Pak Se-ri – Wikipedia

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South Korean professional golfer

Pak Se-ri or Se-ri Pak (Korean: 박세리, Korean pronunciation: [paːk seːɾi]; born 28 September 1977) is a South Korean former professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour from 1998 to 2016. She was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2007.

Career overview[edit]

Born in Daejeon, she attended Yuseong Elementary School in that city and then Keumseong Girls’ High School in Gongju City, Chungnam Province, where she was the school’s best amateur golfer. She then moved to Seoul for training.[1]
Pak turned professional in 1996, a year before she moved to the United States as a 20-year-old.[2] In 1996 and 1997, she won six tournaments on the LPGA of Korea Tour. Pak joined the LPGA Tour full-time for the year 1998, crowning her rookie season with victories in two majors: the McDonald’s LPGA Championship and U.S. Women’s Open. At just 20 years of age, she became the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Women’s Open. About.com writes that “Pak won a 20-hole playoff for that victory, making that tournament – at 92 holes in length – the longest tournament ever in women’s professional golf.”[3] Four days after the U.S. Women’s Open win, Pak shot a then-LPGA record 61 during the second round of the Jamie Farr Kroger Classic.[4] She won the Rolex Rookie of the Year award for that season.

Since 1998, she has gone on to win 21 more events on the Tour, including three more majors. In June 2007, at age 29, she qualified for the World Golf Hall of Fame, surpassing Karrie Webb as the youngest living entrant ever.[5] (Tom Morris, Jr., who died in 1875 at the age of 24, had been elected in 1975.)

Pak has also competed in a professional men’s event, at the 2003 SBS Super Tournament on the Korean Tour. The Korean Tour was a feeder tour for the Asian Tour and did not offer world ranking points. She finished 10th in the event, according to the World Golf Hall of Fame “becoming the first woman to make the cut in a professional men’s tournament since Babe Zaharias did so in 1945.”[6]

At the 2005 McDonald’s LPGA Championship, she missed the cut for the first time in 29 majors. In an interview quoted on the PGA Tour’s website, she commented that she was searching for a balance between her golf and her personal life: “I’ve been a little bit unhappy about everything, my game, big game. I’m not really enjoying it at all, and I’m not doing anything with my ability. I know what I needed, a much better balance. I’m always putting a lot of pressure on myself”. Eventually, she was found to have a finger injury. In 2006, she rediscovered her best form by winning the McDonald’s LPGA Championship for the third time to claim her fifth major title overall.

In 2007, she won the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic for the fifth time, making her the fourth player in LPGA history to win the same tournament five or more times (Annika Sörenstam accomplished this feat at two tournaments).[7]

Perhaps the greatest tribute to her career to date came in a column by Golf World writer Eric Adelson in 2008, who called Pak “a pioneer… who changed the face of golf even more than Tiger Woods.”[8] When Pak came to the LPGA in 1998, she was the only Korean player. Ten years later, she was one of 45 Koreans on tour,[9] and the single largest source of revenue for the LPGA was the sale of TV rights in South Korea.[10]

Pak was the only South Korean on the LPGA Tour in the year 1998. Her spectacular triumph at the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open encouraged many Korean women to take up golf as a sport. She is regarded as a leader of the game in her home country and has also inspired the new generations of LPGA players Na Yeon Choi and Inbee Park who have followed her footsteps at the LPGA level.[11] A statue of her now stands outside Gongju’s stadium.[12] This statue commemorates her signature moment: a successful shot from a water hazard to remain tied for first place in the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open; this allowed her to force a sudden death playoff which she then won with “a tremendous birdie putt from nearly 20 feet on the second hole.”[13] This was a victory named by the Korea Times as the 3rd most acclaimed moment in 60 years of South Korean sports history.[14] Her shot was shown as the basis for the first episode of the Korean TV drama “Birdie Buddy.”[15]

On 17 March 2016, Pak announced that she would retire following the 2016 season.[16] She retired the following 13 October, after completing the first round of her country’s lone LPGA-sanctioned event, the LPGA KEB Hana Bank Championship.[17]

Professional wins (39)[edit]

LPGA Tour (25)[edit]

Legend
Major championships (5)
Other LPGA Tour (20)

LPGA Tour playoff record (6–0)

LPGA of Korea Tour (14)[edit]

Major championships[edit]

Wins (5)[edit]

Pak at the 2009 LPGA Championship in Bulle Rock, Maryland

1 Defeated Chuasiriporn on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff, after an 18-hole playoff round
2 Defeated Webb on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff

Results timeline[edit]

Results not in chronological order before 2015.

^ The Women’s British Open replaced the du Maurier Classic as an LPGA major in 2001
^^ The Evian Championship was added as a major in 2013

  Win

  Top 10

  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
WD = withdrew
“T” = tied for place

Summary[edit]

  • Most consecutive cuts made – 29 (1997 U.S. Open – 2005 Kraft Nabisco)
  • Longest streak of top-10s – 5 (2001 U.S. Open – 2002 U.S. Open)

LPGA Tour career summary[edit]

Year Tournaments
played		 Cuts
made		 Wins 2nd 3rd Top 10s Best
finish		 Earnings
($)		 Money
list rank		 Scoring
average		 Scoring
rank
1998 27 26 4 0 0 8 1 872,170 2 71.41 13
1999 27 24 4 0 0 10 1 956,926 3 70.77 8
2000 23 22 0 0 2 11 3 550,376 12 72.49 10
2001 21 20 5 5 2 12 1 1,623,009 2 69.69 2
2002 24 24 5 1 2 17 1 1,722,281 2 69.85 2
2003 26 25 3 6 0 20 1 1,611,928 2 70.03 1
2004 19 17 1 1 0 5 1 682,669 11 71.34 27
2005 12 9 0 0 0 0 T27 62,628 102 74.21 116
2006 23 21 1 0 2 8 1 884,961 13 71.65 23
2007 23 20 1 0 1 8 1 820,129 16 71.74 14
2008 17 10 0 1 0 3 2 366,143 52 72.59 66
2009 24 20 0 1 0 2 2 447,683 30 71.98 37
2010 15 9 1 0 0 3 1 368,839 32 72.45 49
2011 20 17 0 0 0 4 4 415,447 27 71.97 26
2012 12 9 0 0 0 5 4 430,338 33 71.18 16
2013 18 14 0 0 0 3 T4 440,162 34 71.88 41
2014 16 10 0 0 0 3 T4 271,888 59 71.75 45
2015 8 3 0 0 0 1 T10 36,083 122 74.25 n/a
2016 10 3 0 0 0 0 T27 20,053 150 69.54 95
  • official through 2016 season[18]

World ranking[edit]

Position in Women’s World Golf Rankings at the end of each calendar year.

Team appearances[edit]

Amateur

Professional

Filmography[edit]

Television shows[edit]

Web shows[edit]

Awards and nominations[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “Chungcheong Golfers Shake the World”. www.donga.com.
  2. ^ TalkAsia, CNN, 2007
  3. ^ About.com – Se Ri Pak
  4. ^ “Pak Sets LPGA Record With 61 U.S. Open Champion Makes 10 Birdies”. Seattle Post-Intelliencer. 11 July 1998. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
  5. ^ “Pak qualifies for LPGA Tour and World Golf Halls of Fame”. LPGA. 7 June 2007. Retrieved 15 July 2007.
  6. ^ “Se Ri Pak – World Golf”.
  7. ^ “All-Time Records” (PDF). LPGA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 April 2007. Retrieved 5 July 2010.
  8. ^ Adelson, Eric (5 September 2008). “Bivens’ missteps starting to add up”. ESPN. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  9. ^ “Information: 2008 International Players” (PDF). LPGA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 May 2011. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  10. ^ Sirak, Ron (5 September 2008). “LPGA Tour should have seen the fallout coming from English policy”. ESPN. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  11. ^ Jack, Steve. “Se Ri Pak”. writengine.com. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  12. ^ “worldmapz.com”. kr.worldmapz.com.
  13. ^ “Se Ri Pak Inspires Korean Show “Birdy Buddy” – LPGA Golf Forum”. Archived from the original on 10 September 2015.
  14. ^ “[60thAnni] Top 10 most acclaimed moments in 60 years”. koreatimes. 28 October 2010.
  15. ^ http://www.dramafever.com/drama/765/1/Birdie_Buddy/
  16. ^ Mell, Randall (17 March 2016). “Se Ri Pak plans to retire after 2016 season”. Golf Channel.
  17. ^ Herrington, Ryan (13 October 2016). “Se Ri Pak Has An Emotional On-Course Sendoff As She Plays The Last Round Of Her LPGA Career”. Golf Digest.
  18. ^ “Se Ri Pak stats”. LPGA. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  19. ^ “Women’s World Golf Rankings”. 26 December 2006.
  20. ^ “Women’s World Golf Rankings”. 25 December 2007.
  21. ^ “Women’s World Golf Rankings”. 30 December 2008.
  22. ^ “Women’s World Golf Rankings”. 29 December 2009.
  23. ^ “Women’s World Golf Rankings”. 28 December 2010.
  24. ^ “Women’s World Golf Rankings”. 27 December 2011.
  25. ^ “Women’s World Golf Rankings”. 31 December 2012.
  26. ^ “Women’s World Golf Rankings”. 30 December 2013.
  27. ^ “Women’s World Golf Rankings”. 29 December 2014.
  28. ^ “Women’s World Golf Rankings”. 28 December 2015.
  29. ^ “Women’s World Golf Rankings”. 26 December 2016.
  30. ^ Son, Hyo-jeong (13 October 2017). “SBS측 “박세리, ‘정글’ 출연 확정…PD가 5개월간 설득”[공식입장]”. TV Report (in Korean). Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  31. ^ Ahn Jeong-eun (13 August 2020). “박찬호·박세리·추성훈→청하, 역대급 조합…’정글의 법칙’ 더 강력해졌다”. Seoul Economic Daily (in Korean). Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  32. ^ Jo Ji-young (19 August 2020). “[공식] ‘정글의법칙’ 최초 국내판 ‘와일드코리아’ 포스터 공개..극한 정글 생존 예고”. Sports Chosun (in Korean). Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  33. ^ Lee Jeong-hyun (20 August 2020). “SBS ‘정글의 법칙’ 코로나 장기화에 국내 특집”. Yonhap (in Korean). Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  34. ^ Kim Jin-seok (5 October 2020). “[단독]이근·개리·윤은혜·허경환 등 ‘정글의 법칙’ 녹화 마쳐”. Ilgan Sports (in Korean). Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  35. ^ Han Jeong-won (5 October 2020). “‘정글’ 측 “이근X개리X윤은혜X허경환 출연, 지난주 촬영 완료”(공식)”. Newsen (in Korean). Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  36. ^ Yoo Ji-hye (17 May 2021). “[단독] 김종국·양세찬, 박세리 새 골프 예능프로 합류”. Sports Dong-A (in Korean). Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  37. ^ Lee Seung-mi (21 December 2021). “[공식]新예능 ‘우리끼리 작전타임’, 박세리X김성주 MC…1월 19일 첫방송” [[Official] New entertainment ‘Operation Time Between Us’, Se-ri Park X Seong-joo Kim MC… First broadcast on January 19th] (in Korean). Sports Chosun. Retrieved 21 December 2021 – via Naver.
  38. ^ Park Seo-yeon (3 January 2022). “내일은 영웅-깐부’ 박세리, 직접 기획 참여 신개념 골프 예능..6일 첫 방송” [Tomorrow is a hero-Kanbu’ Se-ri Pak, a new concept golf entertainment with direct participation in planning.. First broadcast on the 6th] (in Korean). Herald POP. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
  39. ^ Kim Ye-eun (14 July 2022). “이경규·안정환·박세리…’오늘부터 잇생’, 디지털 문맹 탈출 도전” [Lee Kyung-gyu, Ahn Jung-hwan, Park Se-ri… ‘It Saeng From Today’, a challenge to escape from digital illiteracy] (in Korean). X-ports News. Retrieved 14 July 2022 – via Naver.
  40. ^ Jang, Da-hee (2 September 2022). “서장훈-전현무, KBS 추석특집 ‘스포츠 골든벨’ MC 호흡” [Seo Jang-hoon and Jeon Hyun-moo, MCs for KBS Chuseok Special ‘Sports Golden Bell’] (in Korean). spoTV News. Retrieved 2 September 2022 – via Naver.
  41. ^ Kim Min-ji (4 January 2023). “박세리·장성규·이특, 초대형 골프 오디션 ‘더 퀸즈’ 출연…8일 첫방” [Pak Se-ri, Jang Seong-gyu, and Leeteuk appear in the super-large golf audition ‘The Queens’… First episode on the 8th]. News1 (in Korean). Retrieved 4 January 2023 – via Naver.
  42. ^ Lee Seung-mi (23 August 2022). 장성규·이특, 채널A 새 골프 예능 MC 발탁 [연예뉴스 HOT] [Jang Seong-gyu and Leeteuk are selected as the MCs for Channel A’s new golf entertainment program [Entertainment News HOT]]. Sports Dong-a (in Korean). Retrieved 1 October 2022 – via Naver.
  43. ^ Park Jae-hwan (3 April 2023). “리치 언니’ 박세리, ‘개는 훌륭하다’ MC 합류” [‘Rich Unnie’ Pak Se-ri joins ‘Dogs are great’ MC] (in Korean). KBS Media. Retrieved 3 April 2023 – via Naver.
  44. ^ Kang Hyun-jin (27 July 2021). “골프 사랑꾼’ SG워너비 김용준, 박세리와 만난다 (세리자베스)” [‘Golf Lover’ SG Wannabe Kim Yong-jun and Pak Se-ri meet (Cerizabeth)]. xportsnews (in Korean). Naver. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  45. ^ Lee, Seung-gil (1 September 2022). “유재석·임영웅·아이브 등, ‘2022 올해의 브랜드 대상’ 수상 [공식]” [Jae-seok Yoo, Young-woong Lim, Ive, etc., won the ‘2022 Brand of the Year Grand Prize’ [Official]] (in Korean). My Daily. Retrieved 1 September 2022 – via Naver.
  46. ^ Noh Yi-seul (2 May 2022). “2PM 이준호·유재석·태연·아이유·강다니엘 등, 2022 브랜드 고객충성도 1위” [2PM Lee Jun-ho, Yoo Jae-suk, Taeyeon, IU, Kang Daniel, etc., Ranked No. 1 in Customer Loyalty in 2022] (in Korean). Sports W. Retrieved 3 May 2022.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Se-ri Pak.