PERFECTIONIST WAS NEARLY PERFECT

A lot has happened for Sung Hyun Park over the last year. She’s posted three wins on the KLPGA. She went from spectator at this tournament to inside the ropes. And she now owns the course record.

“I’m a perfectionist when it comes to golf, but last year, I was not happy with my game, especially with my swing. I think I thought the rhythm was kind of off,” said Park. “So I invested a lot of time to improving my swing, so right now, I think I have a really good rhythm and timing when it comes to my swing. And when it comes to the way I think or the mentality I have, I think last year, I lacked the experience of being or playing with really experienced players, leaders.”

That should certainly help her over the next three days as she looks to fend off the best players in the world.

“I think today, I was especially lucky, but looking ahead to the next three days, I know that double or triple-bogeys are a possibility, so it’s really anybody’s game at this point,” said Park. “So I’m going to try to not focus on winning too much and really try to do my best.”

SOLHEIM STAR’S PUTTER REMAINS ON FIRE

Gerina Piller’s heard the popular refrain among her critics throughout her career. “She can’t putt!” the saying goes. Her response? Arguably the biggest putt in Solheim Cup history - a 10-foot clincher at the last to win that kept the Americans in it.

It’s one of those career-defining putts and moments that can end up propelling a player to the next level. The more Piller believes in her flat stick, the more putts seem to fall, and she’s put in the work this year to right the perceived weakness of her game.

It’s shown all season in her best year to date on the LPGA Tour and it showed again Thursday in a first-round 6-under-par 66 in which she only needed 27 putts.

“I feel like there’s a lot of times where I may hear that putting is kind of holding me back, and where I think I’m a great putter, but hopefully it’s a little quiet to them, and gives me a lot more confidence obviously to perform on that type of stage,” said Piller. “I played great all week and to make a putt of that much significance was definitely a huge confidence booster.”

Piller’s a supremely talented ball striker, one of the LPGA’s best. And she’s worked all season to ensure that her short game isn’t a weakness. It hasn’t been in 2015 and she’s having the best year of her career to date. It seems sooner than later, that first career LPGA win is coming, and it might even be this week. Either way, she’s pleased with the changes she’s found in her game.

“I think just more confidence and more consistency,” said Piller. “I know we had talked at the beginning of the year, and what I was working on this year was being more consistent. I feel like I’ve got to that point where I’m pretty consistent and it’s just a matter of time.”

NEW CADDIE, NEW HULL

Charley Hull’s been on the scene so long that it’s easy to forget she’s only 19. With youth sometimes comes inconsistency and Hull’s been one round away from some really terrific results recently. There was the first-round 74 last week that kept her from a top-10. There was the final-round 6-over 77 at the Evian Championship after three consecutive days of 1-under-par 70 that kept her from a top-10. And there was a 1-over-par second-round 73 that left her three shots back of a playoff in a tie for seventh at the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open.

But there’s a lot to like about the young Brit’s game these days. She was absolutely terrific for Team Europe at the Solheim Cup and she knows the game she showed on the biggest stage will come out on a more consistent basis as she grows in the game.

She was terrific again Thursday with a 6-under-par 66.

“Just patience at the moment. Just scope on pushing on, keep on hitting good scores,” said Hull. “I’m only 19; I just feel like I’ve got a lot more to progress in my game and a lot more to learn. I feel really comfortable with my caddie, Adam. He’s great.”

Hull first started working with Adam Woodward, a long-time caddie on Tour, at the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open and believes it’s had an impact on her game over the last month and half.

“Yeah, well, I first started working with him the first week I was in Canada, and I think I finished eighth there, seventh, I can’t remember which one, but we’ve had two top-10’s in the last five weeks, so I’ve been pretty happy,” she said.

NO. 1 RANKING SCENARIOS

Inbee Park is in for a fight this week to hold on to her No. 1 world ranking after Lydia Ko has posted two wins and a runner-up in her last three starts.

Lydia Ko can become No. 1 again if:

She wins
She finishes 2nd AND Inbee Park finishes solo 6th or worse

NUMBERS TO KNOW

.26 - Inbee Park leads Lydia Ko by .26 points in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. For comparison’s sake, Park leads No. 3 Stacy Lewis by 3.5 points.

3 - Both Lydia Park and Inbee Park were 3-under par on Thursday and are tied in 16th place in their battle for the world No. 1 ranking.

10 - This is HanaBank’s 10th year as the sponsor of this event.

34 - There are 34 South Korean players on the LPGA Tour in 2015.

62 - Sung Hyun Park’s 62 Thursday bests the previous course record of Suzann Pettersen - a first-round 63 in 2012.

Rd.1 News and Notes - LPGA KEB Hana Bank Championship

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