Fresh off victory, LPGA veteran looking to end major championship drought

▲ In this Getty Images photo, Park In-bee of South Korea holds the champion's trophy after winning the Kia Classic at Aviara Golf Club in Carlsbad, California, on March 28, 2021. (Yonhap)

▲ In this Getty Images photo, Park In-bee of South Korea hits a tee shot at the 14th hole during the final round of the Kia Classic at Aviara Golf Club in Carlsbad, California, on March 28, 2021. (Yonhap)

LPGA golfer-major

Fresh off victory, LPGA veteran looking to end major championship drought

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, April 1 (Yonhap) -- LPGA Hall of Famer Park In-bee just picked up her first win of the 2021 season last weekend in California. She also climbed two spots in the world rankings to reach No. 2.

And this week, she will try to end a long major championship drought.

Park will compete at the season's first major, ANA Inspiration, starting Thursday in Rancho Mirage, California. She won the tournament in 2013 when it was called the Kraft Nabisco Championship under a different sponsor.

Park has won seven majors so far, but none since the 2015 Ricoh Women's British Open. Given the state of her game, this would be as good a time as any to add another big trophy to her resume.

"Obviously, playing good in majors is a big focus of my season," Park said at a press conference at Mission Hills Country Club on Wednesday (local time). "I haven't won a major in a while, so hopefully this year could be the one."

Park took the Kia Classic by five strokes in a wire-to-wire fashion last week. She said winning her first start of the season took a lot of pressure off her shoulders.

"To be able to win the first one, I feel a lot less pressure coming into the tournaments being held after that," she said. "Definitely last week, I was feeling a little bit rusty and I kind of thought that there was a lot of parts in my game that needs to be worked on, and obviously it worked out really good."

Specifically, Park said she was surprised how well she putted at the Kia Classic. She did spend a lot of time working on her putting during the winter, when she spent a lot of time at home during the pandemic and practiced her stroke on the putting mat.

Park now sits behind only her countrywoman Ko Jin-young in the world rankings. Only 1.2 ranking points separate the two, and the major title this week would take Park closer to the top or even allow her to topple Ko.

Park hasn't been No. 1 since 2018. Though she has often said she doesn't put much stock into world rankings, this year may be a bit different because of the Olympic qualifying process, which is based on world ranking positions.

Top-15 players at the end of June will qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in July, with a maximum of four per country. Park is the second-highest South Korean inside the top 15, behind Ko and ahead of Kim Sei-young (No. 3) and Kim Hyo-joo (No. 9).

As the defending Olympic champion, Park has repeatedly said she'd love to get a chance to win her second straight gold medal.

Asked to compare the pressure she felt trying to win gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics to the stress of playing at LPGA majors, Park said the Olympic Games are a different animal.

"At the Olympics, you get so much attention from the people and the country and from everyone pretty much," she said. "I think it's double, triple, probably ten times more pressure than I ever felt in a major championship. It's just another level of pressure."

But just as winning the Kia Classic took pressure off ahead of the ANA Inspiration, Park said having already won in Rio will ease the burden somewhat in Tokyo.

"Something that was working to my advantage for that week in the Rio Olympics was that everyone was feeling that kind of pressure," she recalled. "If I was the only one that was feeling that pressure, I don't think I would've played as good. Everyone was feeling so much pressure that I could just see (it) from other players, too. That really made me feel a little bit more relaxed after seeing that."

Park said Mission Hills Country Club is "like my home course" because of her familiarity built over the years.

"I think the course is in just perfect shape, and it's like the fairways are like a carpet. The greens are just so fast and firm," she said. "It's going to get firmer over the weekend. The rough is probably not the thickest I've seen, but it can get very tricky. So I think it's going to be a fun week."

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