In the middle of the 1st round of the Hana Bank/KOLON Championship, I suggested that the results symbolized the kind of changing of the guard among the top Korean players in the world that we've been seeing all season on the LPGA. No more automatic top 10s for the likes of Se Ri Pak, Mi Hyun Kim, Jeong Jang, and Hee-Won Han. Long live the likes of Ji-Yai Shin, Hee Kyung Seo, In-Kyung Kim, and Amy Yang, etc., etc. Let's take a closer look at the emerging Korean generation gap:
The Old Guard
Se Ri Pak (71-72, -1, T11)
Mi Hyun Kim (70-73, -1, T11)
Jeong Jang (70-71, -3, T4)
Hee-Won Han (71-69, -4, T2)
The Young Guns
Ji-Yai Shin (70-75, +1, T24)
Seon Hwa Lee (74-76, +6, T52)
Angela Park (79-71, +6, T52)
Na Yeon Choi (74-75, +5, T47)
Inbee Park (71-78, +5, T47)
Jee Young Lee (74-69, -1, T11)
In-Kyung Kim (70-69, -5, 1st)
Ha-Neul Kim (73-71, E, T18)
Hee Kyung Seo (71-70, -3, T4)
Amy Yang (68-73, -3, T4)
With so many more young-gun than old-guard players, the chances for both good and bad finishes go up. But it sure will be interesting to see who among both groups will be in contention on the back 9 tomorrow. Same goes for the non-Korean players in the field--whether Christina Kim, Katherine Hull, Brittany Lang, and Morgan Pressel or Karen Stupples, Candie Kung, and Sophie Gustafson will give themselves a chance to win.
[Update 1 (4:48 pm): Here's Hound Dog's report.]
[Update 2 (4:54 pm): Here are the 2nd-round interviews from LPGA.com.]
No comments:
Post a Comment