounds are all 18 hole match play contests, with extra holes for playoffs if they are tied at the end of regulation. The final match, however, is a 36 hole marathon to determine the final champion.

The event was contested this year at Walking Stick Golf Course in Pueblo, Colorado, from June 20 - 25. After the stroke play portion of competition was done, several Koreans had placed themselves in the running. The medalists (the players who had the lowest scores during stroke play) were 16 year old Californian Mina Harigae and 20 year old UCLA golfer Hannah Jun. Jun had been forced to skip college golf this year due to injuries sustained in a car accident back in December, so she was glad to be out competing once again.

Koreans and Korean Americans did pretty well in stroke play. Just behind the two medalists was another UCLA golfer, Tiffany Joh. Readers may remember Joh's great performance at the ANZ Masters in Australia earlier this year; she missed a short par putt on the last hole to miss a playoff with Catherine Cartwright and eventual winner Amy Yang (a 16 year old local teenager) for the title. Joh was feeling peppy and ready to go here, though, after an excellent freshman year in college. She had never advanced beyond the third round in a USGA event before, but felt good about her chances here, despite the trickiness of the greens. "The greens are so undulated and there are so many tiers and slopes that you pretty much have to … hit [the putt] and pray to Jesus, Allah or Buddha," she remarked in her typically offbeat way. Angela Oh, 18, and Glory Joo Young Yang, 17, tied at 142 strokes, five shots behind the leaders.

Eventually the field was whittled down to eight contestants. Among those who had made it to the quarterfinals were Joh and Korean-American Kimberly Kim of Hawaii. Kim, who goes by the nickname "Kim Squared" (Kim Kim, get it?), is only 14 years old, but a bomber and a real talent. Harigae, Angela Oh and Ya Ni Tseng (the Wie Killer) also made it to this round.

Kim Squared (pictured) quickly showed she meant business when she decimated Harigae in their quarterfinal match. Kim shot the equivalent of 6 under par over the 11 holes they played and routed the co-medalist 9 and 7. This tied the record for the largest margin of victory in the tournament's history. Tiffany Chudy, who had lost to Eun Jung Lee in 2005's tournament final, ousted Tseng, while Sara Brown defeated Angela Oh; she had previously beaten the other co-medalist Hannah Jun in an overtime second round bout. Joh also advanced to the semifinals.

Tiffany had had an interesting tournament to that point. In each round she had used a different caddie. It was not because she disliked them. Rather, the local caddies would discover, after walking a round with her bag in the tough conditions, that they would not want to do it again! And so Joh was constantly scrambling to find replacements. But Joh herself still had plenty of pep left. "I am normally a pretty hyperactive person. Maybe a couple of sore toes here and there, [but] I am pretty much good to go," she said. Kim Squared, meanwhile, used her sister, who failed to qualify for match play, as her caddie the entire week. Judging by the shellaquing she gave Harigae, it was a good combo.

Joh went on to eliminate Sara Brown 3 and 2 in the semi-finals, while Kim Squared took care of Tiffany Chudy in the other semi. So the matchup on Sunday would be between two girls with Korean blood, both Korean Americans. Could the UCLA powerhouse defeat the precocious teen from the Big Island? History was not on Joh's side; the last few WAPL's had been won by girls not yet old enough to vote, while Joh was practically a senior citizen by comparison at 19.

But the bubbly Bruin established herself quickly against her foe, going 2 up in the morning 18 before really turning on the jets in the afternoon session. Kim had not trailed during the entire tournament, but she made an early double bogey to fall behind. She got it back by chipping in for eagle on 4, and had the lead at the turn before Joh won three holes with clutch putting on the back nine.

It's not like Kim Squared rolled over for her. On the 326 yard ninth hole in the afternoon, she even reached the green in one, something Joh said she was incapable of doing. "Like, what am I supposed to do there?" she later commented. "Just kind of like, all right, well that might be nice to be able to hit it like 976 miles long..."

Apparently she handled it just fine, playing lights out golf most of the day. She wound up shooting a scorching 11 under par for the 31 holes she actually played. The highlight came on the 11th hole in the afternoon session, when she holed out from the fairway for an eagle two. By that time her lead was 6 up, and two holes later, the championship was hers. When asked later to rate how the accomplishment ranked in her career, she remarked that it was "about 9 billion places" above her previous number one accomplishment. She said she was going to celebrate her win with her friends Ben and Jerry that night, then get ready for a trip with her college teammates to play in Japan.

Kim Squared, meanwhile, was disappointed, but didn't have time to feel too bad, since she had qualified for the US Women's Open and had to be in Rhode Island in just a few weeks to play there. She wound up making the cut and finishing fourth best among all the amateurs participating. She was, incidentally, the youngest of four Hawaiians in the field, and in fact the youngest girl in the field, period. Michelle Wie, that venerable 16 year old, was the oldest of the four Hawaiians! Hoo boy!

Congratulations to Tiffany Joh on her accomplishment, and good luck to her in the US Women's Amateur later this summer!

Jimin Jeong becomes third Korean to win on Futures Tour in 2006
The Korean story on the Futures Tour in 2006 has been dominated by the performance of three 17 year old Wunderkinder: Song Hee Kim, Angela Park and In-Bee Park. Kim has been especially noteworthy, already collecting 3 victories in her young career and leading the Futures Tour money list by a healthy margin. But there are other Korean golfers on that tour, 35 to be exact, and occasionally one of them steals the spotlight from the Big Three.

That's exactly what happened at the Lima Memorial Hospital Futures Classic, which took place on June 23 - 25 in Lima, Ohio. Although at first, it did not look like it was going to turn out that way.

The conditions at the tournament started out as horrible as you can imagine. During the pro-ams, monstrous windstorms hit the course that caused power outages and sent the players into the basement of the clubhouse, fearing for their safety. Afterwards, the course was littered with debris and soaked in rain, but miraculously, the ground crew, volunteers and even some players worked hard to make the track playable in just 24 hours. The players started round one as they normally would, but the wet conditions made for a course that stopped balls on a dime. As a result, the contestants tore the place apart again, this time with low scores. And the lowest score on day one was by none other than Song Hee Kim, who shot a 7 under par 65 to take the solo lead. The other two young guns also did well. Angela Park was missing her high school graduation in order to play the event. She wanted to make it count, and she did by shooting a 67. In-Bee Park also did well, producing 6 birdies and only two bogies on the day for a four under par 68. All three 17 year olds were in the top ten on the leaderboard.

But another Korean had also done well on this day, shooting a 3 under 69 to leave her tied for 19th. That Korean was Jimin Jeong, a young player who had struggled all season, missing her first four cuts in 2006 and generally not producing much the rest of the time. But it was in round two that Jeong really made her presence felt. She shot a 6 under par 66, thanks largely to her putting, which had been failing her all season until this week. Her 9 under total left her all alone at the top of the leaderboard. Song Hee Kim had only been able to shoot an even par round, and sat in 9th, while 7 players were tied for 2nd at 8 under total. Kim was only two shots back, however, and still a major threat to the untested Jeong. Angela and In-Bee Park were at 6 under and 5 under respectively.

But Jeong did not falter in the final round. Several players pushed her all day, but her putting was solid again. She made a clutch 15 foot par save on the 17th hole to remain in a tie for the lead. She then reached the final hole and gave herself a 20 foot birdie chance for the win. She knew she had to make it; she did not want to face a playoff. And she did! The fantastic clutch last minute birdie lifted her to a 68 for the day and a solid 13 under par total. In-Bee Park and Song Hee Kim tied for 5th, with Angela Park finishing tied for 14th. It was not only Jimin Jeong's first win on tour, but it rocketed her from 86th on the money list to 19th. Congratulations to her, and bet of luck the rest of the season!

Futures Tour Report
Ashley Prange, winner of Big Break V, won her second title of the year at the Horseshoe Casino FUTURES Golf Classic in Hammond, Indiana. The event was played on June 30 - July 2. The best finished by a Korean was In-Bee Park, who finished solo third, two shots back. Angela Park finished tied for 4th, Su A Kim tied for 7th, and Seul Ki Kim tied for 10th. Song Hee Kim finished well back in 35th place.

The Futures Tour money list now shows Song Hee Kim at the top with a comfortable margin, In-Bee Park moving up to 4th, and Angela Park in 7th. All three super teens still have a good shot at collecting LPGA tour cards for 2007.

In addition, the Big Three are excelling in several other statistical categories. They are obviously the top three rookies on tour. They are also second - fourth in scoring average on tour (In-Bee is second with a 71.3 average, Angela third with 71.308, and Song Hee fourth at 71.5. The leader is Charlotte Mayorkas, by the way, at 70.78). They lead the tour in sub-par rounds (Song Hee 58.8%, Angela 57.7%, In-Bee 56.7%). Angela Park is second on tour in Greens in regulation (73.6%), while Song Hee is second on tour in putting (29.2 putts/round). Angela Park leads the tour in eagles in 2006 with 4, while In-Bee and Song Hee are 1-2 in birdies on tour this year (In-Bee has 120, Song Hee 117). Is it any wonder they continue to shine in 2006?

Money List
The Seoul Sisters did not have as much success during this period as they have had recently Jeong Jang was the big earner, accomplishing a win at Rochester, but she struggled in the other events thereafter. Mi Hyun Kim surpassed Hee-Won Han as the top Seoul Sister, though they are still close. Se Ri Pak played brilliantly at the US Open, notching a third place finish, but was not able to do well in Rochester. Despite earning a ton of cash, she actually dropped on the money list from 12th to 13th. Shi Hyun Ahn cashed some big checks as well, but had to drop out of the lucrative Match Play event due to injury. Meanwhile, Hee-Won missed the cut at the Open, and Meena Lee and Joo Mi Kim were not even in the field, hurting their positions on the list.

One player who definitely showed her stuff this period was the rookie Jee Young Lee. Lee nearly made a top ten at the year's second Major, the LPGA Championship. At the US Women's Open she did make it into the top ten. But like the other Koreans, she was not able to advance far in the Match Play event. She did gain some ground on Seon Hwa Lee, who had some of her weakest events of the year the past few weeks. Kyeong Bae was the most successful of the rookies at the Match Play, but still lost ground due to weaker performances in the other events contested recently.

Other big movers include Young Kim and Gloria Park. Gloria is starting to show her great form here and there, while Young made yet another top ten in a Major at the US Women's Open.