SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN, ARIZ. — So we've got three contenders going into the final round of the LPGA's Safeway International. We've got the winsome, at-the-top-of-her-game Mexican sweetheart, Lorena Ochoa, who is gunning for her third consecutive Rolex Player of the Year award. We've got the spunky, good-at-games, late-blooming, two-time Solheim Cupper from Texas, Angela Stanford, who beats Ochoa at one-on-one basketball. And we've got ... the Korean.
Sorry, that's all I can tell you. I caught Jee Young Lee's press conference this afternoon, and an interpreter had to jump in after Lee said, "I play well today. I had some weak drivers, but couldn't iron and putt." And all the interpreter could extract was the unsurprising fact that Lee looks forward to playing in the final group with Ochoa on Sunday. ("She's going to be really happy to be in the first place if she wins this tournament.")
There are six Lees in the LPGA media guide, and I, along with your average golf fan, can only identify the one called Sarah. ("She's the gal who rolls her eyes when you ask for her coffee cake recipe.") This is quite sad, really, because the South Korean golfers are not ciphers. If you cut them, do they not bleed? If you step in their line, do they not mutter something that would make their mothers blush?
SI Golf Plus surveyed the Korean golfers a couple of years ago. Among the survey's findings: Jeong Jang knits her own head covers. Gloria Park is a skydiver and roller-coaster nut. Meena Lee trained to be a concert pianist. Jimin Kang owns more than seventy purses and reads the Bible every night.
Or so we were told. I suspect the Korean girls laugh into their hands whenever the western journalists leave the room.
Anyway, I look at Jee Young Lee and all I see is a stocky 23-year-old with a round face and a shy smile. But she's obviously much more than that. Lee won an LPGA event, the 2005 CJ Nine Bridges Classic, before she was even an LPGA member. Last year she finished second three times, including a playoff loss to Suzann Pettersen in the Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill and an eye-opening T-2 in the Women's British Open.
So trust me, this Lee gal has got more than enough game to hang with Ochoa and Stanford. If you want to know more, check out her web site, www.leejeeyoung.com.
You do read Korean, don't you?
