Park In-bee aims ‘career Grand Slam this season’

Park In-bee, 27, likes wearing white clothes on the last day of a tournament. Ahead of the final fourth round of the North Texas Shootout of the US LPGA tour on Monday, she was agonizing over whether to wear white T-shirts and skirt. This is exactly the same style that she wore when she suffered an upset loss to Kim Se-young in the Lotte Championship last month. At that time, Park was close to winning the title, but ended up losing the tournament after playing playoff as Kim had chip-in par and shot eagle in succession. Hesitant about her fashion style, Park chose the same style she wore when she lost the Lotte championship. On this decision, Park said, “I lost the title not because I performed poorly, but because Kim Se-young simply had good luck. If I cannot wear this attire this time, I will never be able to wear it. I don’t want to create jinx.”

Having renewed her commitment, Park, No. 2 in global rankings, retook the championship for the first time in two years by reducing the number of her pars by six and thus garnering 15 under 269 pars overall at the fourth round of the tournament that ended at Las Colinas CC (par 71) in Irving, Texas on the day. Park, who tied for first when starting, garnered six birdies without committing bogey, and secured her second win of this season following suit of Kim Se-young and Lydia Go, and her 14th career championship. She had complete victory by beating Park Hee-young and Cristie Kerr by a gap of three pars.

Park, who has become the first Korean player to clinch two wins or more for four consecutive years, said, “If it not enough if one should stand out in just a year or two in golf. I feel proud because I have shown consistent play. My biggest goal in this season is to achieve the career Grand Slam by winning the British Open.”

Park, who posted 94.4 percent of green accuracy rate, has displayed perfect harmony with her new putter (Odyssey Two Ball), and restricted the number of her putts to 28, thus continuously reducing the number of pars. She also elevated her purse money ranking from fourth to second by receiving 195,000 US dollars.

With Park’s victory, ethnic Korean players have teamed up to secure nine wins overall in the 11 tournaments in this season, including victory in three consecutive tournaments in recent months. On the reason Korean golfers display stellar performance, Park said, “It is because Korean players are engaged in fierce competition to secure ranking points that will be a determinant in their qualification for participation in the Olympics ahead of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.”

Lydia Ko, ranking No. 1 in the world, who overcame the risk of failing to make the cut for two consecutive rounds in the championship, finished the tournament by tying for 41st (even par 284). As she pledged, Lydia Go is set to donate her prize money worth 6,241 dollars to help victims in the earthquake in Nepal.