Chapter 20

On a golf tournament's final day, the leaders go out last. By the time we reached the first tee, word had spread that Donna Fregosi, a three-year pro who'd barely held onto her tour card the previous year, was burning up the course on the tenth hole. Fregosi had started the day well back, seven strokes behind Kim and Tess.

Now she was only two behind and looking good for another bird on the tenth. Karrie Webb spoke quietly to Tess and Kim as they waited to be introduced by the event announcer. "She does this," Webb said, referring to Fregosi's torrid first nine holes. "She'll just light the place up, sometimes, with one birdie after another, and you never know when it's going to end!"

"I'd never even heard of her," Tess said.

"No, she hasn't won much," Webb agreed. "But she has done this before -- had one sensational day in a tournament that leapfrogs her over a dozen people on the leader board."

"She's going to make some money today," Kim said.

"If she keeps this up, it could be money straight out of our pockets," Webb agreed.

My girls, meanwhile, weren't playing badly. They both were at par for the round after the first four holes. Karrie Webb had pulled to within one stroke of them, and -- far ahead of us on the par 5 thirteenth, the Fregosi woman had just picked up an eagle.

We were now in a three-way tie for the Championship.

Webb, only one stroke back of the leaders, seemed to be freaked out by Fregosi's sudden success. "She doesn't make eagles!" Webb said, incredulous. "I've seen these gangbuster rounds by her before, but she's a patty-cake hitter. That might have been her first eagle, ever!"

Kim and Tess, in terms of scoring, were both standing still. However, outside of this Donna Fregosi, whose round was almost completed, their only competition was coming from Webb, and from each other. Nobody else in the field, it seemed, was making a serious move.

Kim finally birdied one on the eleventh. We got word that Fregosi had completed her final round with a sizzling 63 -- breaking the course record so recently tied by Kim. Kim's bird put her one shot behind Fregosi, one ahead of Tess.

Karrie Webb fell back with a disastrous triple-bogey on the 15^th hole, pretty much dooming her to fourth place, or worse.

On the 16^th, a short par 3, Tess' tee shot came within six inches of the cup, thrilling the large gallery and virtually guaranteeing her another bird and perhaps a share of the lead.

Kim's tee shot on 16 wasn't nearly as impressive, but when they reached the green, she holed out a 25-footer for a bird, matching Tess' score for the hole and maintaining Kim's one-shot lead.

... One shot over Tess, that is. Kim and Fregosi were now all square at 13 under par. Kim had two tough finishing holes to avoid a playoff. Tess remained one stroke behind the co-leaders.

Seventeen was a long par 4 with water down one side. It was a scary, curving fairway but it did favor Tess' game because it allowed her to hit a natural fade that would, if all went well, just roll and roll.

"Birdie hole!" I told her as she teed up. Tess' expression told me that she thought so, too. Her tee shot was long and on a great line to the cup.

Kim hit short, and narrowly avoided going into the water. It seemed to be a nervous shot, and she would have a bad lie, and no place to put her feet, for her second shot -- still a long way from the green, where the pin for the final round was set very deep.

But Kim could crush a golf ball when the occasion demanded it, and she reached the green in two -- albeit on the front edge, still a good 65 feet from the pin.

Tess' second shot was dead-on, landing four feet from the cup, with birdie written all over it.

We waited for Karrie Webb to hit her approach shot. Her tee shot on seventeen had been the best of the batch. It happens. A competitor falls back too far to catch up, and then starts playing flawless golf.

Webb, too, got close, her ball landing only about eight feet away from the cup.

Kim had to be a little nervous. She could get her par on 17 merely by getting down in two, but at 65 feet away, she was in some danger of failing to get her putt close enough to assure holing it out in two.

If, as appeared to be a near-certainty, Tess made her own short putt, they'd likely go to eighteen in a three-way tie.

Kim putted first, however. To everyone's shock and surprise, she drained the 65-footer! Her caddy, a skinny local man who'd done good work for her all week, lost his cool and could easily be overheard by the gallery.

"Son of a bitch!" he said.

Well, Tess made her bird, all right, but she was still a shot back -- tied, now, for second, with Fregosi.

If Kim could par in, she could win it without a playoff.

... Unless Tess could birdie the final hole.

Walking to the 18^th tee, Tess tapped Kim's right arm and said, "How in blazes did you make that putt? It went left, right and sideways on its way to the cup, and it was all downhill! I was scared to death you'd hit it eight feet past, and not be able to get down in two!"

Kim just smiled. "I like this golf course," she said. "You know how, when you do exactly what you are trying to do, sometimes it still doesn't work, because the course will screw you, anyway?... But, here? If you hit it the way you want it to go -- that's where it goes!"

Karrie Webb, now with no chance for the win, had already gotten over her disappointment. Smiling at Kim, she said, "Stuff this one! I never liked that Fregosi woman much. Let her have the second-place money."

"I think I have it under control," Kim told her, "but I'm hoping that second-place check goes to Tess, here."

Well, it did -- sort of. Both my girls finished the 18th in par. Kim had the outright win. Tess would have to share second-place money with "that Fregosi woman."

Kim would collect $300,000 as the McDonald's LPGA Champion.

When all the calculations had been made, Tess and Donna Fregosi would divide the 2-3 money equally -- $169,432 each. It was both women's biggest career payday -- both Tess and Fregosi, I mean.

Oh -- and Kim? Oh, yeah, it was her biggest payday, too.

They didn't get much bigger.

The press was in a near-frenzy following Sunday's play. Kim and Tess were the most charismatic rookie golfers on the Women's Tour, and they had managed to finish 1-2. Donna Fregosi was neither popular nor particularly attractive, but the fourth-place finisher, Karrie Webb, was tall, trim, well-known and highly-regarded. All in all, it was a triumph for youth and vigor, and a girl-watcher's field day.

The press conference was lively and the questions being fired at the four women were coming hard and fast.

Tess, responding to a question, said she wouldn't be playing the following week at the Wegman's Tournament in Pittsford, New York. "I had planned to play there," Tess said. "It's a fine tournament. But after this pressure-packed week, I just want to go back home to North Carolina, and start preparing for the U.S. Women's Open at Southern Pines."

Kim and Tess hadn't consulted about any of this beforehand. Kim had been even more certain than Tess that she would compete at Pittsford. It was known to be a well-managed event with a healthy winner's purse.

But Kim had just won her first tournament -- an LPGA major! "I won't be going to New York, either," she told the press. "I'm emotionally wrung out. This tournament has been -- amazing! I'm so pleased, so thrilled, to have won. But I don't think, now, that I could ever get ready for the Wegman's -- not this soon. Not after this!"

I couldn't have been more pleased. The U.S. Women's Open was 18 days away. It was going to be held at Pine Needles Golf Course, near Southern Pines, North Carolina. Southern Pines featured wall-to-wall top-grade golf courses in all directions. The world-famous Pinehurst Number Two was nearby.

Some said that Pinehurst Number Two was the finest golf course in the world! It probably wasn't, but when someone said it was, there were very few who felt really confident enough to contradict the statement.

And we could go home, and rest awhile, and play the home course in Chapel Hill.

Maybe, even, there would finally be enough time to take Tess over to Raleigh to meet my family.

I'd take Kim, too. Of course, my parents and my two sisters wouldn't hear the whole story, about Kim. I figured it might be an open secret that Tess and I were a couple. My little sisters, perhaps, hadn't gotten wind of that, but surely my dad and mom would both know. But we'd have to wait and see, to be certain.

Kim, though. That was another story. Kim's part of our relationship wasn't a story we would likely be telling anyone in the Everett household, back in Raleigh.

We waited until the next day -- Monday, June 11 -- to start for home. The previous evening had been frenetic. Long after the press conference broke up, Kim (and, to a lesser extent, Tess as well) got detained by tournament officials, LPGA bigwigs, and just loquacious golfing fans who wanted to go over the match, hole-by-hole.

We caught a late seafood dinner (again in Aberdeen), managing not to be recognized by anyone, and thus enjoyed a lengthy, relaxing winding-down dinner. We weren't that far away from Chapel Hill. We could make it home tomorrow. Kim had already agreed, enthusiastically, to stay with Tess again during the time leading up to the Southern Pines event.

Kim had been observing, with some interest, the way Tess conducted her business affairs during the time we'd been together. Now that she had a check for $300,000 in her pocket, and almost two weeks coming up in one place, she asked Tess for advice about investment and taxation experts she might consult.

"I don't have any idea how well-versed our tax people are about handling the earnings of non-citizens," Tess said, "but my people are awfully good, and their ethical standards are the highest. I'm certain they'll take excellent care of your money, Kim, and if they need help with anything that stems from your being a South Korean national, they'll seek out that help, wherever they need to go to get it."

So it was agreed that Tess would introduce Kim Young Sun to the Henderson's tax and investment advisors in the Tri-Cities Area.

Meanwhile, I'd be stopping off in Raleigh to see my own family for a few days.

I had a little income to invest, now, myself, and maybe a few simple tax questions. But it wasn't enough to justify the kind of high-powered lawyers and accountants that Tess was dealing with. If TurboTax wasn't adequate to my needs, I'd locate some Joe Blow accounting firm that I wouldn't have to dress up in a suit and tie to go and see.