In the fight for the first gold, silver and bronze medals to be awarded in women’s Olympic golf since 1900, Park, Ko and Piller are in a position to determine their own Olympic stories.
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Lewis struggled to a one-under 70 in the first round, but found a groove Thursday, closing with four straight birdies to take the clubhouse lead before Park ended with a three-birdie run of her own.
“This is the best”, Pak told reporters. “It just kind of got me more focused instead of going the opposite direction”.
“Something seemed to click, and I got more confidence as the day went on”, she said. 2, 4, 5 and 6.
But short birdie tries lipped out on both the 16 and 17 to leave her rueing what might have been after she closed with a birdie for a 67 and a creditable tie for seventh at eight under. Chun was four shots behind in a tie for 13th, while Kim tied for 25th at one-under. It’ll be hard for either of those two – or China’s Shanshan Feng who’s pulled into second at 10-under-par – to run down Park on the back nine without any major sort of stumble.
South Korea’s Inbee Park was crowned the first Olympic women’s golf champion for 116 years as she produced a superb fourth round performance to finish five shots clear of New Zealand’s Lydia Ko in Rio de Janeiro. “I said, ‘I’m just going to go for this pin.’ I have confidence that I can stop it if I hit the distance”. “I think I want to learn as much as I can from here”. Even people that don’t play golf, they actually get to see how great the Chinese players are.
“I didn’t know the course record”, said Verchenova, who moved up more than 25 spots in the field and finished at 4 under for the tournament. But I also saw that I hit a lot of bad shots and won golf tournaments. “It is a huge honour”, Ko said after the dramatic finish. She hasn’t played as well as she would’ve liked this year on the LPGA, but this was a time to relax and take in the experience that is the Olympics.
“That was just the one place you couldn’t really go … and I went there”. “I think the putts going in definitely helped”, said Lewis, who married Gerrod Chadwell on August 6.
Though there was no team event in Rio, Pak’s friendly, down-to-earth style of leadership helped bring the four players closer.
The win adds to an impressive collection of achievements for Park, including seven major championships, and will serve to punctuate the dominance of South Korean women golfers.
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She can allay her frustrations with two more good rounds in Rio. You’re always playing for your country, but here you’re really playing for your country. Clearly whatever pressure she felt did anything but hinder her stellar play.
