2006 Evian Masters

In round three, Kimmie struggled a bit at first, bogeying the first hole and the fifth as well. She also made a birdie on three and was one over par for a while. She started to snap into form on the ninth hole, and made back to back birdies on 9 and ten to move to one under. But after that, her putter once again went cold. Despite birdie chances on several holes, she was not able to make another birdie the rest of the day. This was especially disappointing on the par 5 18th hole. Kimmie hit her second shot here hole high, but in the rough to the left of the hole. Still, she couldn't have been more than 20 feet from the flag. But she hit a fairly poor chip from there, then missed the six foot birdie try, winding up with a tap in par. She thus finished at 8 under, which left her four shots out of the lead.

Se Ri also started slowly on this day, although she didn't make any bogies. She was not, however, able to make any birdies, either. Her driving and iron play was a lot less accurate than it had been the first two days, and she was forced to get it up and down a number of times. But she hung in there, and when she started hitting it a bit straighter, she made birdies on 8 and the par 5 9th to move to 10 under par. At that point, she was up with the top players on the leaderboard.

But she hit her waterloo on this day on the par 5 15th. Her drive was very poor and flew off to the right towards trouble. She ended up right next to an out of bound chain link fence. She had no choice but to hit her shot out to the left to get it back into play. But her second shot went too far and ended up in deep rough. She had to play another rescue shot from there, and hit an iron to the fairway. But that still left her too far from the green to reach it, so she laid up with her fourth shot. Her fifth shot she got onto the green, but she was not able to make the bogey save, and wound up with a double bogey. This was a hole where most players were making par, with occasional birdies. She dropped to 8 under, and suddenly found herself several shots out of the lead.

But she rallied. She hit a gorgeous tee shot on the par 3 17th to a couple of feet and dunked the birdie. On the par 5 18th, she hit a mammoth drive, in the neighborhood of 315 yards. But her second shot was not very good; she landed it close to the flag, but it bounded off the back of the green into the bunker. She then hit a lackluster bunker shot well past the flag, and left herself with a 20 foot birdie putt. Her putt was perfectly on line, but it looked like it would be too short. Indeed, it stopped right in front of the hole, but after hanging there for about two seconds, it took one more roll and fell into the cup. Nothing like a little break to lift your spirits! With that birdie, Se Ri finished at 10 under par, two shots out of the lead. She still had a great chance to claim the trophy if she could rally on Saturday.

The leader after day three was Webb, who shot a 3 under par 69 to finish at 12 under total. Michelle Wie was in second place at 11 under, while Laura Davies cashed in an eagle on the final hole to move to 10 under and a tie with Se Ri for third. A few other Koreans did well. Hee-Won Han shot a 71 to get to 4 under, a tie for 11th. She was in a good position to get a top ten at this lucrative event, but a win was probably out of the question. The only other Korean who was still in contention was Jeong Jang, who shot a 4 under par 68 to move to 8 under par and a tie for 5th with Kimmie and Lorena Ochoa. Thus, on day four, the last group would be Wie, Webb and Davies, while the second to last group would be Se Ri, Kimmie and JJ. Could one of those three Korean stars, all of whom had won in 2006 (Kimmie had won twice), finally break the Korean jinx at this event?

On the final day, Se Ri got out to a good start, birdying holes two and three, but after that she ran into much the same troubles as she had on day three. She was struggling to keep the ball in the fairway and was not making many greens in regulation. And when she did get on the green, she was not making putts. As a result, she made nothing but pars from holes 4 through 14. While this was going on, Michelle Wie charged up the leaderboard. She made an eagle on the par 5 9th, and followed that up with a birdie on 11. At that point, she had a 2 shot lead over the field, and it looked like she might finally get the win that she had been trying to get for so long.

Jeong Jang was not able to mount a charge. She made several birdies, but a double bogey on the par 5 7th and bogies on 10 and 13 left her one over on the day to that point. Mi Hyun, however, who started the day tied with JJ, was having more success. She started with a birdie, and after a bunch of pars, made two more on 8 and 9 to move to 11 under par. Another birdie on 11 moved her to 12 under and four under for the day. If she could continue this hot streak, she very definitely had a chance to win. And her chances improved when Wie bogied the 13th hole to drop to 14 under, only two shots ahead of Kimmie and Se Ri.

But Se Ri made a mess of the next three holes. She bogied the par 3 14th, was only able to make par on the par 5 15th (at least she had more success here than she had had the previous day, when she had placed her drive against the fence), then bogied 16 as well after a terrible bunker shot. This dropped her to 10 under par. Though she would birdie her final two holes to finish at 12 under, that would only be good enough for a 6th place finish. JJ, too, rallied at the end of her round. She birdied both 16 and 18 (and had a good chance at birdying 17 but missed) to finish at 9 under and tied for 8th. Not good enough for the win, but good enough to insure an invite back in 2007 (and a free stay at the resort as well!).

So that just left Kimmie. At this point, she was contending with Wie, Webb (who was one shot ahead of her) and Laura Davies. And she gave it everything she had. She made a wonderful birdie on 16 from about ten feet. Then on 17, just like her playing partners, she hit her tee shot pretty close to the flag. She made birdie there as well to move to 14 under. Webb had moved to 15 under, while Wie was still at 14 under. Kimmie needed to make something happen on the par 5 18th, but if she could, she could collect her third win of the year.

Her drive was decent, but not long enough, so she was forced to lay up. But she hit her third shot onto the green and left herself a birdie chance. She pretty much had to make it to have any chance to win. But she missed, and finished with a 66 on the day and a 14 under total. In the end, it would be good enough for a fourth place finish, as both Wie and Davies finished at 15 under and Webb won the event at 16 under after birdieing 17 and two putting for par on 18. Although she didn't win, Mi Hyun made enough money to move to 4th on the money list and collected her 10th top ten of the year. She continues to have a marvelous year. The curse of the Koreans at the Evian is not really that much of a curse when you see how well these ladies played and how much money they have made there. And besides, there's always next year!