Park heads leaderboard of foreigners at the Michelob
IN: News | LPGA | Michelob Light Open at Kingsmill (2003) | Wrap | by Bruce Young | 05 May 2003
In yet another example of the foreign domination of the LPGA Tour, only five of the top twenty finishers at this week's Michelob Light Open at Kingsmill Virginia were US born. In fact Grace Park's victory now means that all eight tournaments on this year's tour have been won by players born outside of the USA.
Having said that, it is not as if several of those winners have not received their golfing education in the US, with the likes of Grace Park, Annika Sorenstam and Candie Kung having gone to college there, but the trend in recent years of non-American winners continues.
This week it was Grace Park's turn when she won the inaugural staging of the Michelob Light Open by just one shot from Karrie Webb, Lorena Ochoa and Cristie Kerr. Park had started round four with a one shot lead over Cristie Kerr and by three over Ochoa, Hee Won Han and Suzann Pettersen.
After dropping four shots in the first five holes things were not looking good for the 24-year-old Park. In fact at that point she trailed Kerr and Ochoa by three shots and her chance looked to be fading away. However, she had other ideas and by reeling off three consecutive birdies on holes five, six and seven she was back to within a shot of Ochoa and Kerr. When the Mexican bogeyed the eighth and Kerr the ninth all three were tied at eight under.
Park would go on to prevail however, with birdies on the 15th and 16th taking her to nine under which proved to be good enough to hold out Kerr, Ochoa and a fast finishing Karrie Webb whose weekend rounds of 68 and 67 provided her with her best finish of the season to date.
The win was Park's fourth in her fourth season on the USLPGA, her fourth top ten in seven starts and the $US240,000 winners purse is by far her biggest cheque. She now moves to third on the 2003 money list.
For Webb this will give her year the boost it was seeking. In five other starts this season her best had been seventh at last week's Chik-fil-A event but it may be that from now on we start to see the level of consistency that has become such a trademark of Webb on the USLPGA.
Ochoa continues to blossom into perhaps the most exciting prospect in the female game and her first win on the USLPGA is surely not far away. She is a dynamic and charismatic figure and one who will be a great asset for the LPGA.
Annika Sorenstam continues to perform with great consistency this season finishing here in sixth place, three behind the winner.
Suzann Pettersen is another about to make her mark on the USLPGA. The powerful Norwegian is in her rookie year and has shown enough already to suggest that she too will become yet another European to win in the US before long. She faded in the last round here but is slowly but surely finding her feet.
Of the other Australasians in the field, Rachel Teske and Wendy Doolan were 20th, Shani Waugh 48th, Loraine Lambert 68th and Marnie McGuire 72nd.
The LPGA now heads to South Carolina for the Asahi Ryokuken International.
