2007 US Women's Open

Early in the day's action, In-Bee Park (pictured) made a move, eventually getting to 3 under and a tie for the lead with Angela. With two Parks atop the leaderboard, the commentators could not resist referring to the 'double parked leaderboard'. In fact, the leaders had a lot in common: both were 18 years old, named Park, and had played on the Futures Tour in 2006. A pretty unusual circumstance to be sure! Other Korean golfers who battled early in the day for position on the leaderboard included Mi Hyun Kim, Jeong Jang, and Jee Young Lee.

Meanwhile, Birdie Kim had finished day one with a two over par 73. But in her first three holes of her second round on Friday morning, she made two birdies to move back to even par and in contention. She made another birdie on the 6th hole to move to one under par and really into the mix. Could Birdie make her second career win the same as her first, the biggest tournament in the women's game?
Early in the second round, the course got hit with another bout of severe weather, and the result was another weather delay of several hours. They were eventually able to get play started again on Friday, but only a few golfers were able to finish their rounds; some never even started. At the time this delay hit, Angela had not started her second round, and was still in the lead at 3 under. Jee Young Lee was second at 2 under after going three under through her first twelve holes. On the par 5 15th, she came the closest of anyone to that time to actually reaching the green in two; her second shot stopped just off the putting surface. Several players were at 1 under, including In-Bee Park. Some other players were having more trouble, however. Mi Hyun Kim had been in contention early, but the lengthy round(s) she had to play on Friday really took their toll, and she wound up shooting a 4 over par 75 in round two.

Eventually, play was canceled outright at about 3:18 local time. Only 24 players were able to finish their second rounds, and several, including Angela Park, never even got a chance to start. Indeed, no one who had finished two rounds finished under par. The best score in the clubhouse for those few who did finish was by In-Bee Park, whose two day total was even par after she shot a 2 over par 73 in round two. More and more, the event was starting to resemble the 2006 edition, which forced players to play 36 grueling holes of golf on Sunday. Hopefully that would not have to happen here, though.

On Saturday morning, the weather finally started to cooperate, and they were able to get the second round finished without incident. However, they were still several hours behind, and there was no way the third round was going to get completed on Saturday even if the weather behaved. After two rounds, Angela Park (pictured) had upped her lead to 5 under par following a second round 69. That gave her a two stroke advantage over Julieta Granada and three shots over Amy Hung and Ji Yai Shin. Angela was extremely impressive in her final few holes of her second round. She made a nice birdie on the 6th hole, then sank an incredible 30 foot birdie on 7 to move to 5 under. But the fun was just getting started. On 8, she put herself in a bunker and made a nice eight foot par save to keep herself at 5 under. But the save on nine made that one look easy: she dunked her par putt from about 40 feet, with tons of break, into the bottom of the cup. When you're hot, you're hot!

Ji Yai Shin, continuing her amazing play of late, shot a 69 of her own in round two, and now stood in great position to possibly win the big prize. Sportswriters everywhere were sent scrambling trying to find out more about the relatively unknown (in the West, at any rate) superstar. Morgan Pressel was at 1 under, while several players, including Shi Hyun Ahn and In-Bee Park, were tied at even. Jee Young Lee faded at the end of her round, falling back to one over par with an even par round. Birdie Kim and Jeong Jang, Major winners both, were also tied at one over.

Meanwhile, the cut fell, and several important Korean players got the axe. Grace Park shot back to back 77's to miss the cut by a mile (the cut fell at 6 over par). Vicky Hurst, Esther Choe and Kim Squared all missed the cut as well, as did Sarah Lee, a player who came into the Open playing quite well but who never recovered from an opening round 79. Michelle Wie, meanwhile, dropped out of the event before she finished her second round, the second time she had done that in her past three tournaments. But though several important Koreans missed the cut, 26 did not. To put this in perspective, only 25 Americans made the cut. It was the first time in history that the US did not have the most players making the cut at the Open. Another historic milestone achieved by the Seoul Sisters (and keep in mind that the 26 who made the cut only includes Korean nationals, not Korean Americans or people like Angela Park).

Se Ri Pak, meanwhile, picked her game up somewhat, shooting a one over par 72 to put herself at 4 over. She was well behind the rest of the field, but was about to launch an epic attempt to get herself back into the competition.
Late in the day, the final groups finally got on the tee to start their third round. The ladies were playing in threesomes in order to speed things up a tad. The final threesome consisted of Amy Hung, Angela Park and Ji Yai Shin (pictured). Shin started her day on this par five in spectacular fashion: after a perfect drive, she hit a gorgeous left-to-right shot to within three feet of the flag. Alas, she missed the eagle putt and had to settle for birdie, but it was a pretty effective demonstration of just why this golfer has had so much success in so little time. All three ladies made birdie on that hole, and Angela moved to 6 under and a two shot lead over Shin and Hung.

The final group was able to complete ten holes before daylight ran out. By the end of that, Angela Park had dropped back to 4 under par, and the solo leader was none other than Ji Yai Shin at 5 under! Could Shin make her fourth consecutive win the US Women's Open? Could she really do it? It was a pretty incredible story that was developing. Making big moves were Cristie Kerr and Lorena Ochoa, who both were well under par on the day and sitting at 4 under. Several Korean golfers did well, including Jee Young and Joo Mi Kim, who were both at one under. Shooting a great round in round three was Se Ri Pak, who had moved all the way to even par in her first 13 holes. Remember that she had started the day at 4 over. She was suddenly within shouting distance of the leaders again. Birdie Kim was also at even, but Mi Hyun Kim had fallen back to 3 over.

The third round continued early Sunday morning, and shortly after it started, Lorena Ochoa took over the lead at 5 under. Ji Yai had two early bogies in her round and fell to 3 under. At 4 under were Angela Park (pictured), Morgan Pressel and Cristie Kerr. For three days, various Korean golfers had led the tournament, but suddenly there were only two even close to the leaders. But there were nonetheless a number of Koreans a few shots further back around one under, even or one over, including Se Ri, Jee Young, In-Bee, Birdie, and Jeong Jang. If any of them could have a good third or fourth round, there was still a possibility that a Seoul Sister could hoist the trophy.

JJ was one golfer who took a run. She got herself to even par, then made consecutive birdies on 16 and 17 to move to 2 under. But she finished her round with mistakes on her last two holes, although she did hit a great pitch shot on 18 from behind the green to allow her to save bogey with a tap-in. Amazingly, In-Bee hit a very similar shot on 18 with an almost identical result about an hour later. Angela, alas, had a bit of trouble with her putting, and made bogey on the final hole of the round to finish at 3 under.

As the round ended, Cristie Kerr sat by herself at 4 under in first place. Pressel, Ochoa and Shin were tied at 3 under, with Angela at 2 under. JJ and Joo Mi Kim were tied at even par.

The final group consisted, therefore, of Ochoa, Kerr and Pressel, with Joo Mi, Shin and Angela in the second to last group. About half way into the fourth round, Ochoa and Kerr sat at 4 under in the lead, with Shin and Park tied at 2 under in third. Several more Koreans sat tantalizingly close to the proceedings, including Kyeong Bae, who was having a great final round. She had moved all the way to even par, tied with In-Bee Park, with Se Ri Pak, JJ and Joo Mi at one over also on the leaderboard. So many Sisters so close, but none in the lead!!