2007 Women's World Cup

The 2007 Women's World Cup was the third edition of this international competition; like in the past two years, it was held in South Africa in January. Each eligible country sends two representatives to compete. The event takes places over three days, with three different formats on the three days. One day consisted of singles matches, with the two golfers' scores combined for each hole; one day consisted of alternate shot team play, and the third day was best ball, where only the better of the two players' scores on a hole counts. The best score at the end of the tournament wins!

The Koreans have traditionally sent one player each from the KLPGA and one from the LPGA, based on money list position. The top KLPGA player has gone each year, but it has proved harder to get the top LPGA Korean to go, mainly because it is such a long trip to South Africa and because the event takes place in the middle of winter training. In 2005, the first year of the event, Jeong Jang represented the LPGA and Bo Bae Song the KLPGA. The two played very well together, and were in contention for the win right until the end. But on the penultimate hole, both Japanese players made birdies, and Japan went on to win by two shots. In 2006, Bo Bae returned for the KLPGA, while Meena Lee represented the LPGA. Again the Koreans played well, but this time it was Annika Sorenstam and the Swedes who took the trophy; the Koreans finished fifth.

In 2007, the KLPGA's top player was the teenage sensation Ji Yai Shin. Shin had been absolutely dominant on tour in 2006, shattering the all time record for most money made in a season, and becoming the first KLPGA member to ever achieve a sub-70 scoring average for a year. Once again, the Koreans had a hard time recruiting an LPGA star to join Shin. Eventually Young Kim agreed to play; she was in fact only the eleventh top Korean player on the LPGA, but was still a top thirty player, demonstrating in stark terms just how deep the Korean bench really is. The two set out for South Africa after meeting the press at the airport in Korea; they told the reporters they were determined to bring the World Cup trophy home at last.

They were going to face some tough competition. Although some of the stars from the past, such as Ai Miyazato and Annika Sorenstam, were not there this year, other top players were. The American team looked particularly tough, as it teamed Hall of Famer Juli Inkster with multiple tournament winner Pat Hurst. But both Shin and Kim had proven themselves recently in team matches. Shin had been a strong player on the Korean team in their rout of Japan at the Kyoraku Cup the previous month, while Young Kim had gone undefeated in helping the Asian team win the Lexus Cup, also in December. Add to that Shin's awesome golf the previous few months on the KLPGA, and there was every reason to believe the Korean team had a chance to win it all.

In years past, the tournament had saved the singles matches for the final day, but this year they decided to have the singles matches on the first day. In a way this was a mistake; since the singles matches are the best chance to go low, if one team happened to play really well on day one it could put the event pretty much out of reach for the rest of the weekend. In fact, this is exactly what happened. Paraguay, led by ADT champion Julieta Granada, got out to a great start in the singles matches. Granada shot a 2 under 70, which might have been expected given her past successes, but the real surprise was that her teammate, little known Futures Tour player Celeste Troche, shot a 69 at the same time. This combination gave them a 5 under total and a four stroke lead. In second place was none other than the Sisters themselves, Kim and Shin. They combined for a one under par total, the only other team besides the Paraguayans under par on the first day. Italy and Scotland tied for third at one over par, while the Americans struggled to a five over par total. Both Korean ladies had solid days, generally making pars with the occasional birdie and bogey thrown in. Young Kim made a nice par save on the last hole, a par 5. She hit her second shot into the junk, then hit her fourth to five feet and saved par. Shin hit her second over the green and got up and down for birdie, ending on an up note.

Day two was the foursome competition, the most difficult of the three formats the women would face. It would prove to be a test not only for the Paraguayan leaders but for the Koreans as well. The Koreans struggled much of the day, but fought hard to prevent things from getting even worse than they could have been. But as if things weren't tough enough, they also ran into some unfortunate rules situations as well. On the very first hole of the day, the Korean golfers hit behind an advertising sign that had been placed on the course. There was a local rule in effect that dictated when a drop could be taken from such a sign. The rule was that the ball could be moved from behind the sign, but the sign itself could not be moved. They were on television at the time, and a rules official saw their situation and ran out to help them. But by the time he reached them, Young Kim had already moved the sign and taken her shot, which was illegal. She admitted the mistake, and the Sisters were fined a two stroke penalty. Right from the outset, they dropped well behind the Paraguayans.

After that, they played pretty well, but there was more than a little struggling to make pars. Despite the pressure and the early mistake, they both were in good spirits, bumping hands often, laughing and hugging each other on occasion as well. Their great mood was contagious, and by the end of the day, even the commentators were remarking about how much fun they were to watch.

There were some truly impressive shots by both players during the round. On the 9th hole, Shin hit a terrible drive, sticking Young Kim in a horrible lie with a water carry. Amazingly, Kim got it over the water. Shin pitched it to within 6 feet, and Kim made the clutch par save from there. On the tenth hole, Shin hit a weak approach into a bunker, Kim hit out to 6 feet, then Shin nailed THAT clutch par. Whew!

Disaster struck them again on the 12th hole. Young Kim hit a terrible hook drive that ended up going into the woods, forcing a penalty drop. This time they made sure to get the officials involved to avoid another penalty like on the first hole. They wound up with a double bogey here, their first mistake since the quad bogey on the first.

The struggles continued on the par 3 13th when Shin nearly hit her tee shot into the water. Despite being some 70 feet from the hole, the two combined to save par, Shin nailing yet another 6 foot par save to do it.

The Koreans really needed a boost, and they got it on the next hole when Young made a 60 foot birdie putt, their first and only birdie of the day. At last! Amazingly, even though they had been struggling all day, they had not put themselves into too terrible a position by this point, because the other teams were also having their share of problems. If they could continue to fight, they might still be in position to win on Sunday.

Shin continued with her driving woes, and on the 17th she once again put the ball behind some trees, leaving Kim with a challenge to overcome. And once again Kim delivered, punching it up near the green. Shin hit a good pitch after that, but Kim missed the dicey 6 foot par save. Can't make them all!

On the final hole of the day, they almost had another disaster when Shin hit her second shot at the green on this par 5. It hit the rocks right in front of the green and rebounded into the water. It was maybe three inches short of being safe. But then Kim hit a great pitch and Shin nailed about the sixth six footer for par of the back nine.

Despite the penalty and a few other big mistakes, the Koreans had time and again clawed their way to pars and kept themselves in the tournament. At the end of the day, Paraguay had fallen to 2 under par. Italy was in second at 2 over, and those two teams played in the final group on Sunday. The US was the only team to shoot under par on the day, and now sat at 3 over par, while Korea was still doing well at 4 over par. Making up six shots on Paraguay would be tough without help from the leading team, but it was certainly not impossible to imagine it could happen. In any event, the Sisters were not about to give up without a fight!