Olympic champion Park ready for LPGA return

>> SEOUL: Olympic champion and seven-time major winner Park In-Bee has a relatively modest goal this season — stay healthy.

The South Korean endured a woeful 2016 due to a nagging thumb injury, the only bright spot being her stunning triumph in Rio where she became the first woman to win golfing gold in 116 years.

The former world No.1 has slipped down the rankings to 11th and while Park conceded she would one day like to wear that crown once again, she said this week she had to take it one step at a time.

“The main goal for me this year is to get through the entire season injury-free,” said Park who is set to return to action at the Honda LPGA Thailand later this month.

“If I can stay healthy throughout the season then everything else will follow. I’m in no rush.”

Park’s decision to play in Rio raised eyebrows in South Korea, with local media going as far as to suggest that she should withdraw from the team due to her injury problems and let another player take her place.

But Park, who at 27 became the youngest player to be inducted into the LPGA’s Hall of Fame last year, proved her doubters wrong by cruising to a five-shot win over an elite field in Brazil.

Park said she would scale down her schedule this season to about 20 events from around 25 in previous years in a bid to stay healthy but expected to make several appearances early on to shake off the rust.

Park’s mental toughness has long been hailed as one of the most important pillars of her game but she conceded that the pressure to keep being successful had told on her last year.

“I started to develop a real fear of failure last year,” the 28-year-old added. “I was worried what would happen if I didn’t play well.

“The pressure on me kept growing. So now I want to just try to enjoy myself when I play.”