Ten Years After

By Ron Sirak
Photo By J.D. Cuban July 4, 2008

Ten years ago, Inbee Park was awakened in her home near Seoul at 3 o'clock in the morning by the joyous shouts of her parents who cheered a 20-year-old Se Ri Pak as she became the youngest player to win the U.S. Women's Open. Two days later, inspired by what she saw through tired eyes, Park picked up a golf club for the first time.

Flash forward a decade to last Sunday: In a fitting anniversary tribute to Pak's groundbreaking victory in 1998, the first by a Korean in a major championship, the 19-year-old Park used a silky smooth putting stroke to survive a windblown final round at Interlachen CC and break Pak's record as the youngest winner of the Women's Open in a stunningly easy four-stroke waltz.

The victory made Park the fourth Korean to join Pak in the winner's circle at an LPGA major and the third-youngest player in tour history to win a grand-slam event. In a telling sign of the times, those three victories by teens have come in the last seven majors, beginning with Morgan Pressel's triumph in the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship and followed by Yani Tseng's win last month at the McDonald's LPGA Championship. All three were teens when they won, Pressel the youngest at 18 years, 10 months. For all three, it was their first LPGA victory. Park's triumph also means that 25 of the last 31 majors have been won by women born outside the United States -- another undeniable trend likely to continue for some time.

"I really would like to thank Se Ri for what she's done for golf, for Korean golf," Park said, her left hand resting on the championship trophy. "I didn't know anything about golf back then. But I was watching her [on TV]. It was very impressive for a little girl. Just looking at her, I thought that I could do it, too. Se Ri did a lot to inspire a lot of 19-year-old girls, because [a lot of us here were] born in 1988."

No kidding. In addition to Inbee Park, other Koreans born in 1988 competing at Interlachen were In-Kyung Kim, Song-Hee Kim, Na On Min, Ji Young Oh, Ji-Yai Shin and Angela Park, who is of Korean descent but was born in Brazil (see page 42). All of them made the cut at Interlachen, with In-Kyung Kim and Angela Park finishing T-3, five strokes behind Park.

The final round began on a promising note for the Americans with Stacy Lewis, playing in her first event as a professional, holding a one-stroke lead over Paula Creamer at nine under par. Inbee Park was tied with Sweden's Helen Alfredsson at seven under, but the entire tone of the day changed with remarkable suddenness when Park chipped in for birdie from 60 feet on No. 1, followed by a birdie at the par-5 second. Meanwhile, both Creamer and Lewis made double-bogey 7 on No. 2 and Alfredsson missed an 18-inch putt on No. 3, triggering a run of three straight bogeys.

Just like that, Park had the lead and she never surrendered it, closing with a two-under-par 71 to finish at nine-under 283. After a bogey at the tough par-3 eighth -- which measured 234 yards Sunday, the longest par 3 in Women's Open history -- Park was just about flawless, birdieing Nos. 11, 13 and 18, and parring every other hole except the 441-yard 17th. Alfredsson was second at 287 after a closing 75. Lewis joined the tie for third at 288 while Creamer, trying to add her first major to six LPGA victories at age 21, finished T-6 at 289 with Giulia Sergas, Nicole Castrale and Mi Hyun Kim.