Aree Song

Aree Song is a professional golfer who plays on the U.S. based LPGA Tour. Her father is South Korean and her mother is Thai. She was born on 1 May 1986 in Bangkok, Thailand. She is a South Korean citizen, and has represented Thailand in junior team competition, but she has spent much of her life in the United States.

Song was a child prodigy, setting a number of youngest age records. In 1999 she won the U.S. Girls Junior Championship at thirteen years old, becoming the youngest player to win any United States Golf Association championship. In 2000 she tied for 10th place in the Kraft Nabisco Championship, which is one of the four major championships on the LPGA Tour, while still only thirteen. The same year, but a few months after her fourteenth birthday, she became the youngest ever semi-finalist at the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship. In 2001 she was the recipient of the Nancy Lopez Award, which is presented to the best female amateur golfer of the year. The next year she placed first individually at the World Amateur Team Championships and helped Thailand to a second place finish. She won a number of adult amateur events in 2002 and 2003 and in the latter year she placed fifth at the U.S. Women's Open.

Song turned professional in August 2003 at the age of 17 and 3 months. She was granted an exemption from the LPGA's minimum age rule to allow her to enter the 2003 LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament, and she came fifth in it to earn exemption for the LPGA Tour in 2004. In her rookie season she finished second at the Kraft Nabisco Championship and ended the year at twenty-eighth place on the money list. She struggled to find form in the first half of the 2005 season.

Song's twin sister Naree Song is also a member of the LPGA Tour, but has had much less success as of 2005.

External links

• Profile on the LPGA Tour's official site
• Aree Song's site - in English and Korean