Watch out LPGA, Inbee Park finally has her putting stroke in order.
The 26-year-old captured her second LPGA title of 2015 on Sunday in Irving, Texas. Her season also includes a victory at the HSBC Women’s Champions and a playoff loss to Sei Young Kim at the Lotte Championship when Kim chipped in on the final hole to force a playoff and holed her second shot on the first playoff hole, a par 4, to win. Park’s three-stroke victory at the Volunteers of America North Texas Shootout was the largest thus far in 2015.
But she didn’t feel comfortable with her putting until playing at Las Colinas Country Club, thanks to changing putters prior to the tournament.
“I changed my putter this week, and a little bit of tweaks with the degrees of the putters and stuff like that,” Park said. “Just trying to make the ball go a little bit the way I want it to go.”
Park has won 14 times in her LPGA career, but 11 of those came from 2012-2014 when she led the LPGA each season in Putts per Green in Regulation and finished in the top five in Putting Average per round.
Many fans caught up in the youthful heroics of Lydia Ko, Lexi Thompson and Brooke Henderson may forget that Park had a similar path to the LPGA. She moved from South Korea to Las Vegas at age 12 and graduated from high school there in 2006. At age 17 – too young to join the LPGA – she enrolled at UNLV but soon dropped out and turned professional to play on the 2006 Epson Tour to earn her LPGA card for 2007. She won the 2009 U.S. Women’s Open at age 19, the youngest player ever to win that event and, at the time, the third-youngest major championship winner.
Ko’s cut streak inspired by Nepal
Lydia Ko made the 36-hole and the 54-hole cuts on the number at the Volunteers of America North Texas Shootout to extend her career streak of no missed cuts to 51. After an opening 75, Ko came back with a 68 in the second round, including playing the last eight holes in 3-under to finish at 1-over.
Most prominent in her mind was a pre-tournament promise to donate all of her earnings to earthquake victims in Nepal. The T41 finish earned $6,241 for Nepal relief.
“All day I was thinking, make some birdies for the kids in Nepal, that’s my big goal,” she said after the second round. “I will be able to make some sort of donation; it’s good.”
Ko’s streak has a long way to go to reach the LPGA mark. Jane Blalock won Rookie of the Year honors on the LPGA in 1969 and never missed a cut for nearly 12 years, a run of 299 tournaments. Her first career missed cut came at the Inamori Golf Classic on Oct. 12, 1980.
Tiger Woods holds the PGA Tour record of 142 from 1998 through 2005. His streak was broken at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, just a couple miles away from Las Colinas Country Club in Irving, Texas, the site of last week’s North Texas Shootout.
Ko’s worst career finish was a T61 at the 2014 Kia Classic. Usually a model of consistency, she has finished T51 (ANA Inspiration), win (Swinging Skirts) and T41 (North Texas) in her last three starts.
Etc.
Seven of the 11 winners this season are South Korean players and nine of the 11 (including South Korea-born Lydia Ko) are of Korean heritage. The other two winners are Americans: Cristie Kerr and Brittany Lincicome. The multiple winners include Inbee Park, Sei Young Kim and Ko. … The LPGA is off this week before returning in Williamsburg, Va., at the Kingsmill Championship May 14-17 before another off week. … Cristie Kerr has a win, a T2 and a T7 in her last five starts. … Brooke Henderson has shot four rounds in the 60s this year in three LPGA starts and three of those occurred in second rounds – 69, 65 and 65. With an off week on the LPGA, Henderson is planning to caddie for older sister Brittany this week on the Epson Tour at the Self Regional Healthcare Foundation Classic in Greenwood, S.C. That tournament is the richest on the Epson Tour and could go a long way toward determining the top 10 players for 2016 LPGA cards. Brittany is ranked 11th entering the tournament.
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