2006 Safeway Classic

I then walked back to watch Christina Kim, who was playing in the group behind Kang. Alas, she three putted the 10th hole and bogied. Ouch. On 11, Christina hit a wonderful drive, but a fairly bad approach, and her ball rolled back off the green. She stroked a marvelous chip from there to a foot for an easy par.

I then walked ahead to the green of the par 5 12th. This hole was not kind to the Sisters. Young Kim missed a 20 foot par save. Then Kangsy really struggled. She hit her drive into the rough, hacked her second into the fairway, belted her third down near the green, airmailed the green with her fourth, chipped way past the hole, then two putted for another double bogey on a par 5. I then watched her dunk her tee shot on 13 into the water. She basically just walked up and hit it without much preparation. I think by this point she was totally demoralized. Shortly thereafter, I noticed her talking to an official, and wagered that she would soon be dropping out. Not long after that, she did. Soo-Yun is a great competitor and very nice person, and it's hard to watch her struggle with her game like that. With luck, she'll be able to deal with her back and neck troubles soon and start the road back to where she once was.

Next Christina and Pat Hurst's group came to the par 5 12th. Kim was in the greenside bunker in two, but hit a great out to a foot for an easy birdie. But Hurst made a 15 foot eagle, and both climbed to 6 under, at that point tied for third. On 13, Christina put her tee shot about 15 feet right of the flag. Her birdie putt stopped right on the lip; she kept gesturing, trying to get the ball to fall in, while the audience laughed. No dice, though. Par.

Next, Hee-Won hit her third shot on 12 to about three feet for her own easy birdie. So the Sisters finally started to have their way with hole 12 after the poor start. After Seon Hwa came through, I watched Hana, then Soo Young Moon. Hana was not able to cash in a birdie on 12, then bogied on 13 when she left her tee shot in the rough and could not get up and down. I followed Soo Young Moon for a little while after that, until the time came to return to the 10th tee to watch Jee Young Lee start her day. Her 8 under total from yesterday still left her in the lead for the moment.

Jee Young hit another ripped 7 wood off the tee this day, about 240 yards this time. Because the flag was on the right today, she decided not to go for the green in two. Instead, she laid up, hit her third to five feet, and made birdie that way. 9 under par. Jee Young was wearing an all turquoise outfit, including long pants. It looked like she would be really hot in that getup as the temperatures were climbing towards the 90s.

Since I was right next to the 7th fairway, I decided to watch Christina and Pat Hurst play that hole. Christina got to the rough in front of the green in two shots, but her chip/putt was not good, going about 10 feet past (she let out an exasperated 'grrrr!' in response). But she still made the tricky birdie putt, throwing her arms up in victory at the result. She made another birdie on 8, which caused a huge cheer to erupt from the grandstand next to the green.

I then went to follow Jee Young's group for a little while. She had a fifteen foot birdie on 13, which moved her to 10 under and a three shot lead. But the next hole showed that this was going to be a very up and down day for her. She hit rescue club off the tee, but ballooned it; it didn't even reach the start of the fairway. She hit her second shot from 200+ yards into the greenside bunker, then hit a terrible bunker shot that didn't reach the green. The bogey knocked her back to 9 under.

But on 15, after a perfect drive, she roped an iron to 6 feet and made birdie. The flag position was on this small mound, and unless you hit a great shot, the ball would roll off the mound, and a birdie was almost impossible. She kept her ball on the mound, and with the birdie moved to 10 under.

After a par on 16, she hit a terrible drive on 17 well right, but a tree stopped it from being a disaster. Still, she had overhanging trees blocking the green. She tried to get there, but hit a really weird shot that got about twenty feet off the ground, then flopped right towards the lake hidden down a gully. No idea why the shot was so poor; was she trying to chip it out into the fairway? It actually looked more like a chip than a real shot; not much of a backswing. Anyway, she got lucky again: the ball did not get wet, and she wound up with bogey here. On 18, she hit her drive into the fairway bunker, but somehow squeezed a par out anyway.

So as you can see, even before she hit the back side, she was struggling to stay consistent. Still, she was maintaining her lead for the moment.

I then went to follow JJ, who was reaching the par 5 12th at this point. Since I saw Rosie Jones following, I suspect this part was televised. Anyway, JJ hit a nice third shot over the greenside bunker, then drained a longish (15 foot?) birdie. That moved her to 7 under. But on the next hole, she hit into the bunker and had to get up and down for par.

On 14, she let go of her club on her drive, never a good sign. The ball went into the trees on the left. She punched out near the green, but could not get up and down (though she almost sunk a fifteen foot par save). So she fell to 6 under, while Candie Kung, her playing partner, made a birdie there to move to 7 under. At this point, I left to again go watch Jee Young and Joo Mi.

I caught up with Jee Young at the fourth hole, which was an uneventful par. It was on the fifth hole where things really took a downward turn for her. The fifth hole is a par 5 with a massive dogleg left around a pond. The trees on the right are enormous sequoias; you don't want to get stuck over there if you can at all help it. Jee Young hit 3 wood off the tee, but hit the club far right into those trees. When she went up to get the ball, she walked into the trees and kept walking. And kept walking. She finally stopped about 40 feet into the woods! How the heck could she ever get her ball out from there?

Somehow she did, poking it through a gap in the trees. But the ball kept rolling off the fairway on the left. Her third shot, still 200+ yards from the green, was a good one, but it clipped a tree and fell straight down into a patch of wood chips surrounding the trunk of this young tree. Her fourth she hit from there, trying to clear a bunker. She didn't. Her fifth, from the bunker, was terrible (she has got to work on her sand shots), and she two putted from there for double bogey. By this point, her entire body looked deflated. She had now fallen to 7 under and a tie for the lead. She needed to keep in mind that she was still very much in the tournament, and not let one bad hole ruin her great week.

I hurried ahead to the 6th green in time to see Joo Mi make birdie there! She moved to 7 under and was tied for the lead. On the par 5 7th, she hit a solid drive. But she hit it slightly on the left side of the fairway, and her second shot hit a tree over there and ricocheted out of bounds to the left. What a terrible break! She hit what must have been just about the only branch overhanging the fairway, a small branch at that, and from there her ball took a freakish bounce. Her 4th shot landed on the green, and she two putted for bogey. So what should have been a birdie became a bogey instead.

She then hit her tee shot on 8, which bounced over the green into a collection area. She could not get up and down, and fell to 5 under. While this was happening, I was watching Jee Young on the 7th. She had bogied 6 to fall to 6 under. On 7, I could see from the green she was taking a drop for some reason before hitting her second. She then hit her second right next to the hedges that line the left side of the hole. She called for a ruling, and took yet another drop, to get a swing. She hit a pitch close to the hole, then two putted. But somewhere one of those drops was a penalty, and thus she made another bogey. She would then make yet another bogey when she hit her tee shot on 8 to the same spot Joo Mi had hit hers.

I was feeling a bit down watching this meltdown from these two players who had been doing so well up to that point, but fortunately there was a little happiness to come. First, Joo Mi hit her approach on 9 very close and made the birdie to move back up to 6 under. Then Jee Young got her approach to about 12 feet and made her birdie. I was especially happy for Jee Young, who smiled wanly after that birdie. Her caddie hugged her. She looked really sad that she had struggled so much. But it's a learning process. You have to go through a few bad times like that to learn how to cope. And at 5 under, she was only two shots out of the lead. If she could come out tomorrow and get the job done, the title could still be hers.

Thanks to Jee Young's collapse, the leaderboard had tightened up considerably by the end of the day. Going into Sunday, there were four players tied for the lead at 7 under par: Candie Kung, Morgan Pressel, Jenna Daniels and Jeong Jang. Once again, JJ was in the thick of it at this event. At 6 under there were six more players, including former champions Juli Inkster and Hee-Won Han, top player Pat Hurst, and Joo Mi Kim. Mi Hyun Kim and Jee Young Lee were tied at 5 under, and Gloria Park, who finished third here in 2005, was only three shots back. Even Hana Kim had followed her 69 from day one with an even par round and sat just five shots out of the lead. It was going to be an intense race for the trophy for all these ladies.