“PRO” FILE – TOURING PROFESSIONAL SE RI PAK

Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods, and Se Ri Pak all have something in common: They sparked a revolution that changed the game. Palmer is noted for bringing the game to the masses; Woods for leading a new generation of elite athletes who train and taking the game to the next level. Pak led the charge of Korean women golfers who now proliferate the LPGA Tour. Her first two victories on that tour were major championships, the second of which was the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open. The entire country of South Korea stayed up late at night to see her victory, and almost immediately hundreds of Korean girls took up the game. In 1998, Pak was the only Korean on the LPGA Tour; ten years later, 44 others had joined her. Pak became a frequent winner on the LPGA Tour, and her 6-0 playoff record attests to her mental strength in difficult situations. She won 22 times through 2004, when her game started tapering off at the age of just 27. Although she won three more times, the last in 2010, she never recaptured her former glory. Pak announced that 2016 would be her last year as a full-time player. She was inducted into golf’s Hall of Fame in 2007.