Ex-world No. 1 Park Sung-hyun slowly returning to form

WONJU, South Korea– On the heels of a top-three finish at a domestic tournament earlier this month and a solid opening round at an LPGA stop on home soil Thursday, former world No. 1 Park Sung-hyun said she feels like she is rounding into form, if ever so slowly.

Park shot a three-under 69 in the first round of the BMW Ladies Championship on Thursday, mixing in four birdies with one bogey at Oak Valley Country Club in Wonju, 85 kilometers east of Seoul.

This encouraging round represents another important step toward LPGA relevance for Park, the 2017 Rookie of the year and Player of the Year who has fallen on hard times of late.

Dealing with a nagging shoulder injury, Park missed two cuts and didn’t have any top-10 finish in seven starts in 2020, a season cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Park missed the cut 10 times out of 19 tournaments. So far this season, Park has not gone past 36 holes in eight of her 17 appearances.

Park came into this week at No. 183 in the world rankings. She needed a special invitation just to get into the field at the BMW Ladies Championship.

At least in the first round, Park, 29, is capitalizing on the opportunity.

“I think I played a really steady round of golf,” she said. “I missed a few birdie putts but overall, I am off to a pretty good start.”

Park said she was on the top of her game in 2017, when she captured two titles, including her first major at the U.S. Women’s Open, and added she feels “about 80 percent back” to where she had been back then.

“I think I am attacking pins more frequently,” she said. “Hitting shots with more confidence has been helping my game so much.”

Park has always been a great ball striker, and she said her focus this week will be on the green.

“Greens here have so much undulation. Luckily, I didn’t end up in tough spots that often today, and I will have to keep paying close attention to where my shots land,” Park said. “And greens are incredibly fast here, too. During my practice round, I even wondered if they are supposed to be this fast. So I will keep talking with my caddie and stay ready.”

Park said she caught a lucky break on her first hole, a par-four No. 10. She pushed her tee shot way right, but it took a fortuitous bounce and gave her decent angle to the green. Park felt her second shot had gone well past the hole, but the shot instead hit the flag and landed near the cup. She made a birdie there.

Park is coming off a third-place finish at a Korea LPGA tournament on Oct. 9. She said things are finally coming together for her in the second half of the season as her work — both physical and mental — from earlier in the year is paying dividends.

“Whether it’s my driving, iron play or short game, I think I am almost there,” Park said. “I am trying to get as close to 100 percent as I can.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency

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