Plenty of Koreans following sister Pak

Se Ri Pak has won the Farr Classic four times and has total LPGA winnings of more than $8.5 million.

Their fans call them the Seoul Sisters.

But it was a very small sisterhood in 1998.

Pearl Sinn was a Korean native who was reared in the United States and had been on the LPGA Tour since the early '90s.

And there was a tour rookie, little known in this country, named Se Ri Pak.

Today, there are 32 Korean natives playing on the LPGA Tour. Some 19 of them are entered in this week's Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic.

"Se Ri she's our big sister," said Hee-Won Han, who joined the LPGA full time in 2001 and posted her fifth victory earlier this year.

There is no question who influenced the onslaught of Korean players to the U.S.-based tour.

Kyeong Bae was 12 years old and just starting to play the game in Seoul in 1998.

"I can remember watching Se Ri in the playoff with [amateur Jenny] Chuasiriporn for the U.S. Open on TV," Bae said yesterday at Highland Meadows Golf Club. "It was amazing and it had a big impact in my head. It changed my thoughts and my goals."

It changed a lot of things.