Pak Se-ri to have own tournament in Korea

Hall of Fame golfer Pak Se-ri will have a women’s tournament bearing her name open on her native soil this fall, officials announced Tuesday.

The 36-year-old will be the host of the “Se Ri Pak Invitational” on the Korean LPGA Tour from Oct. 3-5 at Solmoro Country Club in Yeoju, about 100 kilometers south of Seoul. The tournament will be sponsored by OK Savings Bank.

Pak and the tournament organizers signed off on the naming agreement Tuesday. Pak joins the PGA Tour veteran Choi Kyung-ju as the only two South Korean golfers to have tournaments named after them. Choi, who has won eight times on the premier men’s tour, launched the K.J. Choi Invitational, bearing his more commonly known initials, in 2011 on the Korean PGA Tour.

“It’s a great honor to have a tournament bearing my name,” Pak said at the signing ceremony held at OK Savings Bank’s headquarters in Seoul. “I’d like to make the most of my LPGA Tour experience to develop the event into a major tournament in South Korea.”

Pak is widely regarded as a pioneer in women’s golf who blazed the trail for many South Koreans who followed her to the LPGA Tour.

Pak joined the LPGA Tour in 1998 and made an immediate impact, capturing two majors, the LPGA Championship and the U.S. Women’s Open, and claiming the tour’s Rookie of the Year honors. She was also voted the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year in 1998 and remains the only South Korean to have earned that distinction.

Pak has captured 25 LPGA titles so far, including five majors.

She entered the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2007 as the youngest living inductee ever at age 29. (Yonhap)