SONG HEE KIM

The Facts

Capsule Bio

Song Hee Kim was one of the top amateurs in Korea the last few years. She was a member of the national team in 2004 and 2005, and occasionally played KLPGA events as well. She spent the summer of 2005 in America working on her game at a golf school in South Carolina.

In late 2005, she decided to play the Futures Tour Qualifying tournament as an amateur. Her results were staggering. She dominated the tournament, eventually beating American Brittany Lang by five shots (and that was only after Lang had made a run to close the gap). So she clearly had shown she could play with the girls on tour, but there was one problem: being that she was only 17, she could not play as a professional there (the age limit on tour was 18). So she petitioned the tour to make an exception in her case. The tour was so impressed with her talent, poise and potential that they not only allowed her to play as a full member in 2006, they lowered the age limit to 17 for all times. That allowed two other Korean 17 year olds, Angela Park and In-Bee Park, to also join the tour in 2006. All three would go on to be forces there.

But Song Hee proved very quickly to be in a class by herself. She finished 8th in her first event as a pro, then 3rd at the next one. In her third event, the Louisiana Futures Classic, she made history. She won the event, and thus became the youngest professional woman to ever win a professional golf event in the United States. But she was just getting started.

Just three events later, at the IOS Futures Golf Classic in El Paso, Texas, Song Hee outlasted Angela Park in regulation, then found herself involved in an epic playoff with Sarah Huarte for the title. The playoff dragged on for nine grueling holes before Kim was finally able to put Huarte away to claim her second title in six starts. She finally found the way to win because of fear that the event might be postponed until Monday due to darkness. She was planning to fly home to see her mom, and would have had to miss her plane had that happened. With her second win, she climbed to the top of the tour money list.

Two weeks later, she returned, played the Aurora Health Care Championship as her first event back... and won again. She added a fourth victory in July at the Cigna Chip in for a Cure in Connecticut. She collected the trophy on July 16th, her 18th birthday. She was greeted on the 18th green with birthday wishes and flowers, which caused the shy champion to blush.

Song Hee won the Gettysburg Championship in late August for a fifth win on tour, tying Grace Park for most wins in a single season. She was not quite able to top the all time money earned for a season, set by Beth Bauer a few years earlier, but she came close. She wound up Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year on the Futures Tour, and earned her LPGA exempt status for 2007.

Unfortunately, Song Hee's rookie season proved to be a struggle from beginning to end. Instead of contending for or even winning Rookie of the Year, she found it hard to make cuts, and did not even manage a top 20 finish all year. She did secure a non-exempt card, but had to go to Q-School to try to get her exempt status back. In 2007, she was beaten badly by both In-Bee Park and Angela Park on the LPGA, two players she had dominated on the Futures Tour. Exactly why she struggled is unclear, but hopefully it was an anomaly she will soon correct.

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