World No. 1 Inbee Park won the US Women’s Open on Sunday, grabbing a slice of LPGA history with her third straight major triumph of the year.
Park’s final-round 74 gave her an eight-under total of 280 and a four-shot victory over I.K. Kim, who also carded a two-over 74 for 284.
The South Korean superstar joined US sporting legend Babe Zaharias as the only women to win the first three majors in a season. Zaharias won all three in 1950.
Photo: Reuters
“I’m very honored to put my name [next] to someone like Babe Zaharias,” said Park, who will have a chance to become the first man or woman to win four major golf championships in a season at the Women’s British Open at St Andrews from Aug. 1 to Aug. 4.
“I think it’s too early to think about the next one,” Park said. “I think I really want to enjoy the moment as it is, in the moment.”
“I’m just glad that I can give it a try at St Andrews. That’s going to be a great experience. Whether I do it or not, I’m just a very lucky person,” she said.
Park had put herself in position to win with a 71 on Saturday — the only sub-par round of the third round giving her a four-stroke cushion over Kim.
After back-to-back bogeys at the sixth and seventh, Park rebounded with birdies at the ninth and 10th, stretching her lead to as many as six shots.
Despite another brace of bogeys at 14 and 15, she was never seriously threatened as Kim was unable to find a birdie on the back nine.
South Korea’s Ryu So-yeon, the 2011 champion, posted an even par 72 for sole possession of third place on 287.
UNDER PAR
The top three were the only players under par for the tournament. Americans Paula Creamer and Angela Stanford and England’s Jodi Ewart Shadoff shared fourth on one-over 289. Creamer carded a 72, Stanford shot 74 and Ewart Shadoff posted a 76.
Park, whose first US Women’s Open victory in 2008 made her the championship’s youngest winner at age 19, admitted she thought about the enormity of a possible win on Saturday night, but felt calm as she made her way around wind-blown Sebonack Golf Club course on Sunday.
“It was a tough day out there. The golf course was playing tough. I tried to stay calm, and I think I did. I just didn’t know what I was doing. I mean, if I knew what I was doing, I think I wouldn’t be able to stand,” Park said.
“Yes, it was a very good day and I’m just very glad that I can put my name in history,” she said.
After her final putt dropped, Park raised both her arms as fellow players raced onto the green to spray her with champagne. She then shared a hug with her parents.
“It means a lot that I can show this kind of golf to my parents,” said Park, whose folks do not usually travel with her.
Park, who won the Kraft Nabisco in April and the LPGA Championship last month, is the fourth woman to win three majors in a season, along with Zaharias, Mickey Wright (1961) and Pat Bradley (1986).
However, she’s the first to win the first three in a season in which more than three tournaments are designated majors. This year there are five, with the Evian Championship — in which Park is the reigning champion — given major status for the first time.
GRAND SLAM
“It would be great if I could win five, but I still think four means a Grand Slam,” she said — especially if one of the four is the Women’s British Open.
In accepting her trophy, Park said it was “scary” to think what she might accomplish. After all, she has won six tournaments this season, three of them majors, and eight of her past 24 starts.
“I just said that because I don’t know what I can do from now on,” Park said. “I didn’t expect myself being in this kind of position, breaking some kind of record that hasn’t been broken for 50 years.”
“I never dreamed of myself doing that ... but I’ve done it. I don’t know what else I can do,” she said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier