MARATHON CLASSIC

A week after historic win, Sei Young Kim reminds us that magic in golf is fleeting

7/13/2018

Sei Young Kim chips onto the No. 17 green in the second round of the Marathon Classic on Friday at Highland Meadows.

Blade/Katie Rausch

As any weekend golfer knows, some days you’re the birdie, some days you’re my cracked bay window. (Winner by split decision: the window.)

It’s why most of us at Highland Meadows surely can relate with the yo-yoing last week of Sei Young Kim.

One week, you produce the greatest four rounds of golf played.

The next, you’re merely world class, shooting only 1-under-par.

“A little bit of a struggle,” Kim said Friday after her second round at the Marathon Classic.

Wait, we haven’t all been there!?

In fact, that’s the singular journey of Kim, a third-degree black belt who rolled into town fresh off walloping a golf course as fearlessly as any man or woman had before.

VIDEO: Sei Young Kim reflects on her second round

Kim last week shattered the LPGA Tour — and video game — scoring record with a score of 31 under to win the Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic in Wisconsin. Yes, 31 under — four shots better than the previous mark the 25-year-old South Korean already shared with Annika Sorenstam, and, for comparison, on par with the PGA Tour’s 72-hole record set by Ernie Els at the Mercedes Championship in Hawaii in 2003.

As for her encore, no pressure, but ...

“Thirty-two this week, right?” Marathon tournament director Judd Silverman playfully told Kim upon her arrival.

She smiled.

Alas, history has not repeated itself. Kim, ranked 20th in the world, shot an even-par 71 on Friday to enter the weekend 1-under 141 and in a tie for 44th.

If her pendulum swing from divine to fine can be considered a fall back to the green earth here — sign us up for such a humbling — it offered an unneeded reminder this game with the little white ball is really, really hard.

And the women here who play it are really, really good.

It is easy for the lunkhead or two to suggest Kim’s bleeding-red scorecard was the product of a too-easy, pitch-and-putt setup. Hey, we get it. It’s an easy criticism. The courses can be set up to entertain birdie-craving fans — including Highland Meadows, which played as short as 6,254 yards last year — and the scores can be low.

Last year, In-Kyung Kim fired a 21-under 263 here as a record dozen players had sub-70 season scoring averages. Last week, Sei Young Kim had 31 birdies and an eagle.

Half seriously, I asked the puppeteer in charge of setting up the course if — like the Tiger-proofers before him in the PGA — he intended to Kim-proof Highland Meadows, lest anyone indeed get any ideas of 32-under.

He laughed.

“We set the golf course up the way it’s been designed,” lead LPGA rules official Marty Robinson said.

Let us put it this way then: Are the setups too marshmallowy or the players this damn good?

“Well, I’d start with they’re that damn good,” he said.

The man speaks the truth.

If anything, Highland Meadows — a sneaky course with tight fairways — has played tougher than usual this week, with sticky pin placements and firm, fast, sun-drenched conditions. But still the co-tourney leaders (Brooke Henderson and Caroline Hedwall) entered the weekend at 9-under 133. These players are pros for a reason. Let’s stop hand wringing, enjoy the show, and give credit where it is due.

“I always tell people somebody is going to shoot 5-under every day,” Robinson said. “That’s no matter how hard you have it. You could make the fairways 10 yards wide, but if the player is hitting it straight and making putts, it doesn’t bother them.”

That was Kim last week, only to the extreme. A week later, she still can’t believe the magic she felt in her bag. “I played pretty solid all four days,” Kim said.

Or, as the rest of us might put it ...

“That is some golf being played,” Lexi Thompson said.

“Oh, my God, incredible!” Brittany Lincicome said. “I was watching it, and I saw all these negative comments on Twitter about, ‘Oh, the golf course was too easy.’ You still have to get the ball in the hole. Like 31 birdies doesn’t happen by accident. It’s amazing.”

It is, but of course such sorcery never is more than on loan. Not for nothing we’ve all thought: I hate this game! I hate this game! Great shot! I love this game! I hate this game! Kim no doubt felt the same much of the second round. She drilled her opening drive on No. 10 behind a tree well left of the fairway, and similarly labored much of the day. But in the truest sign of the talent Kim is, she still found a way to stay in the red.

Now, she is hoping for a worthy encore just the same.

“I need a big comeback,” she said.

Contact David Briggs at: dbriggs@theblade.com, 419-724-6084, or on Twitter @DBriggsBlade.