Giant Eagle 2003: Back to the Front

By most player's standards, the last couple of tournaments would not be considered particularly disastrous. Se Ri Pak, however, operates on another level from most players. And for a player who practically gets a top ten every time she laces up her shoes, her 14th place finish at the Asahi Ryokuken, followed by a dismal 46th place at the McDonald's LPGA Championship (her worst finish in a Major since she joined the LPGA) were definitely far below what she normally accomplishes.

But perhaps it should not be so much of a surprise. If you look over Se Ri's record in the last couple of years (since her 2001 renaissance), you notice that the part of her season where she struggles the most is not the start, the middle or the end. Rather, it is just after the start and just before the middle. In other words, this time of the season.

Se Ri had a great Giant Eagle in 1998

Se Ri's Korea trip threw her schedule out
of whack

In 2001 she had a wonderful start, winning her first event and claiming two more second place finishes (one of which would have been a win in any other conceivable year). But after the Nabisco, her game became much more hit and miss. She mixed a couple of great finishes in with some truly poor ones, and it was not until the Jamie Farr Classic in July that she got herself back on the consistent winning track. In 2002, her entire start of the season was consistent but not spectacular, with a few exceptions here and there (such as last year's LPGA Championship, for instance). But she was definitely more prone to weak performances in this stretch of events than elsewhere on the schedule.

Another problem this year was that her scheduling may not have been as thought out as it should have been. She played four straight events ending with the Asahi Ryokuken, then flew to Korea and played a fifth event. Se Ri's record playing in four or more straight events has not been promising in the last few years, and not surprisingly, the Asahi yielded a mediocre 14th place finish. But then flying to Korea, where she is always required to make numerous appearances, doubtless did not help her energy level. Even though she won the event there, she had to skip the Corning Classic, then drop out of the Kellogg-Keebler, which was the warm up for the second Major of the year. A better schedule, in my opinion, would have been to skip the Asahi, go to the Korean event (it's generally not a good idea to go to this event every year because of all the energy required to fly there, make appearances, play the event, fly back; but this seems to be important to her, so she needs to sacrifice another LPGA event to prepare for it); then skip Corning and go to Kellogg. That would have had her in the right frame of mind for her Major defense. Oh well, hopefully she will learn from her mistakes and prepare better next time.

On top of this, Se Ri has had a nagging problem with her driver that blew up in her face starting with the Michelob Light Open. She really had a shot at winning there, but just missed too many fairways on this tough course to have a chance. The problems continued at Asahi, but at McDonald's, where missing a fairway is extremely penalizing, they caused her fits. It did not help her that her putting was less than its usual level, but watching her miss fairway after fairway on the back nine on Thursday did not bode well for her chances to win.

So Se Ri needed a nice solid event to get her confidence back. On the surface she couldn't have picked a better event than the Giant Eagle, a place where she almost always notches a top ten, and has won once in the past (in 1998). But appearances are deceptive. In fact, to some degree I would consider this event her 'curse event' (along with the ShopRite), in that she has had several odd occurrences here over the year.

Se Ri at the Michelob Light Open