South Korean golfer Park In-bee has withdrawn from an LPGA Tour event in Michigan after shooting the worst round of her career.
Park, ranked No. 2 in the world, carded a 12-over 84 in the first round of the LPGA Volvik Championship in Ann Arbor on Thursday (local time). She traded three birdies for eight bogeys, a double bogey and a quintuple bogey. It was the worst score among the 142 golfers who competed in the first round.
She entered the competition despite pains in her left thumb.
This was her third withdrawal of the season already in nine starts.
In the last week of January, Park withdrew from the season-opening Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic after one round with a back injury. She missed nearly a month of action and posted two top-10 finishes over her next six tournaments.
Park then sat out another month to rest her injured left thumb.
She returned to the tour last week at the Kingsmill Championship but withdrew after six holes in the second round when her thumb acted up again.
"Well, it was a torture out there today, but even if I don't get to play tomorrow, I really wanted to finish it off today, and I just didn't want to give it up in the middle of the round like last week," she told LPGA.com after Thursday's round. "So that was really the main goal. Obviously, I'm just really restricted on my swing. To make a couple movements, it's painful."
She started her round with back-to-back bogeys. She then had a disastrous nine at the par-four 10th. After picking up a birdie at the 13th, Park had a double bogey at the par-five 14th and then committed three straight bogeys.
Park hit five of 14 fairways and reached only four of 18 greens in regulation.
The injury-plagued season casts doubt on her medal prospects at the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics in August. As the top South Korean in the world rankings, Park is almost a lock to represent the country as golf returns to the Olympics for the first time in 112 years.
Prior to Thursday, Park's worst round had been a nine-over 81 in the final round of the Wegmans LPGA in June 2009. (Yonhap)
