Who Are These Leaders?

Southern Pines, N.C. – A cursory check of the U.S. Women’s Open leaderboard displays a smorgasbord of unlikely names.

Not that Angela Park, Amy Hung, Ji-Yai Shin and Julieta Granada are chopped liver, but they’re certainly not the prime rib names being offered as favorites just three days ago.

Either withdrawing as Michelle Wie did during her 28^th hole because of a lingering wrist injury, missing the cut like major champions Suzann Pettersen, Juli Inkster and Karrie Webb, or gasping for birdies as Paula Creamer, Laura Davies or Annika Sorenstam are, this is not the Open that was envisioned.

Ji-Yai Shin, who lost her mother in a car accident, follows through on a shot during her second round Saturday. (Fred Vuich/USGA)

With Morgan Pressel keeping the leaderboard from looking like an episode of "What’s My Line?" the names assembling at the top for the final two rounds at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club are anything but household.

Angela Park, the second-round leader who is at 5-under 137, is one of six players in the field with the last name of Park. So understandable is how she could be easily lost in the shuffle were she not leading.

The 18-year-old of Brazilian descent considers herself a California girl, who last year didn’t consider herself quite ready for the LPGA, so played the Duramed Futures Tour.

She entered this week with two top-10 finishes in her last three starts and her rationale for making the U.S. Women’s Open her first victory is really quite simple.

"Se Ri Pak did it, so I think I’m ready for it," she said. "My game is there, my mentality is there, I’ve been working very hard throughout the season, so we’ll give it a go."

Ji-Yai Shin, 19, has posted rounds of 70 and 69 in her U.S. Women’s Open debut, and has etched her name on the LPGA tour - the Korean LPGA, that is. As a KLPGA rookie in 2006, she totaled 12 top-five finishes and finished the year with the only sub-70 season scoring average in the tour’s history.

In the co-sanctioned Kolon-Hana Bank Championship, which featured a field with some top LPGA names, she tied for fourth.

Getting to know some of the international players better has made it a bit more difficult in the language barrier. This is just Shin’s second professional tournament on the American mainland, so her English is spoken either in broken sound bytes or through an interpreter.

Julieta Granada was well-known on the amateur circuit. Now she's trying to carve out a name for herself as a professional. (John Mummert/USGA)

In her post second-round flash interview session there were nine questions asked of her. The total number of words to those responses was 80.

One of the storylines with Shin is that when she was still an amateur she was in a car accident that killed her mother.

Hung, 27, of Taipei, has one international victory, yet her best finish since joining the LPGA in 2004 is a tie for seventh at the Safeway Classic two years ago. That’s not the kind of resume that will qualify for marquee status, but a win this week would help matters.

When asked about her three under status on the leaderboard after the second round, Hung responded: "Just happy. This is like the greatest tournament in the world and I'm just happy to be here."

And then there is Julieta Granada, 20, of Florida via Paraquay. Long on talent, Granada’s 2006 LPGA rookie season was capped by winning the ADT Championship, an event that featured a $1 million winner’s check.

She admits that event was of a different magnitude than the nail-biting intensity of this U.S. Women’s Open.

"Well, obviously the ADT was a little bit more nerve wracking," said Granada, who is not unfamiliar with winning USGA events. She won the 2004 U.S. Junior Girls Championship.

While the winner’s share this week is a mere $560,000, winning that first major would move any of the quartet of leaders to a new level of name recognition.

Granada admitted to having received a few phone calls from her native country after her shooting a 1-under 70 in the opening round. Should she win come Sunday evening, a whole name may be calling her name.