South Korea’s current world No. 5 Inbee Park is on top of the ongoing women’s 2016 Rio Olympic golf leader board thanks to her consistent performance after two rounds of play on Thursday while Feng Shanshan of China improved from the 19th to 13th after finishing a 4-under-par round. Golf wasn’t an Olympic sport at the time, but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) put it on the Summer Games program in a vote in 2009.
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Park, who committed to UNLV but turned pro before college, was playing top competition for the first time in two months because of a thumb injury.
Seven-time major victor Park, who earlier this year became the youngest player ever to become eligible for the LPGA Hall of Fame, hadn’t played a competitive round of golf for two months coming into Rio as she tried to recover from a thumb injury that has blighted her season.
Luckily, Park went to Rio.
“If anybody [of the four Chinese players in the Olympic tournaments] can have a good result, maybe a medal, it’s going to really change everything about golf in China”, she said Saturday after shooting a final-round 69.
Park shot a five-under 66 on the final day at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics on Saturday, defeating world No. 1 Lydia Ko by five shots. She holed an 8-foot birdie putt on the 18th for a 69 to claim the silver by one shot over Shanshan Feng of China, who also shot 69. “I had to overcome a lot of obstacles”, Park said.
While she wouldn’t be drawn on her immediate plans in the aftermath of the win it was clear the victory was a major achievement in her own mind.
And to anyone who questioned her place in women’s golf. Just three months ago, Park was struggling her way through to injury to reach the LPGA Hall of Fame. It was Park’s marriage to Nam Gi-hyeob, her swing coach, that provided a passage out of the slump.
So a gold medal seems to fit into Park’s career perfectly.
A former world number one now ranked fifth, Park is still just 28 but has seven women’s majors under her belt. This time around, it was injuries that held her down. “But I thought I played decent especially on the back nine”.
After flat bogeys on two of the first four holes today, the six-birdie salvo was testament to Lee’s fighting spirit.
“Before coming here we had some negative press but I think we have all proved what an fantastic week it was for golf, for the women’s game”.
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But as she did in the past, she emerged from her slump and saw the triumph of taking gold in Rio. “The others are really strong players”. ‘I don’t think I concentrate well enough on and off the course but I learned plenty this week’. In 2013, she became the first player to win the first three majors in a year, her streak stopped at the Women’s British Open by Lewis. For them, gaining as much experience as possible in professional tournaments will be vital in their preparation for Tokyo Olympic Games four years later. “That was huge for me”.
