Pak ends career on home course
Print Edition
PAK Se-ri ended her Hall of Fame career in tears yesterday in front of her adoring home fans at the LPGA KEB Hana Bank Championship.
Overcome at the end of the sunny afternoon at Sky 72 in Incheon, 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,” Pak said.
Hampered by left shoulder problems, the 39-year-old 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 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.”
Pak won 25 LPGA Tour titles — the last in 2010 — and five majors, two of them during a rookie season in 1998 that gave women’s golf its biggest boost since Nancy Lopez. 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 captained South Korea’s Olympic team — with Park In-bee winning the gold medal — in Rio.
Pak last played on the tour in July, also shooting an 80 to miss the cut at the US Women’s Open.
Lee shot a 65 to take a three-stroke lead. The 21-year-old American birdied the final two holes and four of the last six on the Jack Nicklaus-designed Ocean Course.
Kim In-kyung, the winner two weeks ago in China, was second along with fellow South Korean Cho Jeong-min, Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist, American Lizette Salas and France’s Karine Icher.
Evian winner Chun In-gee and US Women’s Open champion Brittany Lang shot 69. Lexi Thompson was at 70 with Brooke Henderson, the Canadian playing the third of six straight weeks in Asia.
South Korea’s Jang Ha-na, the winner last week in Taiwan, had a 71. China’s Feng Shanshan and Ariya Jutanugarn, a five-time winner this year, shot 73. Top-ranked Lydia Ko was tied for 63rd at 75.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
