PLAYER SPOTLIGHT | INBEE PARK
Ruling the roost: Park has established an enormous lead at the top of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings since assuming the position in April
In a
Class of Her Own
Inbee Park, the hottest player in the game this year, is as gracious and delightful off the course as she is brilliant on it, writes Lewine Mair.
T
Korean name etched on so famous a trophy. “I mean, all of Korea is watching me and they are very proud. I’m the lucky one to get this chance.” She was up at dawn on the first morning, off the tee at 7.03 and, with the help of a couple of 30-footers, out in 31 against the par of 36. It was exhilarating stuff and precisely what the crowd wanted. After months of hearing rather more about issues surrounding the women’s game (notably the no-women situation at various UK clubs) than the women’s golf itself, they were finally witnessing some play – and some great play at that. With her eye firmly on that fourth successive major, Inbee followed up with a birdie at the 10th to go to move to six under the card. That done, spectators accommodated a couple of Inbee pars and patiently awaited a fresh rush of birdies. What they got were two bogeys and a double-bogey, with the latter Inbee’s first double of the year in a major championship context. Having knocked her second into the greenside bunker at the 16th, she had played out sideways and taken three putts from 35 feet. Yet her gentle acceptance of what was, in her book, a more than minor golfing mishap, was no less riveting than her earlier sub-par play. She showed not so much as a hint of irritation, with the only slumped shoulders belonging to her hundreds of new-found Scottish fans. In truth, one appreciated that aspect all the more after a handful of unseemly incidents at the subsequent Solheim Cup in Colorado. Though the standard of play out there was electrifying and the match result a glorious win for the Europeans, the players were too often downright rude. Stacy Lewis, who had won the Ricoh, publicly tore into the referee who had admittedly made a botched job of a ruling; Paula Creamer shouted at Charley
AFP
hough Inbee Park did not win the Ricoh British Women’s Open to extend her run of majors to four in a row, the fact that she had the opportunity to achieve such a feat gave the event a buzz all its own. When this gracious young Korean arrived at St Andrews, she had as many as seven 2013 titles under her belt, with the three majors in that little lot being the Kraft Nabisco, the LPGA and the US Open. The pressure on the 25-year-old was palpable, for no-one – and that includes Tiger Woods – has ever won four modern majors in a row across a single season. Everyone wanted to watch her, to take her picture and to talk to her and about her. Park had known to expect a battery of cameras and questions when she arrived at the Home of Golf and she was ready for it. She smiled for every picture and, unlike some of her professional counterparts, she gave 100 per cent to her every answer instead of switching to automatic pilot. The gist of what she had to say was that there was nothing she would love more than to have a 56
HK GOLFER・SEP 2013
HKGOLFER.COM
HKGOLFER.COM
HK GOLFER・SEP 2013
57
Park had known to expect a battery of cameras and questions when she arrived in the Home of Golf and she was ready for it. She smiled for every picture and, unlike some of her professional counterparts, she gave 100 per cent to her every answer instead of switching to automatic pilot.
AFP
Hull and Jodi Ewart-Shadoff after they had inadvertently done the wrong thing on a green, while Hull and Ewart-Shadoff were too be seen giggling nervously in the wake of that incident. Again, there were complaints about a Spaniard – I know not which – giving cheek to a senior rules official who was more than a little put out. The women, she said, had become every bit as rude as the men when they were not getting their own way. There is nothing remotely unmannerly about Park. The next thing to impress about her modus operandi at St Andrews was how, in the wake of her anticlimactic 69, she stayed around for as long as the media and the TV people wanted her and signed autographs for half the town. Not only that but she did it all again after a lacklustre second-round 73 58
HK GOLFER・SEP 2013
She made the cut easily enough but finished outside the top 40. There are Asian women golfers who, though they spend most of their time plying their trade in the States, can tell you little more about themselves than that they play golf and they shop, usually for jewellery and handbags. Miki Saiki, who spent much of the week on the leaderboard, is an example. She at one point owned to taking 50 pairs of earrings to every tournament – a fact which had people thinking that club selection must pale into insignificance against choosing the right pair of lobe accessories on any given day. Park, thanks to her parents’ foresight in realising that she would enjoy her golfing life on the LPGA Tour more if she could converse in English as well as Korean, enjoys so much more than merely her very lucrative career. Media and public alike are always going to concentrate on her putting – it is nothing short of phenomenal – than her personality. However, there is no shortage of that, whatever anyone might tell you. How is this for a nice touch? In the week after she had won her first title of the year in Thailand, her sister competitors opened their HKGOLFER.COM
lockers in Hawaii to find she had left each of them a handsome box of chocolates. True, her family owns a cookie company in Hawaii and she herself has won close to US$8 million, but she had made all the arrangements herself. On a slightly different tack, there was delightful tale going the rounds of an exchange she had had with Mike Whan, the CEO of the LPGA Tour. She had told Whan that the only thing which scared her was the dark. “Well,” he had replied, “You’re never going to have to worry about that. The way you play, you’re going to be living in a barrage of flashing cameras for the rest of your days.” Brad Beecher, Inbee’s Australian caddie, describes his employer as “bubbly and amusing” when she is away from the course and gloriously focused on it. He would also agree with her light-hearted assessment of herself as “more Matt Kuchar than Bubba Watson”. Inbee has tried to answer Western press demands that she show a bit more emotion when she wins but, having experimented in front of the HKGOLFER.COM
mirror with the odd fist-pump, this delightfully unassuming player came to the conclusion that it was “simply not me”. Other players make no secret of the fact that they are jealous of rather more than merely Park’s results. She has an admiring partner in Gi Hyeob Nan who became her fiancé at the start of last year. After he had asked her to marry him – the marriage will take place in December of next year – Park had posed a question of her own: “Will you be my coach?” The arrangement could not work better. Jiyai Shin, another leading Korean and one who has often rued the fact that professional golf can be such a lonely pursuit, said that when she practices with Park, she often asks her about travelling with her fiancé. “I am a little envious. She is lucky to have this happiness.” Stacy Lewis described the Nan-Park relationship as “cute … you can tell they’re happy because they’re always holding hands.” At the end of her week in St Andrews, Park recapped for the umpteenth time on how things
Celebrating with her caddie in the traditional manner (above) after claiming the Kraft Nabisco Championship earlier this year; Park’s victory at the Women’s US Open (opposite) in July was her third on the bounce HK GOLFER・SEP 2013
59
Inbee’s caddie describes her as “bubbly and amusing” and agrees with her light-hearted assessment of herself as “more Matt Kuchar than Bubba Watson”.
AFP
Park got engaged to Gi Hyeob Nan (above) in early 2012. After asking her to marry him, Park posed a question of her own: “Will you be my coach?” The two travel together constantly. 60
HK GOLFER・SEP 2013
had gone downhill after she had started out with those six birdies in her first 10 holes. Mother Nature, she said, had not been on her side. The seaside gusts had taunted her slow and carefully executed swing, while her putting had lost its magic. In her closing round, she dropped any number of shots but, as she dropped them, it was not all bad. The accumulated pressure had blown away with the wind and you could almost see it happening. “I have a feeling of relief, now,” she said at the end. “I enjoyed every moment here but it was tough to be at the centre of everything. To have everyone watching me and to be asked to do interviews even when I play bad was a bit weird. But now all that is over. I can go home and relax for two or three days [a new Ferrari awaited her as part of a sponsorship deal] and get my energy up again.” (Here, she would have had the Evian Championship in mind because that new major, if she could make a successful defence of her 2012
title, would still give her four majors across the one season.) There was an American pressman at the Ricoh who, when the last interview was done that week, congratulated Park on her accomplishments before going back to what she had said and noting, with a wry smile, “We’ll still want to talk to you.” Park laughed out loud. She thanked the media – yes, she thanked them – and went on her way. A charmer, if a quiet one.
THE INBEE FILE Date of birth: 12 July 1988 Place of birth: Seoul, South Korea Turned pro: 2006 Major wins: 4 – US Women’s Open (2008 and 2013); Kraft Nabisco (2013); LPGA Championship (2013) Other victories: 9 – including five on the LPGA Tour and four on the JLPGA Tour Others: Became the world’s No 1 ranked player in April 2013
HKGOLFER.COM