Mighty Mite

Solid driving and a final-hole birdie lift diminutive Eun-Hee Ji to the U.S. Women's Open title at Saucon Valley

finishing with a flourish: Ji made a double bogey on the 10th hole of the final round but steadied herself and took the title by making this 20-footer on No. 18.

By Ron Sirak

Photo by J.D. Cuban

July 20, 2009

Those with a sense of whimsy would say Eun-Hee Ji's victory at the U.S. Women's Open was served up with a touch of irony. Others might say it was mere coincidence she would win her first major on this of all weeks, when the departure of LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens silently shrouded Saucon Valley CC, a topic everyone refused to discuss out of deference to the national championship for women. You see, it was Ji's victory a year ago at the Wegmans LPGA, when she was unable to give her victory speech in English, that triggered "language-gate," one of many gates Bivens tripped over on her way out the LPGA door.

Ji again handled her post-victory interrogation with the help of a translator, using English only a few times, one of those when asked if her victory could be summed up in a single word. With a smile that earned her the nickname Mickey Mouse from friends who say her laugh reminds them of the cartoon character, she said perfectly, "Driver." Indeed, her driver was nearly perfect—missing just three fairways on the weekend—as was an overall game that in the universal language of golf could be understood by anyone who witnessed her performance.

Starting the final round two strokes behind Cristie Kerr, with whom she was paired, Ji bogeyed two of the first four holes to fall four back. She was let back into it by a pair of Kerr bogeys, then seemed to eliminate herself again with a double bogey at No. 10. But Ji, a 5-foot-4 wisp of a woman, made birdies on three of the final six holes while others were making bogeys, ending with a 20-foot birdie on the 72nd hole to finish at even-par 284, one stroke better than Candie Kung, who waited hopefully for a playoff, and two better than Kerr and In-Kyung Kim.

"I didn't even dream about winning this tournament," Ji said through a translator. "But I did it, and I think this is going to be one of the most memorable moments in my life." Ji, 23, is the seventh Korean to win a major, although Se Ri Pak with five is the only multiple winner among them. With Inbee Park's win in last year's Women's Open followed by Jiyai Shin's victory at the Ricoh Women's British Open, three of the last five majors have been won by Koreans.

"I think it is going to be all over the news in Korea," said Ji, who was to fly back to her homeland that night. "I think there will be a lot more people recognizing me." Ji, the 2003 Korean Women's Amateur champion, won twice on the KLPGA in 2007 and, in only four LPGA tournaments that year, earned enough to finish 52nd on the money list and gain a tour card for 2008, when she finished No 15 in earnings. Her only other LPGA win was at the Wegmans, prompting Bivens to say players who couldn't pass an English proficiency test would lose their tour card, a decision she had to rescind because of the intense negative reaction.

As is often the case for those who win majors, Ji's solid shotmaking—she was T-6 in fairways hit for the week and T-2 in greens in regulation—was complemented by patience and aided by the generosity of others. Kerr contributed with bogeys on Nos. 13 and 16 Sunday—after also making bogeys on both of the front-nine par 5s—while Kung's gift was a bogey on the 126-yard 17th with a wedge in her hand. Ji's patience kicked in after the double bogey on No. 10, when she tried to drive the short par 4, landed in a greenside bunker and needed three more shots to reach the green.

"I think that double bogey actually gave me an opportunity to calm myself down," she said. "I think it was one of the factors in winning this tournament. After that double bogey I basically cleared my mind, and said 'Let's go and play out the rest of the round.' " Ji played mistake-free from there in, something no one else with a chance to win could say.

"She's just real steady," Kerr, the 2007 Open champion, said about Ji after letting the title slip away with a closing-round 75 in which she missed too many fairways and short putts, most painfully a four-footer for par on No. 16. "Steady wins Opens. I played poor enough to kind of give it away."

Kung played great, closing with 68-69 on the weekend, but all that was undercut by her misplay on No. 17. "Very costly," Kung said. "I was playing for 105 yards and then have it release to the hole. That wind just took it, and it ended up in the bunker." The flagstick on No. 17 was 2½ paces from the left edge and 3½ paces from the back. "I didn't aim out to the middle of the green enough," Kung said.