16 years ago, Se Ri Pak surely started the wave. But Jeong Jang and Hee-Won Han were two of the first to spark the crescendo, key cogs of the so-called first generation of Korean golfers along with Grace Park and Pak. Entering retirement now, eight players from South Korea sit in the top-25 on the LPGA Tour money list and 13 in the top-50.

As the two good friends, who decided to leave the game together, walked the 18th fairway for the final time a week ago at the Portland Classic Presented by Cambia Health Solutions, one look down at the flags hanging beside each name on the tee shot was all one needed to see their impact in globalizing the women’s game.

“It is kind of a passing on of the torch because they've been out since the turn of the century, turn of the millennium, if you will, and now like all these young players coming in, and it's really cool to see,” Christina Kim said. “But it is also sad, especially since I came out the turn of the millennium, too.”

Added I.K. Kim: “They opened the door for us, and now there's more Asian players coming in to the tour.”

Just in front of the scorer’s tent to the left of the pond in front of the 18th green, all the players who had walked through the door they swung open were apparent. They were all there waiting on Jang and Han – both to say thank you and good bye.

“They were truly the first group of pioneers of Korean women's golf, and just seeing how much it's exploded over the last few years, it's remarkable, and there's no question they made a huge impact on that.” Kim said.

GRACE EMBODIED

The scorer’s tent after the second round more resembled the tear jerker scene of a sad movie than a signing of scorecards. Except the main character in this story, Han, seemed unaffected. The waterworks were coming from Christina Kim, and they slowly spread to fellow playing partner Pat Hurst. Sometimes tears spread like laughter, though, and now Han was crying too. She’d missed the cut by one, or so she thought, but she wasn’t sad as much as she was at peace with her decision.

“Not really until the green. But yeah, they made me cry,” Han said about her emotions.

She’d thought about this for a while, the final signature that would pave the way to more time with what mattered most – her family. Her husband Hyuk Son, a baseball commentator, still lives in Korea, and her son Dale is now seven, and she was ready to be done with the travel that comes with the game. This move was to make time for them. It just felt right, especially in Portland where she had won exactly ten years prior – her third of six career wins.

“She embodies grace and it's bitter sweet because you know it's time for her to be with her family, and you know, she's given a lot to golf, both in the States as well as in Korea,” Christina Kim said. “She's made a great name for herself, and she's had a wonderful career, but it is always sad. She's one of my favorite people out here. I'm running out of friends.”

A scheduled dinner led by Juli Inkster, Hurst and Kim was organized after the round was supposed to be a good bye. It turned into a celebration of two more days with their friend as Friday’s second round didn’t prove to be the correct time for her departure. Sunday was. The afternoon waves floated the cut up by a shot, giving Han two more strolls with the friends she says will be the toughest part about retirement. But no worries, since she started the Tour in 2001, a communication device has been created to stay in touch with old friends that she had previously shunned but will now adopt.

“I don’t have a Facebook, but I’m going to make one now,” she said with a chuckle.

THE GIVER

“The Forgotten War,” as they’ve come to call it, wasn’t forgotten by the elderly gentlemen meeting up in the back of the Seoul Garden Restaurant. Their wardrobe touted their accomplishment: Korean War Veteran, their hats and jackets read. This was a pretty standard reunion among the Rochester chapter, the common bond among them being a war that the chapter president says no one seems to remember.

Yet, Jeong Jang does, and once a year for the last eight, she’s been a special guest at this chapter’s meeting.

She didn’t forget about the Korean War when she hoisted the trophy on June 25 - that Sunday in 2006 at the Wegmans LPGA. Her method of appreciation or remembrance didn’t come in the form of word in a speech. It came in her actions, which really begs the question: How would you celebrate a win? Would you take a suggestion from a stranger to go see a Korean War memorial only hours after the second win of your career?

And then, would you continue to not only go back to meet with the members of that chapter but also support the maintenance and improvement of the memorial year after year upon your return to Rochester?

Almost certainly not, but few have the heart that Jang does, adopting the chapter and coming back year after year to see the men that have become “like grandpas” to her.

“She’s a wonderful, wonderful person. She’s so giving, always smiling and always giving to us. It says an awful lot of her personality and her makeup that she’s still coming back,” said Roger Hill, President of the Korean War Veterans Association chapter in Rochester. “It’s made us feel like these are the people that we did what we did for.”

Everything has seemingly changed since she first visited the chapter. She got married, and has a 2-year-old daughter now, Sam, who ran around the meeting capturing the veterans’ hearts with the same smile and friendliness her mom first did eight years prior.

She joked that her daughter told her to retire and that’s why she’s walking away. But really, it’s more about the changes in her wrist over the last years, that pesky right one that’s required three surgeries on the ligaments inside.

“Everybody thinks you can’t practice because of your kids but it’s not the kids. It’s because of my wrist. I’ve had three surgeries done and my wrist is not ready for big practice,” Jang said. “It’s not for my kids to make me retire. Not at all. The LPGA day care is awesome.”

Over the last two years, Sam’s been the constant in her smile. She’s traveled with her and brought her everywhere, and she serves as a reminder never to take the game too seriously.

As the five-foot spark plug with the big smile walks away, it’s the smile in which Jang first showed her giving nature that will forever be associated with her legacy. Entering the LPGA Tour in 2000 with little English in her repertoire, she realized the smile was universal, and she wanted everyone to have that right, working with Operation Smile – a charity that surgically repairs cleft lips for children.

Now, 15 years after first flashing that smile for golf fans in America, Jang’s smile and compassion will be what everyone that’s met “JJ” will come to remember. Especially those group of veterans in Rochester.

The End of an Era

Related Articles