Annie Park had a roller coaster of a round on Friday at the Palos Verdes Championship presented by Bank of America. After making the turn even on the day after a trio of birdies, pars and bogeys at -3 overall, Park went on to make back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 10 and 11. Despite the colorful scorecard, Park ground out four consecutive birdies on holes 13 through 16, which ties the most she’s ever made consecutively in one round on the LPGA Tour. Ultimately, it was enough to end the day with a 2-under 69 and at -5 overally, putting Park in a tie for sixth with 36 holes left to play.
“Today I was like, let's grab four birdies, and grabbed my four birdies out there,” said Park. “So, yeah, even just the beginning of the round I was aiming for a seven- to eight-birdie run. Obviously my new plan tomorrow is to get less bogeys. It's been very eventful.”
Though she missed the cut last week at the DIO Implant LA Open, Park is in a familiar environment along the coastline at PVGC. Park won the 2014 Northop Grumman Regional Challenge by seven strokes held at Palos Verdes Golf Club playing for the University of Southern California, one of nine champions of the annual collegiate event in this week’s field. It was her fifth win and first after an historic freshman season, where she earned Pac-12 Freshman of the Year honors and swept the Pac-12 Championship, NCAA Division I West Regional (co-medalist) and the individual title at the NCAA DI Championships. Park was also one of eight players with Trojan roots competing this week and is one of four USC alums on the leaderboard to make the weekend.
“I love playing here. It's one of my favorite courses to play. It was definitely nice to have this as one of our home courses,” said Park. “We've had a college event, and I think my last year playing was my [fifth] win out here, so I got a lot of memories, great memories out here.”
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