The RICOH Women's British Open takes place this week over the Old Course at St Andrews and Inbee Park is at the Home of Golf, looking to win a fourth consecutive Major championship.
Having already won this year's Kraft Nabisco Championship, LPGA Championship and U.S. Women's Open, Park is the first player in the modern era to win the first three majors in a season. Babe Didrikson-Zaharias is the only other player to achieve the feat.
In 1950, Didrikson-Zaharias won the three women's majors of the day: the U.S. Open, the Titleholders Championship and the Women's Western Open. Many would argue if there would have been a fourth she would have won it; but the fact is there wasn’t.
If Park can take the title this weekend, she will become the first female player to win four professional Major championships in the same calendar year. Bobby Jones won four major titles that included two amateur championships, which, in his time, were counted as majors and is generally regarded as the only Grand Slam achieved in golf history.
Tiger Woods earned his “Tiger Slam,” when he grabbed all four men’s majors in a row, but he did so across the 2000-2001 seasons. Mickey Wright also won a quartet between 1961 and 1962. But no other golf great—not Woods, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, or Annika Sorenstam—has ever achieved the Grand Slam in the same calendar year.
There lies the greatness of the feat the 25-year-old from Seoul, South Korea is trying to achieve. And it’s only fitting that it can happen at The Old Course in St. Andrews, also known as the ‘Home of Golf’, because the sport was first played on the Links at St Andrews in the early 1400s.
The course has been home to 28 Open Championships and the Women’s British Open once before in 2007. Many of golf’s greats have won here: Jones, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Tiger Woods and the only female, Lorena Ochoa.
Park started playing golf at the age of 10 and at 12, she moved to the United States in order to pursue a golfing career. She turned pro in 2006 and won her first win at nonetheless a major, at the 2008 U.S. Women’s Open.
She has tallied a total of 14 professional wins, nine in the LPGA, four on the JLPGA and the 2013 Mission Hills World Ladies Championship teaming up with Kim Ha-Neul. But her career has been on a consistently upward spiral for just over a year now.
Park is the hottest golfer in the planet, and not even Tiger Woods has been as dominant over the past 12 months. Of her nine LPGA wins, eight have become in that period with six this year alone. When she finished T-12th in the KIA Classic last March, she progressively started her climb to the top of golf.
She would finish T-26th at the 2012’s first major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, but followed that with three Top 20 finishes before cracking the Top 10 with a T-9th finish at the year’s second major, the Wegmans LPGA Championship. That began a streak of 10 straight Top 10 finishes.
During that streak, she finished T-9th at the U.S. Women’s Open and the week after she won the Evian Championship, he second career win. The Evian is a major starting this year, and if she wins this weekend, she would go to the tournament to defend her title and look for even further history by achieving a ‘Penta Slam’, sweeping all five majors in the season.
That win last year also allowed her to crack the Top 20 in the Rolex Rankings for the first time, moving from 21st to 15th on Jul. 30. Almost a month later, thanks to her second-place finish at the CN Canadian Open she moved inside the Top 10 at No. 9 on Aug. 27th.
Her win at the SIMA Darby LPGA Malaysia moved her to fifth in the Rolex Rankings and she was well on her way towards the top of the rankings. But it has been this year that she made her bold statement.
Park won the first major of this season on the LPGA and one week after that she rose to World No. 1 status. She overtook Stacy Lewis in the Rolex Rankings after Lewis had held the top spot for the previous four weeks.
It’s been 16 weeks since that she’s tightened her grip on the No. 1 ranking, thanks to three consecutive wins that included the Wegmans LPGA Championship and the U.S. Women’s Open major wins among them.
Park averages 12.99 points in the Rolex Rankings, 4.93 more than her nearest challenger, previous No. 1 Lewis. She is also the absolute leader on the money list with $2,134,844, more than double what No. 2 Lewis ($916,799) and No. 3 I.K. Kim ($909,957) have earned combined.
She recognizes what is at stake this weekend and is up for the challenge.
Two things define Park's game: her brilliant putting and her calm demeanor. No other player, male or female, finds the bottom of the cup with their putts on their respective pro tours better than Park. She leads the universe with a 1.703 average putts per green in regulation. Not bad for somebody, whose putting mechanics are far from being as flawless as it can be. She moves her head and shifts her weight, look for those tips in the putting lessons books.
Watching Park play, sometimes you have to wonder if you are seeing a robot in action. Not because of perfect mechanics, but because of her perfect calm. It’s not a calm before the storm, its calm all the time. And that approach has led her to maintain her composure more her share of times and is a valuable piece in her armor.
But, you still get that Rodney Dangerfield feeling, that she doesn’t get enough respect. That is especially true outside of the women’s golf world, as LPGA legends wish Park’s feat would get more buzz. It might have to do something with her relaxed demeanor and approach to playing. She is not a flashy, intense player as many fans would like her to be.
But she is certainly becoming a sport Supernova. Between winning the US Open at Sebonack and arriving in Fife, Park made a trip home to Seoul, and there she got a glimpse at her fast rising fame. There she got gifts of a gold putter and use of a Ferrari for a year back home in South Korea. However, a woman at the toll booth still charged her—but did seem delighted to see the world's No. 1-ranked female golfer.
This weekend could very well be one of history, and Inbee Park will be part of it. Whether she wins and earns a ‘Grand Slam’ and follows it up with a quest for golf’s ultimate sweep, the ‘Penta Slam’ remains to be seen. But she certainly has all the tools to do it.
One thing is for sure; if you miss any of the action this weekend, you will be missing out on a piece of history. And there is no better setting than golf’s Cathedral, The Old Course at St. Andrews, with Women’s golf Maestro preparing for a recital.
Make sure you watch it.