History ry In the making ng
World No. 1 eyes British Open title
STANDREWS(UnitedKingdom): Park In-bee once felt she could walk down the streets of Seoul as the No. 1 player in women’s golf without being recognised. That was two months ago. Now, she can’t even make it through a toll booth.
The week before she set out to make history at St Andrews, the 25-year-old In-bee went home to South Korea to visit family and friends. She was surprised by the number of people who met her at the airport, and who looked her way when she was out in public dressed in regular clothes.
“I was driving by the toll gate and some lady was giving me a toll ticket and she was like, `Oh, are you Park In-bee?’ And she was stopping my car,” In-bee said on Tuesday. “So there was a lot of episodes there. It’s cool to be recognised and to have a lot of fans. And I think that really helps me.”
It helps tobe on the verge of doing something no other golfer in this Royal & Ancient game has ever achieved.
Slam or not, In-bee has a shot at something grand.
The gray old town doesn’t have the same energy level as when a claret jug is on offer, though In-bee’s name is part of every conversation. Woods (2000-01) and Mickey Wright (1961-62) are the only players to have won four straight professional Majors, though never in the same calendar year. Woods was the last player to win three straight majors in a single season.
The debate is whether to call it a Grand Slam if In-bee were to win. The LPGA Tour added a fifth Major this year, the Evian Championship in France. The modern version of a Grand Slam is about four Majors. The original version of the Grand Slam – from bridge – is about winning them all.
It’s a nice problem to have, and it really doesn’t need any definition except to note that it has never been done.
“If it could happen, it’s something that I will never forget,” In-bee said. “My name will be in the history of golf forever, even after I die.”
What’s amazing is how quickly In-bee reached this point.
Turn back the calendar two months, and In-bee already was satisfied with her season. She won the first LPGA Tour major of the year at Kraft Nabisco Championship, which helped her to regain her spot at No. 1 in the world ranking. But the dominant player of her sport? She sure didn’t look thatway, especially if anyone happened to be watching a stretch of holes at the Bahamas Classic. On a 145yard hole, her tee shot was 10 yards short and 20 yards wide of the green. On the next hole, a longer par three over a pond and into the breeze, In-bee fanned a four-iron so badly that it landed in the middle of the lake. Her next tee shot splasheddowncloser to the bank - still some 30 yards short of the pin - and she eventually made a nine.
She missed the cut. She didn’t break par in any round of her next tournament and finished middle of the pack.
“I was really struggling with the swing that week,” In-bee said. “I was trying different things on the golf course. After that, I found the right swing.”
Since then? In-bee looks to be somewhere between unstoppable and unbeatable. She won the LPGA Championship in a playoff over Catriona Matthew, and then made it three straight Majors by making the toughest test in golf look like a breeze in her US Women’s Open victory at Sebonack Golf Club.
In technical terms, she is driving the ball straighter and her putting stroke is among the purest in women’s golf. What sets her apart is
a calm demeanour. In-bee returns to St Andrews chasing history and has a unique outlook for someone who has no reason to think she can’t win every time she tees it up. The higher the pressure, the lower her expectations. That’s the formula she took to the US Women’s Open.
For world No. 2 Stacy Lewis, there is disappointment that there is disparity in price money in the golfing genders.
Phil Mickelson won US$1.4mil at Muirfield – while on Sunday the women’s champion at St Andrews will pocket just under US$500,000.
“The ultimate goal is to have the same money as the guys,” said the Texan. — Agencies