KAHUKU — What is it about South Korea?

That country is cranking out talented young women golfers like TaylorMade drivers: Se Ri Pak, Mi Hyun Kim, Hee-Won Han and Grace Park, who are among 45 South Koreans currently on the LPGA Tour.

Get ready for another future star. Her name? You heard it here first — Ji-Yai Shin.

Shin, 19, is playing on a sponsor's exemption in the SBS Open at Turtle Bay and is right up there on a crowded leaderboard after a bogey-free 69, putting her at 140, three strokes behind co-leaders Annika Sorenstam and Erica Blasberg, going into today's final round.

Interestingly, she played in the same threesome yesterday with the next highly-anticipated LPGA sensation, Japan's Momoko Ueda.

It was the first time they played together, but their respective successes in the Far East are remarkably similar.

Ueda won five Japan LPGA events last year and became that tour's youngest money champion. Shin won nine times on the Korean LPGA Tour last year, half of the events she entered, and also swept to the money title for the second consecutive year. She broke Pak's money record in 2006 and topped her own mark in 2007.

Shin's amazing year included a 15th-place finish in the Kraft Nabisco Championship, a sixth in the U.S. Women's Open and a tie for third in the Evian Masters, leading to a No. 8 world ranking and making her the only non-LPGA player in the top 10. She earned $346,184 playing in seven LPGA events last year.

One of them was the SBS Open, which wasn't a keeper in Shin's memory bank.

"I played last year in this event and I think, pretty bad," she said in adequate English. "So I tried harder (this year) and I think I did more better. I think because I was more confident every hole."

She finished tied for 40th last year but it's a lot different this time around at the Palmer Course.

"Today, I'm not big mistake so I don't have bogey," said Shin, who rolled in a 30-footer for her first birdie of the day at the par-3 eighth hole. She got on in two at the 511-yard, par-5 ninth, just missing an 18-foot eagle try. Her third birdie came at 12, another par-5.

The Seoul Broadcasting System is sure getting its money's worth out of Shin. Not only is she among the leaders, she did some television commentary after her round.

But it's back inside the ropes for today's final round and the $165,000 top prize. And one more opportunity to watch the latest South Korean phenom.

Shin still will play most of the year on the Korean tour and "maybe seven or eight" tournaments on the LPGA Tour, starting with the HSBC Women's Champions in Singapore in two weeks. She's not playing next week at Ko Olina in the Fields Open in Hawaii because she didn't receive an exemption.

"So after (this) tournament we tourists," she said. "Vacation, Waikiki and shopping every day. Very happy."