Pak bids tearful goodbye
Influential South Korean golfer retires at home tournament
INCHEON, South Korea — Se Ri Pak ended her Hall of Fame career in tears Thursday in front of her adoring home fans in the LPGA KEB HanaBank Championship.
Overcome at the end of the sunny afternoon at Sky 72, Pak cried nearly throughout a retirement ceremony on the 18th hole. The Little Angels children’s choir sang, players wore “SE RI” hats and farewell messages were played in a video montage.
“A lot of emotion going on through my mind,” Pak said.
It mattered little to the fans and players, many of them drawn to golf by Pak, that she shot an 8-over 80 and was tied for last — 15 strokes behind leader Alison Lee — before withdrawing.
“It wasn’t easy out there today,” said Pak, 39.
Hampered by left shoulder problems, Pak said in Phoenix in March that this season would be her last and she stepped away as planned after the first round of the LPGA Tour’s lone South Korean event.
“It wasn’t a sudden decision to retire, but I think it will take time for me to absorb the fact that I will no longer be competing,” Pak said. “Today I was really happy and grateful to see so many fans out there. It really moved me. I really wanted to show them my appreciation. I couldn’t figure out how during the competition, but I was very moved by the open retirement ceremony. I was very, very extremely happy”
Eighteen years ago, Pak sparked the rise in South Korean and Asian women’s golf and gave the sport its biggest boost since Nancy Lopez.
“Pak-mania” ruled in the summer of 1998, especially after she won the U.S. Women’s Open in a 20-hole playoff against amateur Jenny Chuasiriporn. When Pak returned to South Korea that fall, she had to be hospitalized for exhaustion. Television cameras even came into her hospital room to give the latest news.
Pak was a catalyst for more young players to believe they could compete on the strongest circuit in women’s golf. Today, six of the top 10 players in the world and 22 of the top 45 are South Korean.
“I think if we had no socalled Se Ri Kids, the Korean golf scene would be quite different today,” Pak said.
Pak won 25 LPGA Tour titles — the last in 2010 — and five majors, two of them during her rookie season. The youngest player to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame when she was enshrined in 2007 at age 30, Pak won 14 times on the Korean LPGA and cap- tained South Korea’s Olympic team— with Inbee Park winning the gold medal — in Rio.
Pak last played on the tour in July, also shooting an 80 to miss the cut in the U.S. Women’s Open.
Playing alongside defending champion Lexi Thompson and Chinese star Shanshan Feng in the final group, Pak bogeyed the first hole and four of the first six. She bogeyed the first five holes on the back nine, birdied the par-4 15th and closed with three pars.
“When I reached the 18th, I was on the tee box, and I felt like I couldn’t make the shot,” Pak said. “I think I cried all throughout the 18th hole. Actually there was flood of emotions that I really didn’t expect to feel. I didn’t expect myself to feel this way.”
Lee shot a 65 to take a three-stroke lead. The 21year-old American birdied the final two holes and four of the last six on the Jack Nicklaus-designed Ocean Course.