KOHLER, Wis. – There was a poignant moment midway through the final round of the 67th U.S. Women’s Open on Sunday.

Se Ri Pak, who won the tournament at Blackwolf Run in 1998, was finishing her round just as two other Korean golfers – Na Yeon Choi and Amy Yang – were making the turn for the back nine. Choi and Yang were first and second on the leaderboard while playing in the final twosome, and the greens at Nos. 9 and 18 were adjoining.

Pak wanted to give Choi an encouraging look, but through better of it.

“I knew she was focused, and I didn’t want her to lose her focus,’’ said Pak. “So I tried not to give her a look, but she had been there many times. She had already won five times (on the Ladies PGA Tour).’’

When their paths crossed Pak was finishing off a 71, which eventually got her into a tie for ninth place. Choi had maintained the six-stroke lead on Yang that she had at the start of the round. Their status at the top of the leaderboard never changed, though Choi’s lead dwindled.

In the end the Korean domination of the biggest championship in women’s golf continued. Choi, 24, became the fifth Korean player to win the title in the last eight years and – for the second straight year – Korean players finished one-two. Paula Creamer, the top American, tied for seventh.

“Last year a couple of Koreans went to a playoff,’’ recalled Pak of the duel in which So Yeon Ryu defeated Hee Kyung Seo. “Again (two Koreans) played together in the last round. I’m really happy to see that. I’m very proud of both of them.’’

Choi and Yang, 22, continued the tradition that Pak started 14 years ago. They took charge of the competition in Saturday’s third round when Choi shot a tournament third-round record-tying 65 to open a six-stroke lead.

No golfer had ever come from six back to win the Women’s Open, and Yang couldn’t do it, either. Choi maintained the six-shot lead until passing Pak at the turn. Whether their brief, silent encounter affected her she wasn’t saying, but pressure did creep in.

“I wasn’t nervous at all. I was calm on the front nine,’’ said Choi. “I had one missed shot on 10 tee box and got a triple bogey.’’

That brought Yang within twi shots, but Choi recovered with a birdie at No. 11, saved par after a tee shot into high grass at No. 12 and got a big break at the 13th when her tee shot bounced off high rocks into a safe place.

From there it was easy. Choi finished with a 73 for 7-under-par 281. Yang carded 71 and 3-under 285. They were the class of the field on a course that was 400 yards longer than it was when Pak won her title in a 20-hole playoff. The scoring was much better than it was for Pak’s storied run to the title. Six-over-par golf was good enough when Pak won.

“I just can’t believe this,’’ said Choi, who added Sunday’s $585,000 first prize to the $6 million she earned since joining the LPGA in 2008. “Maybe tomorrow I will feel it – when I get to Korea.’’

After Pak the Korean winners of the U.S. Women’s Open included Birdie Kim (2005), Inbee Park (2008), Eun-Hee Ji (2009) and Ryu. Choi’s victory was more special, though, because it came on the same course on which Pak won.

“It was like 14 years ago when Se Ri won,’’ said Choi. “I watched it, and I call her legend. She inspired all the Korean players.’’

KOHLER, Wis. – There doesn’t seem to be a question about whether a South Korean golfer will contend for the U.S. Women’s Open title. After all, four players from that little country won the biggest tournament in women’s golf in the last seven years. Now the question is, which one will win it next?

Na Yeon Choi appears the best bet after her third-round 65 on Saturday at Blackwolf Run. Making seven birdies in her first 12 holes, Choi came from four strokes off the pace to open a six-stroke lead over Amy Yang, another South Korean, entering today’s final round.

Choi’s 7-under-par score tied the record for low third-round in the 67-year history of the U.S. Women’s Open. It was also the lowest at Blackwolf Run, one stroke better than American Michelle Wie shot on Friday. Choi hit 15 fairways on a windy day and needed only 26 strokes on the very undulating putting surfaces designed by architect Pete Dye.

Wedge shot approaches set up four of her eight birdies, the longest of which came from 20 feet at No. 7. That run of good play left Choi at 8-under 208 for 54 holes.

“I had a really good feeling about my swing,’’ said Choi. “The last two months I’ve been playing so-so, but this got me back on track. I wasn’t nervous. I played one shot at a time. It was windy when we started and it looked like a difficult day, but I made birdies on the first two holes and that gave me confidence.’’

Blackwolf Run is where this astonishing Korean success story began, when Se Ri Pak won the first U.S. Women’s Open held here in a dramatic 20-hole playoff in 1998. Pak — now an LPGA Hall of Famer –was the first champion among the Korean players, and she was Yang’s playing partner on Saturday.

Since Pak’s win Korean players have averaged seven LPGA titles a year and the U.S. Women’s Open has been their greatest stage. Yang started 10 groups in front of Choi and carded a 69.

Today Choi hopes to follow Birdie Kim (2005), Inbee Park (2008), Eun-Hee Ji (2009) and So Yeon Ryu (2011) as recent Korean winners of the Open. Ryu won last year by beating another Korean, Hee Kyung Seo, in a playoff. They have built on the success that Pak started.

“I was only 9 years old when I was watching on TV when Se Ri inspired all the Korean players,’’ said Choi. “I remember that feeling. All of our golfers call her a legend. I want to continue that feeling, from what Se Ri did 14 years ago.’’

Choi, Pak, Yang and Ryu were among 26 players from South Korea – a country about the size of Indiana – in the starting field here. Choi , 24, has won five times on the LPGA Tour since coming on the circuit in 2008 and earned over $6 million.

In each season she ranked in the top 10 in birdies, scoring average, rounds under par, rounds in the 60s and top-10 finishes. In 2010 she had low scoring average and also won the LPGA money title. This year she’s fifth in the Rolex Rankings.

A win by Yang, 22, wouldn’t be a fluke, either. Ranked 13th, she hasn’t won since joining the LPGA in 2008 but tied for 10th in last year’s U.S. Women’s Open.

Norway’s Suzann Pettersen, the 36-hole leader, soared to a 78 in the third round. So did Wie, her playing partner. American Christie Kerr, one shot behind Pettersen at the start of the day, carded a 77.

KOHLER, Wis. – Finally Michelle Wie is back – well, at least for a day.

Long touted as the next superstar of women’s golf, Wie fired a 6-under-par 66 in the second round of the 67th U.S. Women’s Open at Blackwolf Run on Friday, an indication that her lengthy run of mediocre play might be over.

“At least I know I made the cut,’’ quipped Wie after moving into a tie for second place with Cristie Kerr midway through the 72-hole championship. Norway’s Suzann Pettersen, playing in the threesome behind Wie, posted a 68 and holds the lead at 5-under-par 139 entering today’s third round. Wie, though, was the story of the day after posting the best round of the tournament so far.

“Playing behind her, I never saw her make as many putts as she did today,’’ said Pettersen. “She was fist-pumping on every putt. Michelle’s a great player with a lot of game.’’

But, until Friday, it hadn’t been so evident. Wie had six missed cuts in her previous 10 tournaments this year with her best finish a tie for 33rd.

“I played out of my butt to shoot 6-under. I’m pretty stoked to be back in contention,’’ said Wie. “I felt it coming the last couple weeks. It’s nice that it all came together today.’’

Wie, 22, contended for this biggest title in women’s golf in 2005 and 2006 when she was a young phenom. During that period of her life she became the youngest player (at age 10) to qualify for a U.S. amateur tournament, the youngest win one (the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links), the youngest to qualify for an LPGA event and the youngest to make a 36-hole cut on the pro circuit. She turned pro before her 15th birthday.

She was so promising then that she even tried to compete against the men in some PGA Tour events. That didn’t turn out so well, and Wie opted to go to college while playing a limited LPGA schedule. Though now a Stanford University graduate, she has but two LPGA wins, one in the limited field Lorena Ochoa Invitational in 2009 and the other in the full-field Canadian Open in 2010.

This year she’s been bugged by putting problems, and she even briefly tried the belly putter made popular on the men’s Champions Tour. Those putting woes disappeared on Friday, when Wie had 13 one-putt greens and made seven birdies en route to her best round – by three shots, mind you, in a U.S. Women’s Open. Maybe, just maybe, that magic will carry over for two more days and Wie will get the long-awaited first big win of her career.

“It’s nice that people have had those expectations for me,’’ she said. “It’s better than them having no expectations. I don’t know if anyone gave up on me or not. I’m sure some did and some didn’t. But I never gave up on myself, and today was a good reminder that I still have it.’’

She still has to overcome Pettersen, Kerr and the flock of Korean golfers who have dominated women’s golf in recent years.

Pettersen challenged for the Open title twice, tying for second in 2010 and tying for sixth in 2009. In 1998 Blackwolf Run proved the toughest-ever challenge for the tournament, as champion Se Ri Pak, first of the Korean stars, won with a 6-over-par performance. Pettersen doesn’t think the current Blackwolf – 400 yards longer than 14 years ago – is all that brutal.

“It’s pretty straight-forward, as wide open as U.S. Open course will ever get, and the greens are pretty big,’’ said Pettersen. “The course is very playable. You hit the fairways, you give yourself a lot of chances.’’

Friday’s 36-hole championship match of the 93rd Chicago District Amateur was interrupted by a 2-hour 40-minute rain delay, and the break had a big impact on the outcome.

Michael Davan and David Lawrence, two players who just completed their collegiate eligibility with plans to turn pro in the fall, were locked in a tight battle when the rain pelted Cantigny’s Woodside and Lakeside nines in Wheaton.

Davan was 1-up with a drive in the fairway at the 12th hole when play resumed. He was ready for the match’s restart, Lawrence wasn’t. Davan put his first swing after the delay on the green with a 9-iron from 125 yards while Lawrence hit his 8-iron from 162 far left, into a tree stump. Davan won that hole and took the next two with birdies.

“During the delay I took a nap, and it seemed like it took me an hour and a half to wake up,’’ said Lawrence, a Moline resident and Ohio Valley Conference first-team selection for Eastern Illinois. “I went from 1-down to 4-down quickly.’’

Davan, from downstate Hoopeston and the Horizon League player-of-the-year for Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, never trailed. He went on to a 4 and 3 victory in the first of the Chicago District Golf Association’s two major tourneys. The Illinois State Amateur is in August.

“Rain delays can make for a difficult situation,’’ said Davan. “I knew the shot I had to hit, and doing it gave me momentum. I got on a little run, and that made me comfortable.’’

Lawrence, 6-down at one point, fought back to 3-down with four holes left. He had a 14-foot birdie putt that might have cut the deficit further, but his putt lipped out. Davan then rolled in a 12-footer for birdie to clinch the match.

Four state-wide qualifying round advanced 60 players to the four-day competition at Cantigny. Though he’s had wins in college and junior events, Davan made the CDGA Am – oldest amateur tourney in the Midwest – his first major win. It came after a runner-up finish in the Southwest Amateur last week.

BENTON HARBOR, MI. – If you look at golf’s big picture, there are two significant stories brewing going into Sunday’s final round of the 73rd Senior PGA Championship.

The more obvious one is Roger Chapman, the English pro who tied the record at the new Harbor Shores course with a 7-under-par 64 on Saturday to open a five-stroke lead in the Champions Tour’s first major tournament of the year.

Still lurking, though, is 66-year old Hale Irwin, who goes into the final round tied four third and seven shots back. Once the dominant player on the 50-and-over circuit, Irwin is far more familiar with winning than Chapman. Chapman, 58, had one win in 19 seasons on the European PGA Tour and none anywhere since he turned 50.

Irwin was dubbed Mr. Chicago in his glory days, when he won the 1974 Western Open at Butler National, the 1990 U.S. Open at Medinah and two Champions Tour titles when the circuit had an annual Chicago stop at Stonebridge and Kemper Lakes.

Though Irwin hasn’t won since 2007, the winningest player in Champions Tour history is in somewhat familiar territory. The two-year old Harbor Shores course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, is the closest Champions Tour event to Chicago and the undulating greens remind Irwin of Winged Foot, the New York layout where he won the first of his three U.S. Opens in 1974.

If Irwin could pull of a win at Harbor Shores he’d be the oldest champion in Senior PGA history. Jock Hutchison, the long-time pro at Glen View Club, won the first Senior PGA in 1947 at age 62, and Irwin isn’t giving into age just yet.

“I’d have to play at least as well as I did yesterday (a second round 66 – the fourth time he’s shot his age in competition), said Irwin. “Roger played extremely well. He really separated himself from the field, but that can be inspirational as well.’’

Better putting would inspire Irwin, who is tied with Steve Pate and two shots behind second-place John Cook. Even after shooting his 66 he changed putters on Saturday, going with a heavier one. That’ll get discarded for the final round, as Irwin plans to bring back his Friday putter minus the tape he had put on it.

“Right now I’m looking for anything,’’ he said.

Irwin missed from eight feet at the first hole of Saturday’s rain-delayed round and three feet on the third. Then he put his tee shot in the water and three-putted at No. 4 for a triple bogey six. He still posted a 69 while playing in the same threesome as Chapman.

“That was the first time I played with Hale,’’ said Chapman, “and I felt in the right place mentally. I hit a lot of good iron shots early, and they kept getting better and better. That had to be the best iron play of my life.’’

He’s at 14-under-par 199 for 54 holes. Burr Ridge’s Jeff Sluman, the only player with a Chicago connection to survive the 36-hole cut, is tied for 42nd. Champions Tour members Gary Hallberg and Chip Beck and club pros Mike Harrigan and Billy Rosinia all failed to break 80 in difficult conditions during Thursday’s first round. They improved dramatically in the second but couldn’t qualify for weekend play.

BRADENTON, FL. — The current Northwestern men’s team was no match for the Wildcats’ alumni, but taking a pasting from world No. 1 Luke Donald and his cohorts did have its upside. It prepared the Wildcats well for another un at the Big Ten Match Play Championship.
Despite winning the title the previous two years, the Wildcats went into this year’s tourney as only the No. 7 seed. That didn’t matter, as coach Pat Goss’ squad knocked off No. 10 Penn State, No. 2 Iowa and No. 6 Ohio State before edging No. 8 Minnesota 4-1-1 to clinch the three-peat on Saturday.
A few days before the tournament the Wildcats took a 20 1/2-6 1/2 pounding from an alumni team that featured Donald but also included Nationwide Tour member Chris Wilson, former Illinois Amateur titlist T.C. Ford, former Eastern Amateur winner Kyle Moore and ex-PGA Tour player Jess Daley.
Donald starred for the Wildcats in his college days and has never forgotten his school loyalties. Among the many things he does to support his school involves hosting the annual alumni match at the Bear’s Club in Florida. That was particularly beneficial this year.
“Other schools have had those kinds of matches,’’ Goss said of the alumni battle, “but it helped (us). We always seem to play well in (the Big Ten Match Play) tournament.’’
Goss has now coached the Wildcats to 27 tournament titles in his 15 seasons.
The Bear’s Club, where Donald does his winter practicing, is a Jack Nicklaus design. So is the Concession Golf Club, which became the third course to host the Big Ten Match Play tourney in its four-year history.
Concession was brutal. Weather conditions were good on the first day of the two-week tourney, but the course (which Nicklaus designed with input from former European Ryder Cup champion Tony Jacklin) lived up to its 155 slope. Players from the 12 Big Ten members needed 5 1/2 hours to complete the first round of matches on the 7,472-yard layout and the second round was barely completed when darkness set in on Friday.
Fearing problems getting the tourney over on its second day, the coaches made a night-before decision to hold only a championship and third-place match after all teams played matches in the morning. That was a wise move as Concession played even more difficult on the Saturday day with strong winds swirling throughout.
After watching Donald shoot 67 in taking down Sam Chien in the alumni romp, the current Wildcats had a first-round scare at Concession. They survived Penn State in a tiebreaker after the regulation six matches ended 3-3. Iowa and Ohio State went down much more easily before Minnesota went down in the final. The Wildcats have won 13 straight matches in the tourney, which started in 2009 and are 14-1 overall.
The Big Ten became the first conference to establish a match play championship. Most college competitions are at stroke play, but league coaches thought it would better prepare their teams for the NCAA Championship if a match play event was included on the schedule. The format for the NCAA Championship was changed in recent years to provide a match play wrapup. The Big Ten’s version is the only televised regular-season collegiate tournament. Big Ten Network covered the action.
Teams were seeded according to their rankings in the fall season. Top-seeded Illinois was knocked out immediately, by Minnesota, and No. 2 Iowa survived only one round before losing to the Wildcats. NU didn’t figure to contend, despite its strong showing in previous conference match play competitions. NU was only mediocre in the fall season, but that was due in part because junior Nick Losole wasn’t available due to a bulged disc.
“He’s probably my second-best player,’’ Goss said.
Given clearance to use a push cart, Losole was a big factor at Concession. Playing as the No. 5 man in his first tourney of the year he didn’t need to play even the 18th hole in winning his first three matches and halved his other.
Joining Chien and Losole on the NU squad that competed at Concession were Eric Chun, Matthew Negri, Jack Perry and Matthew Negri.

LEMONT, IL. — Wire-to-wire champions were rare in the 20 years that Cog Hill has hosted the PGA Tour, and European winners of the BMW Championship and its longstanding predecessor, the Western Open, were rarer still.

England’s Justin Rose met both criteria Sunday after holding off his Australian playing partner, John Senden, on what’s expected to be the end of an era for the tourney at the Lemont layout. Rose started the day with a four-stroke lead, allowed Senden to get within one on the 15th hole and then put him away with a 36-foot chip-in birdie at the 17th.

Rose became only the third wire-to-wire winner at Cog Hill, joining Nick Price (1993) and Tiger Woods (2003), who were Western Open titlists. The BMW, which replaced the Western in 2007, had a wire-to-wire champion in 2008, but Camilo Villegas won his title at Bellerive in St. Louis — a substitute site while Cog’s Dubsdread course was undergoing a renovation.

As far as European champions go, Rose was the first since Harry Cooper won in 1934 and he had only two real challengers in the final round — Senden and another Australian, Geoff Ogilvy, who came on late to nab third place. That got Ogilvy into this week’s Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta — the last event of the FedEx Cup playoffs — and a spot on the World team in the upcoming President’s Cup matches in his home country.

Rose had his worst round of the week, a par 71, but finished at 13-under 271 for the 72 holes. Senden shot 69 for 273 and Ogilvy, also a 69 shooter, was another stroke back.

The Rose-Senden duel swung in the winner’s favor at the par-4 17th. Rose’s approach stopped just short of the green while Senden’s went into a green-side bunker. Senden’s escape shot finished 11 feet away, then Rose debated whether to putt from off the green or use a 54-degree wedge. Caddie Mark Fulcher advised the wedge, so Rose went with it and holed the shot.

“You can boil the whole day down to that moment,” said Rose. “John Senden was a rock out there, but I knew it was coming down to me. Either I was going to fritter it away or make something happen to win the tournament.”.

The chip-in gave Rose a two-stroke lead with just the 497-yard 18th to play, but Senden didn’t think he was dead yet after making his clutch par-saver.

“We were pretty close coming down the stretch,” said Senden. “I was pretty steady, and he was making some mistakes. After I holed my putt on 17 I thought I still had a chance, because anything can happen on that last hole.”

Rose wasn’t about to let his first victory of the season and third of his PGA Tour career slip away, however.

“It had been a gritty kind of round,” said Rose, “and it was an amazing feeling, making two great swings on the last.”

After Senden left his birdie putt four feet short Rose nearly holed his. The tap-in for par sealed his victory and boosted him from 34th in the FedEx standings at the start of the week to third heading into this week’s 30-player Tour Championship. By being in the top five Rose controls his own destiny in the chase for the $10 million bonus that awaits the FedEx winner. Any player in the top five now claims it with a win at East Lake. Senden left happy, too, since he needed a top-five finish here to reach the Tour Championship and got it.

Rose, 31, tied for sixth at The Barclays, the first playoff event, but was tied for 68th in a disappointing performance at the second — the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston. He didn’t expect good things at Cog Hill, a course he first played in 1997 at the U.S. Amateur.

“It beat me up then,” he said. A year later, though, Rose was the darling of the golf world when — at age 17 — he holed out from the rough on the last hole to tie for fourth at the British Open. He turned pro the next day, then missed his first 21 cuts as a professional while also coping with the death of his father. Success was slow in coming, but Rose is enjoying it now.

“Mentally this is the best I’ve ever been in terms of being very under control with my emotions, being very calm, being very aware of the situation and feeling comfortable with it,” he said. “This week, as a competitor and as a professional, was probably my best-ever performance.”