South Korea’s Park In-bee is building up momentum as an ace pro golfer.
The 24-year-old finished with a 15-under-par 273 to beat runner-up compatriot Ryu So-yeon to win the Kraft Nabisco Championship by four strokes on Sunday.
It was Park’s first major title of the season and also her second career major title in addition to her 2008 U.S. Women’s Open.
The 24-year-old is also the second successive Korean to win the Kraft Nabisco after Yoo Sun-young last year. Park took home $300,000 for her win.
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Park In-bee (Yonhap News) |
Last year Park led the LPGA Tour money rankings and scoring average, and already has two victories this season.
In the Honda LPGA Thailand in February, she edged past Thai teenager Ariya Jutanugarn to win by one stroke. It was largely thanks to Ariya blowing a one-stroke lead on the final hole with a triple bogey.
This time at the Nabisco championship at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, however, Park overwhelmed the field with her stepped-up performance.
She had a bogey-free round on Saturday to open a three-stroke lead going into the final round. She began her final round with two straight birdies, and had a bogey on the sixth, only her third of the tournament. But she quickly bounced back with birdies on the eighth and ninth holes to end 15-under.
Park celebrated her win by leaping into the pond off the 18th green with her caddie.
Other Koreans placed high on the scoreboard: Kang Hae-ji tied Karrie Webb for fifth, and Shin Ji-yai and Park Hee-young ended up part of a six-way tie for seventh place.
Born in Seoul in 1988, Park began golfing at age 10. After moving to the U.S., she won the U.S. Girls’ Junior at age 14 in 2002.
In 2006 after graduating from high school in Las Vegas, she played on the Duramed Futures Tour where the age of entry had been lowered to 17. She finished third on its season-ending money list.
During her rookie season in 2007, she tied for fourth at the U.S. Women’s Open and finished 37th on the money list.
In 2008, she won the U.S. Women’s Open for her first LPGA win. At 19, she was the youngest player to win the title.
But she struggled in 2009 and 2010 before bouncing back in 2012, when she claimed two wins on the LPGA Tour and topped both in money earned and scoring average.
This year, she got off to a smooth start by grabbing the first major title of the season. For now, Park and world’s No. 1 Stacy Lewis of the U.S. appear to be breaking away from the pack with two wins apiece.
By Chun Sung-woo (
swchun@heraldcorp.com)
