Inbee Park, motivated by her fall from the top of the world rankings, stormed to her first LPGA title of the year at the Manulife Financial Classic on Sunday.
The South Korean star had 10 birdies in a course record-equaling 10-under par 61 on the Grey Silo Golf Course, erasing a two-stroke overnight deficit win by three strokes with a 23-under par total of 261.
“It never gets old,” said Park, whose course record-equaling round was a career-low. “Obviously, my last win on the LPGA Tour was about this time a year ago — and it sure felt longer than a year. I came close a few times, but I couldn’t hold the trophy since last year, so just really happy that I finally got that done.”
Park’s drought had put her No. 1 ranking in jeopardy for weeks, before American Stacy Lewis finally supplanted her with a victory on Sunday last week.
“Yeah you think I’m motivated now?” Park said with a laugh. “Yeah, I think definitely I really kickstarted [my season] maybe the last week. Gave me some kind of motivation to go lower and harder on myself.”
Park trailed China’s Feng Shanshan by two strokes going into the round.
Feng had four birdies and a bogey in her three-under 68, just not enough to hold off the charging Park.
American veteran Cristie Kerr who slipped past her for second place with a 63 for 264.
Feng finished in solo third on 18-under 266, with New Zealand teenager Lydia Ko (66) sharing fourth on 268 with Spain’s Belen Mozo (65).
Greater Kaohsiung-born golfer Candie Kung carded a 71 to finish tied for 20th place on 10-under 274.
Park took the lead with back-to-back birdies at the seventh and eighth, her fourth and fifth of the day. Her five birdies coming in included three in a row from the 12th.
Her success on the greens was especially welcome, since Park had pointed to putting woes as a factor keeping her out of the winner’s circle after six triumphs — three of them major championships — last year.
“The putter is definitely the key,” she said. “I’ve been hitting the ball consistently all year, just my putter’s just not been wanting to do its job.”
She has regained her touch with her title defense at the US Women’s Open coming up in two weeks at Pinehurst.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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