Jiyai Shin
There is a new shining light on the LPGA. As the season winds down to its conclusion, budding Korean superstar Jiyai Shin has a legitimate chance to end the 2009 season atop the Player of the Year and Money Lists. If this comes to fruition, she will achieve what no other Korean has, not even the Hall of Famer Se Ri Pak. Jiyai would stand alone among the Korean Wave of LPGA champions as the only player to top the Money List or win the coveted Player of the Year award. But oddly, although no other Korean player could claim to have won either prize, I wonder if that means Jiyai’s 2009 season would be the best any Korean player has had.
Based on what she has done so far this season, I cannot say that as it stands now that Jiyai has had the best season of any Korean, even if she wins Player of the Year. In fact, her own 2008 truncated year might be better. Admittedly, the season is not yet over and Jiyai could add another win or two to the three she already has this year. This would change the equation, but maybe not enough to overtake some of the seasons that defined the greatness of the woman who inspired a generation of young Korean girls to believe in their own dreams of glory.
When Se Ri Pak was an LPGA Rookie in 1998, the Korean footprint on the LPGA was minimal. Although Ok Hee Ku and Woo Soon Ko had already won titles, there was no seismic shift in the demographics of the tour. Perhaps the LPGA tournaments won by Se Ri’s compatriots had not echoed loud enough back home to make little girls growing up on the Korean peninsula envision themselves picking up golf clubs and setting a goal to one day follow in the footsteps of those groundbreakers. But one day in July 1998 changed all of that.
Se Ri had already won a Major in 1998, the McDonald’s LPGA Championship, her first tour win. So unfamiliar with the LPGA was Se Ri that she didn’t realize it was a Major. When she teed it up in July at the Women’s US Open, she knew full well how big the event was. In one of the most thrilling wins in Women’s US Open history, Se Ri outdueled Jenny Chuasiriporn in a 20 hole Monday playoff that set off an explosion in golf interest back home. Suddenly, little girls in South Korea thought that maybe they could do that, too.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjzyBEgjrBk]
Despite having yet to win Player of the Year or top the Money List, mainly due to having her best years during the primes of Annika Sorenstam and Karrie Webb, here are four seasons that compare favorably, and possibly exceed, the year Jiyai Shin is having in 2009. As a note, as of the writing of this blog entry, Jiyai Shin has 3 victories in 2009, 8 top tens in 21 starts and a 70.36 scoring average.
1998-Although Se Ri’s scoring average, 71.41, was higher than Jiyai’s so far in 2009, it is hard to argue against a
- Se Ri Pak – 1998 US Women’s Open
rookie year when Se Ri won two Majors, including the biggest event in women’s golf the United States Women’s Open. Not content to stop there, Se Ri went on to win Giant Eagle Classic and the first of her five Jamie Farr Classic wins. She ranked second on the Money List.
2001- Se Ri added another Major to her resume, the Weetabix Women’s British Open, as well as four more wins, including her third Jamie Farr win in four years. She had 12 top tens in 20 starts, but the number itself tells only a part of the story. Those 12 top tens could also be characterized as 12 top threes as she won 5 times, finished second 5 times and third 2 times. Her scoring average was a career low 69.69 for another second place Money List finish.
2002- Se Ri went back to where the winning began, notching her second of three McDonald’s LPGA Championships, becoming the youngest player to win four Majors. She also won five times overall, including going back home to South Korea to win the CJ Nine Bridges Championship. She upped her top tens to 17 out of 24 events, a 70.83 per cent rate, once again going sub-70 with a 69.85 scoring average and her second straight number two finish on the Money List.
2003- Won her fourth Jamie Far Classic, had three wins overall and a 70.03 scoring average. Se Ri also posted six runner-up finishes and finished second on the money list for the third straight year, the fourth time in six years. It was also the fifth time in six years she finished in the top three on the money list, with her 1999 third place finish. She found a home in the top ten, registering an 80 per cent top ten rate, with 20 top tens in 25 starts. There was also a special top ten that didn’t count towards her LPGA total when she finished 10th at the SBS Super Tournament, a Korean Men’s event.
Jiyai Shin and Se Ri Pak
It is not my intention to diminish what Jiyai Shin is doing in 2009. For Korean golfers, it would be historic for a player to win Player of the Year or top the Money List. I will be among the cheerleaders should that happen. What I am trying to do is point out that despite that possibly historic achievement, we should not forget how amazing Se Ri Pak was during her best years to date. As time passes and more great players like Shin, In Kyung Kim, Seon Hwa Lee, Ji Young Oh and Eun Hee Ji make their marks on the LPGA, the memory of Se Ri’s achievements are in danger of becoming fainter memories.
Maybe Jiyai Shin will go on to match or surpass what Se Ri has done on the LPGA, as Shin did on the KLPGA, where she set just about every record there was to set. But for all of her achievements on the U.S. tour so far, and they have been significant, Shin, like the rest of the Korean contingent on tour, is to date still chasing the brilliance of Se Ri Pak.
