Regrettable Only One Hit

Three Korean players jumped at triumph, but reversal drama did not show up at the end.

On October 6 at Lincoln Hills Golf Course (par 72) at Lincoln, California, the fourth round of the U.S. LPGA tour Longs Drugs Challenge (total prize $1 million) took place.

Park Se-ri (CJ), Park Ji-eun (Nike Golf), and Lee Jung-yun (Korea Tire) all shared the second place position with a stroke higher than the champion, Helen Alfredson (Sweden), who finished with a score of 12 under par.

Park Se-ri, attempting to win her fourth championship, lost two strokes in the first nine holes, while recording an eagle and a bogey in the second half. She was in high spirits with consecutive birdies on the 14th, 15th and 16th holes. However, she didn’t win.

Park Ji-eun, in sixth place at the beginning of the day, took first place in the latter half of the game with a mark of three under par, but unfortunately she hit a bogey on the 16th (par 3) hole.

Lee Jung-yun, playing in champion group, gained two strokes on the leader over the first nine holes, but she hit a double bogey on the 13th hole (par 4). On the 15th and 16th holes, she revealed her sight set on the championship by compensating for her mistake with continuous birdies. But she let her first win in American tour disappear because the 2m putting which were attempting extra hall, missed the target.

Lee Jung-yun, who took a top 10 position initially in the 23rd game in which she attended, was content with her best result since entering to play in the U.S.

Alfredson, with no titles in the last five years, fortunately received the winner trophy as Pat Hust (USA) who had been first with one less stroke, collapsed with an exorbitant four-put on one hole. Finally, she won five championships total with the grand prize of $150,000 which was almost two times that of the $77,000 total prize she won from the first day of this year to last week.

Park Hee-jung, who battled admirably with a score of three under par with no bogey, finished in the top ten for the third time this season, finished in tenth position with a final score of nine under par.

Song A-ri, (17) who first attended LPGA tour after turning pro, took 53th position with a total score of three over par.

Jong-Seok Kim kjs0123@donga.com