2007 Evian Masters

The Evian Masters is one of the most lucrative events on the LPGA tour. The event takes place in the eastern part of France every July, at the home course of the Evian resort near the border with Switzerland. The course is perched high on a hill, with breathtaking views of the lake below it. The top ten players from the previous year's event are treated to staying in the gorgeous resort hotel on the premises. And best of all, the purse is enormous, $3 million in total, the second largest on tour all year (only the US Women's Open has a bigger purse). The winner would collect $450,000.

But as far as the Korean golfers go, there's a problem. Koreans have done well at the event, but it is one of the few on tour that a Korean has never won. Some players, like Mi Hyun Kim (pictured), have come close; Kimmie finished second there one year, and fourth last year. And Se Ri Pak has had multiple top tens there as well, including a 6th place finish in 2006. Jeong Jang notched a tie for 8th at the 2006 event. And if you want to count Michelle Wie, she very nearly won the event in 2006, only to be beaten in the final few holes by Karrie Webb. Not only have the Koreans had success in France, they have also been popular there. The French television crews discovered Mi Hyun Kim in 2002, just as she was finishing a diet that had allowed her to shed a bunch of pounds. They couldn't get enough of her that year, showing her repeatedly on the broadcast. She has been popular with the fans ever since. And another year, Grace Park was named the special ambassador for the event. The exact duties involved with that title are unclear, but it did mean that she was featured on the posters and in other advertising material, which is definitely an honor the Korean golfers don't often get. But popularity with the fans does not translate into a win..

In 2007, one of the most important Koreans was skipping the event. Se Ri decided that she wanted to focus her efforts on the Women's British Open, the fourth and final Major of the year, which was happening the following week at the home of golf, St. Andrews. So she took a pass on the trip to France for the first time. And former ambassador Grace Park was left out when she did not qualify for the elite field. But many of the other top Korean golfers were there. On top of the usual suspects from the LPGA, the top players on the KLPGA tour were invited to play. This marked the first LPGA event for Eun-Hee Ji and Sun Ju Ahn, both of whom had been brilliant all year in Korea. Ji-Yai Shin, the top player on that tour, was also invited, as were Hee Young Park and Na Yeon Choi. Even Hyun Hee Moon (pictured) got into the field thanks to her KLPGA success. Both Moon and Ji are actually non-exempt golfers on the LPGA tour, thanks to their finishes at the previous year's Qualifying School, but they had chosen to focus on the KLPGA in 2007. On top of all those ladies, teen sensation Amy Yang, a member of the Ladies European Tour, which co-sanctions the Evian, was also in the field, eager to test herself against the best of the best. And Michelle Wie, who had been struggling intensely in 2007, but who had nearly won in 2006, was also there to try her luck.

The event was contested between July 26 and 29th. In round one, one of the KLPGA golfers made a big splash, and it was not Shin. Eun Hee Ji (pictured below), in her first ever LPGA round, shot a 6 under par 66 and took a share of the lead with Pat Hurst and Brittany Lincicome. The commentators had enormous trouble with her name, pronouncing it in about ten different ways over the course of the week. Three more Koreans finished that round tied for third: Kyeong Bae, Korean American Christina Kim and Jin Joo Hong. All three of those women had different motivations and goals they were trying to achieve. For Bae, she had had a successful rookie campaign in 2006, but now was looking to get to the next level and win her first event on tour. For Kim, she was working towards earning a spot on the American team at the Solheim Cup. Coming into the week, she did not have enough points to qualify, and would have to depend on the captain choosing her with one of her two captain's picks. Granted, this seemed likely, since Christina had been such a sparkplug at the 2005 Solheim, but she certainly couldn't depend on getting the nod. And for Hong, her rookie year had thus far been fairly disappointing, and she had no guarantee that she was going to retain her tour card. A win would make all that moot. After one round, with those four golfers in contention, it looked like the winless curse at Evian might be coming to an end.

Several other Korean stars also had great first days. Favorite of the French fans Mi Hyun Kim, KLPGA star Sun Ju Ahn, and Jeong Jang all shot 3 under par 69s and were tied for 7th. Kimmie put her second shot on the 18th hole onto the green and two putted for birdie; it's not often that the tiny Kim is able to reach a par 5 in two shots! Rookie star Angela Park shot a 70, while Sarah Lee, Joo Mi Kim, Meena Lee and In-Kyung Kim shot 71s. Interestingly, while her two KLPGA compatriots were lighting it up, Ji-Yai Shin got off to a pretty slow start. She shot a one over par 73 and was tied for 37th after the first round. That was also behind Hee Young Park, another KLPGA star, who shot an even par round. But Shin was well known for starting off slowly and playing better in later rounds, so she doubtless felt she still had it in her to come back from the early deficit. The biggest surprise among those who had bad rounds was Jee Young Lee. Lee had been having a banner year on tour, but on this day shot a 5 over par 77 and was in danger of missing the cut. Yes, for the first time, the Evian Masters had a cut, because for the first time they invited more than 70 players to play the event. In fact, there were 90 golfers who started the event this year. So not many would miss the cut, but Lee was in danger of being one of them.

On day two, the bubble burst for several of the Korean golfers. Eun Hee Ji had played brilliantly on day one, but on this day she fell apart, shooting a four over par 76 to plummet from a tie for the lead to a tie for 14th. Pat Hurst, also tied for the lead after the first day, also shot a 76, while Lincicome, the third leader, shot a 74. Sun Ju Ahn was also over par. Meanwhile, Ji-Yai Shin had a decent day, shooting a 70 to move up the leaderboard to a tie for 24th. While all that was going on, two golfers made a move to the top of the leaderboard, and they were two unlikely golfers to be leading at this point. One was Diana D'Alessio, who had never even come close to winning on the LPGA before. She started the day at 3 under, but moved steadily up the leaderboard with birdies and no particular mistakes. The other was Jin Joo Hong (pictured below), who started at 5 under. Hong made two birdies on the front nine to move into the lead at 7 under. But she had more trouble on the back, starting with a bogey on 10, following that with a birdie, then making a bogey on 13. The highlight of her round came on the 16th hole, where she dunked a thirty foot putt to move back to 7 under par. She finished the day there, tied for the lead with D'Alessio and three shots ahead of anyone else in the field.

Tied for third was Annika Sorenstam, having a pretty good event considering the serious injury she was trying to come back from, and Jeong Jang. JJ shot a one under par round to move to 4 under total. Kimmie produced an even par round on Friday and remained at 3 under, good for a tie for 6th. Kyeong Bae struggled in her round, missing a few short putts. She shot a 2 over round and was also at 3 under total.

One of the best rounds of the day was turned in by Shi Hyun Ahn. Ahn shot a 3 under par 69 and now was perched just outside the top ten. It was a good day for Michelle Wie as well. She shot a one under par 71, the first under par round she had produced in more than a year. In fact, her last under par round had come at this very event in 2006. It allowed her to easily make the cut. But other Koreans were not so fortunate. Two of the KLPGA golfers, Hyun Hee Moon and Na Yeon Choi, went home without a paycheck, as did Birdie Kim. The other KLPGA star, Hee Young Park, started well and got under par before a few bad bunker shots cost her a double bogey on 12. She wound up finishing the day at 3 over par.

On Saturday, the conditions got a whole lot worse, and suddenly the tournament became a war of attrition. Jin Joo Hong certainly felt the sting. She almost immediately tumbled out of the lead with a triple bogey 6 on the par three second hole. She was three over par on the front nine. The weather was sunny and not too hot, but it was the wind that was making things tough. It not only played havoc with the ball, but it also changed the way the greens were playing, hardening them and causing it to be very tough to stop the balls on them. One player who took advantage of the conditions was Ji-Yai Shin. Shin went 2 under on her front nine, and found herself at 3 under par and on the first page of the leaderboard. Another player who loves wind is Jeong Jang. JJ knows how to hit the ball under the wind to avoid trouble. She hung in there on this day, shooting an even par round to stay at four under.

At first, this did not seem like it was going to be good enough. Against all logic, while her playing partner Hong struggled, D'Alessio continued to stay at 7 under, even moving to 8 under after a birdie on 6. At one point, this gave her a four shot lead over the field. But everything fell apart on the 12th hole; she had trouble all the way along, but really suffered when she kept blowing her putt by the hole on the green. She wound up with a quad bogey that dropped her to 4 under. Suddenly, Juli Inkster, JJ and Jin Joo Hong were right in the hunt, with Shin just behind. But Hong was in the midst of her own slower meltdown. She made a bogey on 12 herself to fall back to 3 under, then a double bogey on 13 and another bogey on 14 to fall all the way to even par. She ended up shooting a dreadful 80 on the day and did not contend again.