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Park In-bee, watches her ball from the 16th tee box during the final round of the LPGA NW Arkansas Championship golf tournament on Sunday. (AP-Yonhap News) |
Park In-bee earned her fifth LPGA Tour victory of the season on Sunday in Arkansas, tying the record for most wins by a South Korean LPGA pro in a season.
Park, the world's No. 1-ranked female golfer, defeated fellow South Korean Ryu So-yeon with a birdie on the first playoff hole at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship at Pinnacle Country Club in Arkansas. The tournament was a three-round affair.
Park's fifth win of 2013 pulled her into a tie with Pak Se-ri for most LPGA wins in a season by a South Korean. Pak, a World Golf Hall of Famer, won five times in 2001 and again in 2002.
Park's five wins this season have come in just 12 starts. She has also won the season's first two majors, the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April and the Wegmans LPGA Championship earlier this month.
This was Park's eighth career LPGA win, and her seventh in her last 23 events, dating back to last July.
Park, who took home US$300,000 for her latest victory, had also won the LPGA Championship two weeks ago in a sudden death playoff.
The 24-year-old leads the LPGA Tour this year in money, victories and the Player of the Year points race.
This was the seventh time a South Korean has won on the LPGA Tour this year in 14 stops. There are 14 tournaments left on the tour in 2013.
On the 6.389-yard, par-71 layout, Park and Ryu ended regulation tied at 12-under. Park shot a 4-under 67, mixing in five birdies with one bogey, while Ryu carded a 2-under 69 after four birdies and one double bogey.
On the first playoff hole, Park split the fairway off the tee and after missing the green short with her fairway wood, chipped to within a couple of feet to set up the clinching birdie.
Ryu landed her tee shot in the thick rough on the left and had to punch it out to the fairway. She missed the green long and right with her third shot, all but handing the trophy to the fellow South Korean.
Ryu began the final round as one of four co-leaders at 10-under, while Park was two strokes behind the pack.
Park poured in three straight birdies starting on the par-3 sixth and closed out her round with her fifth birdie of the day on the 18th to take the club house lead at 12-under.
Park's tee shot on the 18th found the left rough, and her second shot with a fairway wood came up several yards short of the green. Park's approach landed about six feet left of the pin and she drained the putt for the birdie.
Playing in a group behind Park, Ryu forced the playoff with Park thanks to a birdie on the 18th. Ryu hit her tee shot into the right rough, and her second shot traveled well right of the green.
She managed to put her third shot to about five feet below the hole and made the putt to go into the playoff, where she succumbed to the world No. 1.
After her victory, Park said even though she may not have shown it, she felt nervous going into the playoff.
"I've won a lot of times this year, but I still feel the pressure coming into the final round every time, and definitely feel a lot of pressure in the playoff," she said at a post-tournament press conference. "I think that's just got to happen no matter how many times I win. But it gets more exciting and more exciting, that's for sure."
With the third major of the season, the U.S. Women's Open, set to start Thursday in New York, Park said her latest win gave her "a lot of confidence" but added she will have to keep her emotions in check.
"I think the main key for me in U.S. Women's Open is to get over with this overwhelming feeling," she said. "I won last two weeks and that's just a lot of emotions, and I'm just going to try to calm down myself a lot and try to play the course. I'm sure the course is going to make me concentrate. So I'm really looking forward to playing there and not to think about so much of the history or to break somebody's record." (Yonhap News)
