Pak Made It

After it all, “The Queen of Golf” Pak Se-ri accomplished a monumental achievement.

The second round of the 2003 DongYang Insure Cup SBS Pro Golf Championship (totally prized 300 million won) was held at Lakeside CC West Golf Course (par 72, 7052 yards) in Yong-in, Gyunggi Province on October 24.

Pak Se-ri held back with a score of 2-over par and 74 strokes (1 birdie, 3 bogeys) but succeeded to qualify with a total score of 2-over par and 146 strokes for the first two rounds in the historical gender confrontation. The current expected cutoff mark (within the co-sixtieth place) was 4-over par and 148 strokes as of 5 p.m. that day.

With this, Pak Se-ri made her mark as the first female player to make it past the cutoff to advance in the male professional golfers’ tournament in the past 58 years since “Iron woman” Babe Jaharias did it when she participated in the Los Angeles Open of U.S. PGA Tour in 1945. The difficulty of the course and the players are different, but Pak Se-ri is the only female player among the six who participated in gender competitions this season to have qualified, including “the best” Annika Sorenstam (Sweden).

Pak Se-ri, ranked tied at 13th place, increased her chance to qualify on the last day and played safely without hesitation. She recovered from her bogey on the 7th hole (par 4) with a birdie on the 8th hole (par 5), completing the first half with a score of even par without trouble.

Her talents of managing crisis was evident on the 13th hole (par 4), which brought admiration from the gallery. Her driver shot landed in the bunker, and the second shot fell in a pond in front of the green. But as she approached the fourth shot with a 1-stroke penalty at the spot and only 50 cm away from the hole, she succeeded in creating a work of art and made a “worthwhile” bogey.

In the meantime, defending champion Yang Yong-un(31, Kasco), competing with Pak Se-ri for two consecutive days, hit the course record (7-under par, 65 strokes) with eight birdies and one bogey, recovered from his poor performance on the previous day, and Shin Yong-jin (39, LG Fashion), first place in prize earnings this year, reduced his score by one stroke to join the under-par group with a total of 1-under par and 143 strokes score.

Young-Sik Ahn ysahn@donga.com