Park In-bee (center) poses for a picture with her trophy while her parents, Sungja Kim, left, and Gungyu Park, kiss her after she won the U.S. Women`s Open golf tournament at Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton, New York, Sunday (AP-Yonhap News)
Park In-bee of South Korea captured the U.S. Women's Open on the LPGA Tour in New York for her third straight major championship on Sunday, a historic victory that adds more luster to an already sparkling season.
On Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton, New York, Park, world's No. 1-ranked female golfer, cruised to the title at 8-under 280, four shots better than fellow South Korean Kim In-kyung. In the final round on the 6,821-yard, par-72 layout, Park shot 2-over 74 en route to her second career U.S. Women's Open and her fourth major overall.
She also won the season's first two majors, the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April and the Wegmans LPGA Championship in June.
Park is only the second golfer, after Babe Zaharias in 1950, to sweep up the first three majors of an LPGA season.
Aside from Zaharias, only two others, Mickey Wright in 1961 and Pat Bradley in 1986, have won at least three majors in the same year.
In 1950, however, there were only three LPGA majors. Park is the first to capture the first three majors in a season of at least four big tournaments. The remaining majors this season are the Ricoh Women's British Open in August and the newly-added Evian Championship in September.
Park, who earned US$585,000 for her latest win, leads the tour in money with $2.1 million and the Player of the Year points race.
She will also retain her No. 1 ranking for the 12th consecutive week.
At the Aug. 1-4 Women's British Open at St. Andrews, one of golf's most revered courses, Park will seek to become the first player, male or female, to win four straight professional majors in a single season. In 1930, Bobby Jones won all four men's majors, but two of them, the U.S. Amateur and the British Amateur, were amateur championships.
Also, a win either at the British Open or the Evian Championship will complete the career grand slam for Park.
This was Park's ninth career LPGA win, with eight of them having come in her last 24 starts, dating back to last July.
This marked the fifth straight time a South Korean has won an LPGA major. Before Park won the first three this year, Shin Ji-yai claimed the Women's British Open and Choi Na-yeon grabbed the U.S. Women's Open in 2012.
Also, Asian golfers have won 10 majors in a row, dating back to the 2011 LPGA Championship victory by Yani Tseng of Taiwan.
Park, 24, now has six wins in 13 starts in 2013 and has won the last three tournaments in a row. With the U.S. Women's Open title, Park has eclipsed Pak Se-ri's previous mark for most LPGA victories by a South Korean golfer in a season.
Only three players finished the tournament under par: Park, Kim and another South Korean, Ryu So-yeon at 1-under.
Park began the final round with a comfortable four-shot lead over Kim In-kyung at 10-under. She had some early hiccups with back-to-back bogeys on the sixth and seventh holes, but quickly made up with birdies on the ninth and the 10th.
Kim couldn't capitalize on Park's rare miscues, committing three bogeys against just one birdie on the front nine before closing out with 11 straight pars.
Park saw her advantage over Kim shrink from six strokes to four after bogeying the 14th and the 15th, but she closed out with three straight pars for the easy victory.
Park said she was pinching herself after the victory.
"I just hope this is not a dream. I don't want to wake up tomorrow and play the final round again," she said at the post-round news conference. "It feels great to put my name on this trophy twice. The golf course was playing tough out there and I really stayed calm."
Asked about prospects of completing the grand slam this year, Park said she didn't want to look too far down the road.
"I've just done three majors in a row now. I think it's too early to think about the next one," she said. "I think I really want to enjoy the moment."
She said she relishes the opportunity to go for the calendar year grand slam and added she realizes how difficult it will be to pull that off.
"I think the career grand slam is good enough for me," Park said. "It would mean so much if I could do the (single season) grand slam. But it takes so much hard work. I'm just glad that I can give it a try at St. Andrews. That's going to be a great experience. Whether I do it or not, I'm just a very lucky person."
In 2008, Park became the youngest player to win the U.S.
Women's Open at age 19. She said she is a more mature person today and now has a greater appreciation for what it takes to win majors.
She also said she "feels the happiest" when she is on the golf course.
"Outside the golf course, I feel the pressure and I feel what everybody else is feeling," Park said. " But on the golf course, it's just the golf ball and clubs. And when I have that, it just puts a lot of pressure off of me. It just makes me very calm."
Park is part of a generation of 20-something South Korean golfers collectively called "Pak Se-ri's Kids," for the influence of the hall of famer on their careers. The likes of Park, Choi Na-yeon and Shin Ji-yai have said they picked up golf after watching Pak win the 1998 U.S. Women's Open in a playoff.
Today, Park could be having the same impact on a new generation of young golfers, an opportunity that she said she appreciates.
"To inspire some young girls and give them something to look at and give them something to play for, I think is such a great position to be in," Park said. "I'm glad that I can follow all of the great Korean players' footsteps." (Yonhap News)