By PETE MOLLICA

By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
VIENNA -- When the 2003 Giant Eagle LPGA Classic begins Friday morning at Squaw Creek Country Club, more than three-fourths of the LPGA Tour's international players will be taking part in the event.
To say that the international players have dominated this tour in recent years would be putting it mildly.
In 2002, led by Sweden's Annika Sorenstam's 11 victories, the international players won 81.25 percent of the tournaments.
This year hasn't been much different as they captured the season's first eight events before American Rosie Jones broke that streak at the Michelob Light Open in Williamsburg, Va., May 1-4.
Although the field was still being finalized, as many as 65 international players will be included in this week's Giant Eagle field. Fifty-five exempt and non-exempt players have already committed and another nine were on the alternate's list, waiting for a chance to get in.
As of last weekend Sorenstam still hadn't committed to play in the event, although Giant Eagle tournament officials say that she will play.
The international boom hit the LPGA about 10 years ago.
At that time the international players won just 25.8 percent of the tour's events. Now, there are now 95 active international players, representing 24 countries.
The first international player was Fay Crocker of Uruguay, who joined the tour in 1955.
Sorenstam, with 42 victories, is the winningest international player and combined with stars like Liselotte Neumann, Helen Alfredsson and Catrin Nilsmark, Sweden is also the winningest country with 67, followed closely by Australia with 61.
The biggest jump by any country has been made by South Korea, which didn't have any players on Tour as recently as 1997.
In the past six years that total has jumped to 18 and is the most by any country in the world other than the United States.
In those last six years the South Koreans have been winning a lot of tournaments. At the Giant Eagle LPGA Classic, defending champion Mi Hyun Kim is a native of Inchon, South Korea.
In fact, the South Koreans have combined to win 31 tournaments, 20 by 1998 Giant Eagle champion Si Re Pak and five more by Kim.
Grace Park is a Seoul, South Korea native who will be competing this week in the Giant Eagle event.
"The Korean girls have a work ethic that's hard for anyone else in the world to match," Park said earlier this season.
LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw, a Salem native and South Range High graduate, has always been excited about the international involvement on the LPGA Tour.
"The PGA a few years ago started with World Tour events, but we've been a World Tour almost since our inception," Votaw said.
Votaw said that fans and sponsors are ready to accept the foreign success on the tour.
"Global companies are becoming more involved and we have tour events which will take place in France, Canada, Britain, Korea and Japan, not to forget the Solheim Cup which will be played this September in Sweden," Votaw added.
Of the eight international winners this year, four of them will be playing this week. Pak has two wins already, while Park, Candy Kung of Taiwan and Wendy Doolan of Australia have won once each.
Kim, who won here last year, said that Pak has been the reason for the major boom in women's golf in Korea.
"Before she started winning, the LPGA was rarely seen on Korean TV," Kim said. "Now golf is part of the country's sports culture."
"Before golf was like just a sport for rich people," she added. "Now they're watching the LPGA in Korea and cheering us on."
mollica@vindy.com