2 share legacy in South Korean women’s golf

RIO DE JANEIRO — Se Ri Pak could hear the burst of noise from 500 yards away and it wasn’t hard to figure out what was causing the commotion. Inbee Park had made one last birdie. Pak could hear it from the back of the 18th green at Olympic Golf Course. She was the team leader for South Korea at the Olympics, the player who inspired a nation that has become the most formidable in women’s golf. Park with a gold medal around her neck only affirmed that.

Long ago, in another big moment for women’s golf in South Korea, their roles were reversed.

Park was fast asleep in her apartment outside Seoul when she was jarred awake in the middle of the night. The 9-year-old girl came downstairs to find her parents in front of the TV, cheering wildly as Pak won the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open at Blackwolf Run, a landmark moment for golf in South Korea.

Two days later, Park wrapped her hands around a golf club for the first time.

Ten years later, she was the youngest U.S. Women’s Open champion ever.

That was the first of seven majors for Park, and a big reason why this year she became the youngest player (27) to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame. Her most recent major was the Women’s British Open last year to complete the career Grand Slam. And now she’s an Olympic champion. “I’ve won majors, but I haven’t won a gold medal,” Park said after her fiveshot victory over Lydia Ko, the No. 1 player in women’s golf. “So this feels very, very special.”