2007 CN Canadian Women's Open

Another nice round was turned in by rookie In-Kyung Kim. Kim shot a 4 under par round to move to 3 under total, just out of the top ten. Christina Kim (pictured), who herself was trying to qualify for the Solheim team, shot a 3 under par round to move to even total, and rookie Ji-Young Oh had one of the best rounds of her career, a 4 under par 67, to allow her to easily make the cut. Both Kim and Oh would have a much larger impact at the next LPGA event on the schedule, the Safeway Classic. Among those missing the cut were 2007 tournament winners Se Ri Pak and Young Kim, Birdie Kim, Na On Min, and Grace Park, while Jee Young Lee had to withdraw due to her shoulder problems. This was a pity: she was coming off her career best Major finish, a tie for second at the British, and like Se Ri had seemed ready to move to the next level.

Unfortunately for those who like competitive golf tournaments or the Korean golfers, Ochoa went on a rampage on Saturday and quickly put the tournament out of reach of her opponents. She shot a 7 under par 64 and went into the final day with a four shot lead. Considering that she rarely if ever seems to make mistakes anymore, the tournament was all but in the bag by the middle of her Saturday round. Meanwhile, Shi Hyun Ahn, the top Korean on the leaderboard, struggled mightily. She was only even par on the front nine, but after a birdie on the par 5 10th, she made bogies in two of the next three holes to fall to one over on her round. After that, she was not able to make another birdie, but finished her day with a disastrous double bogey that all but eliminated her from any chance of winning her second career event. Her 3 over par 74 was by far the worst round of any of the golfers in the top ten going into the day.

Despite her struggles, her 5 under total still tied her for the top Korean in the field, a full 9 shots behind Ochoa. Also tied at this score was JJ. A few other Koreans had good days, but they were too far back at the start of the day to have any shot of winning. Young Jo shot a tidy 3 under par 68 to move to the 5 under total as well. Soo Young Moon, who has had a fairly weak season, shot a 67 to move into the top twenty. Jimin Kang and Mi Hyun Kim both shot 68s to move into the top 20 as well.

Then there was Mi Sun aka Sunny Cho. Sunny Cho is one of the Korean golfers who, as a teenager, moved to Australia to hone her game. Once there, she quickly became one of the top amateur golfers in the country. Eventually she moved to the US to attend college at Pepperdine. But she decided to drop out before completing her education, and turned pro. She has been playing lately on the ladies Canadian tour, where her play qualified her to appear in this event. And she took advantage of it. After a decent first round 70 and a 2 over par second round, she shot a very solid third round 67 to move to 3 under total and a tie for 19th. She was well positioned to take a run at a top ten, which would be fantastic in her first ever LPGA event.

Another young professional was also taking full advantage of her chance to play here. Ya Ni Tseng was perhaps best known on this continent for beating Michelle Wie in the US Women's Pub Links finals one year to prevent her from winning her second ever major amateur event. She has, however, a raft of impressive achievements to her credit, and once again she was proving herself in Edmonton. She shot her own 67 in round three to move to 8 under total. Although she was six shots behind Ochoa, she was all by herself in fourth place.

Although Ochoa had one of her weaker rounds on Sunday, she was never really threatened, and wound up rather easily collecting her second straight win. Meanwhile, Shi Hyun Ahn (pictured) bounced back brilliantly from her struggles of the previous day. After six straight pars, she made a bogey on the 7th hole, but then caught fire in a big way. She made birdie on the 8th and 9th holes to move to 6 under, then added birdies on 13 and 15 to move into the top five. But she really saved the best for last. On the 17th hole, she hit a lackluster approach that left her some 30 feet from the hole. But she proceeded to thrill the crowd by dunking that birdie putt to move to 9 under par. On the next hole, she had trouble off the tee and had to punch out of the trees. But she hit a brilliant third shot pitch that bounced right next to the hole, took a sharp left turn and rolled into the cup for another birdie. The crowd went absolutely crazy, and Shi Hyun, normally rather stoic on course, couldn't help but smile timidly at all the cheers. In her time in Edmonton, she had managed a hole in one, another hole out from the fairway, a bomb for birdie, and a 10 under score that gave her a solo third place finish. All in all, quite a memorable week for the young Korean star!

Jeong Jang also had a nice week, finishing with a 3 under 68 and 8 under total. This left her in a tie for 6th place. Another Korean star, Seon Hwa Lee, also scored a top ten with a solo ninth place finish. Ya Ni Tseng also left a big impression on the Canadian fans, although it came with an unfortunate coda. After getting to 10 under par through 71 holes, she made a double bogey on her final hole to fall back to 8 under and a tie for 6th. Still, a top ten in her first LPGA event as a pro bodes very well for the young budding star from Taiwan.

In total, the week was a decent one for the Korean golfers, but with Ochoa basically putting away the event on Saturday, it couldn't help being another event where the Koreans were on the outside looking in.