The first day of play at Blackwolf Run, Kohler, Wis. was completed yesterday with six- hour rounds being played in humid temperatures reaching 98 degrees. This brought back memories of other U.S. Women’s Opens requiring extreme discipline and patience.
In 1997 Jenny Chuasiriporn was one of my roommates at the Eastern Women’s Amateur Championship in Williamsburg, Va. Jenny was a cheerful, delightful young person to be with. She was an outstanding player at Duke University who won the Eastern, Western and Trans-Miss National amateur women’s titles and was nationally ranked No 2.
It was exciting watching Jenny play in the Women’s Open at Blackwolf Run in 1998 as a 20-year-old amateur. At the end of the 72-hole regulation play, she was tied with another 20-year-old, South Korean Se Ri Pak, a rookie professional. The 18-hole play-off turned into the longest played tournament in women’s professional golf. Tied at the end of the 18-hole play-off, Jenny and Se Ri played 2 extra sudden-death holes before Pak holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the 92nd hole to win.
My emotional memory is of the 18th hole in the play-off where Pak took off her shoes, waded knee high into the water and hit a shot out of the deep grass to keep her ball in play. While she was doing this, Jenny and her brother Joey who was caddying for her waited and waited and waited for her turn. What could Jenny possibly have been thinking during all this time under this kind of mental and physical pressure? It looked as if Jenny would par the hole, but wound up bogeying as did Se Ri forcing the sudden-death play-off.
After a few years on other pro tours, Chuasiriporn changed her career. In 2005 she earned a degree in nursing at the University of Marylandand a master’s degree as a nurse practitioner in 2010. Her patients aren’t aware that she was once one putt away from winning the US Women’s Open Championship. But 14 years later, Chuasiriporn says she is content. She loves her job. Her goal is to “make a difference in people’s lives” and to be known as something more than a golfer.
Se Ri Pak became a legend after her victory and has inspired South Korean women golfers to follow her. In the 14 years since the Open, the LPGA has seen an influx of South Korean players who have won three of the last four US Opens. Currently 36 South Korean women are ranked in the top 100. Se Ri is playing in the 2012 U.S. Women’s Open at Blackwolf Run trying for a repeat victory.
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