Park Sung-hyun wins US Women's Open

By Baek Byung-yeul

Park Sung-hyun claimed her first LPGA Tour win at the U.S. Women’s Open Championship, Sunday.

At Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Park carded a five-under 67 in the final round to finish 72 holes with an 11-under 277 and earned the richest first prize in women’s golf -- $900,000.

U.S. President Donald Trump also attended the event held at his namesake golf club and congratulated Park on winning the oldest major championship in women’s golf.

“Congratulations to Sung Hyun Park on winning the 2017 @USGA #USWomensOpen,” Trump tweeted.

At last year’s event, Park was third, after finishing two shots out of the playoff between Brittany Lang and Anna Nordqvist. But Park was different in her second U.S. Women’s Open appearance. Though she was seven strokes behind the leader after 36 holes, Park came back with a rush, posting two successive 67s in the third and final rounds.

Park, a 10-time KLPGA Tour winner, declared her bid to compete full-time on the U.S. LPGA Tour starting this season.

“I did not have the best first and second rounds,” Park said through a translator after the match. “I wanted to believe in myself again for the final two rounds and I did.”

The win definitely paved the way for the 23-year-old to win the Rookie of the Year award. Park earned 300 points to move to 997 points in the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year race, a whopping 638 points ahead of second-place Angel Yin of the U.S.

Korean amateur golfer Choi Hye-jin was two strokes behind the champion, and world No. 1 Ryu So-yeon and Hur Mi-jung shared third place at seven-under.

The 17-year-old Choi was almost set to become the second amateur to win the title in 50 years when she was tied with Park with three holes left. But, at the 139-yard, par-3 16th hole, Choi’s tee shot landed in the water to the right of the green. In the end, she settled for a double bogey.

“Today, I hit the ball perfectly and I tried to hit that one more perfectly. When I had a birdie on the 15th hole, I thought that I may have a chance. That went through my mind and other people were saying I might have a chance, but at the 16th hole, my ball went into the hazard. That's what happened. At the time I felt that all this work, all this hard work I put together was going to disappear, so I was a bit disappointed,” Choi said through an interpreter.

``Well, I mean it would have been nice if I could get the money, but I think my primary goal was to come here and compete, so for me, getting this second place as runner-up actually means more to me.”

China’s Shanshan Feng, who had led the first three rounds, had a 75 to drop into a tie for fifth after posting a triple bogey on the 18th hole to lose her chance at forcing a playoff with Park.

This year’s U.S. Women’s Open once again proved the dominance of Korean golfers as eight Koreans were ranked in the final top 10. Since Pak Se-ri claimed the 1998 trophy, eight Koreans have won nine titles.