Seri`s Nerve of Steel. Third Win of This Season

``I was not nervous although I only parred on 11 consecutive holes, because I didn’t have a bogie. I was sure that I could secure the victory on 17th and 18th holes.``

As we know from what she said at the interview after the victory, her confident play was consistent from the beginning to the end.

At the final fourth round of the 2001 U.S.A. LPGA tour, Jamie Farr Kroger Classic held at the Silvania Highland Meadows CC in Ohio on Sunday, Maria Hjorth, who started the day’s round 6 strokes behind Se Ri Pak, finally tied with Pak when she birdied at 16th (par 4) hole. It was her eighth birdies of the day.

However, the long-hitting Hjorth suddenly lost her concentration at the 17th (par 5) hole, the deciding point.

Hjorth, who had dropped the tie-shot into the left rough, gave up two-on and hit her third shot from 104 yards as the ball hit the ground and stopped at the right side of the sand trap. Fortunately, Hjorth succeeded 4-on at the 120 cm from the hole, a possible distance to save the par, but she, who already lost her concentration, missed the hole-cup with her par-putting.

Meanwhile, Se Ri Pak decided her victory at the 17th hole when her second shot, well-hit by 3 wood, stopped at the edge of the green. And she easily birdied expanding the gap between Hjorth by two strokes. The 17t hole, which provided birdies for four days in a row, was a `lucky hole` for Se Ri Pak.

Nevertheless, Se Ri Pak did not breath easy until the last moment. At the next 18th hole, par 5, Se Ri Pak chose 3 wood for a safe tie-shot and sent the ball to the 62 yards from the green with 7 wood. And she succeeded 3-on at the 3 meter distance from the hole-cup with the sand-wedge receiving an early victory celebration applause from the galleries around the green.

It was a situation in which a par-save could determine her victory. But Se Ri Pak tried a birdie putting thinking of a glorious winning ceremony. The ball rolling toward the right edge of the hole-cup sucked into the hole-cup making a curve toward inside right before the hole-cup riding on the hook-lie as expected.

Ahn Young-Sik ysahn@donga.com