Pak legacy might be as pioneer for South Korea
Five-time major winner to be inducted in World Golf Hall of Fame Monday
 | Se Ri Pak of South Korea will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame on Monday night. |
Robert Laberge / Getty Images file |
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ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - Se Ri Pak presided over a table of 10 at a Chinese restaurant in Las Vegas, ordering all the food and making sure everyone had enough to eat. When the fortune cookies arrived, she cracked hers open and read it slowly and softly in her halting English.
“You will lose the small ones, but win the big treasure,” she said.
After taking a second to let it soak in, Pak looked up at her guests with a smile that could light up the Strip.
“Tonight,” she said, “we go to casino.”
Chairs were pushed back in unison, laughter filled the air and her entourage followed her out the door and across the street to the blackjack tables. It was her second year on the LPGA Tour, and Pak already had quite a following.
It turned out to be greater than she ever imagined.
Pak will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame on Monday night on her record alone. The LPGA Tour uses a strict system of points, and the 30-year-old from South Korea reached that level three years ago.
She won five majors, two of them during a rookie season in 1998 that gave women’s golf its biggest boost since Nancy Lopez. She picked up her 24th career victory earlier this year. She was so good so young that Pak will be the youngest player to be inducted.
Her legacy, however, will be as a pioneer who inspired a nation.
Pak was not the first South Korean to play or win on the LPGA Tour, but her success served as a catalyst for more young players to believe they could compete on the strongest circuit in women’s golf.
She was among three South Koreans as a rookie. Ten years later, the LPGA Tour has 45 players from South Korea, which accounts for 38 percent of the LPGA population.
They aren’t just here, they are winning. Three others have won majors (Grace Park, Birdie Kim, Jeong Jang), and four others have followed Pak as the LPGA rookie of the year.
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And they stand behind her on just about every occasion.
The last requirement for Pak to qualify for the Hall of Fame was 10 full seasons on the LPGA Tour, and she reached that at the McDonald’s LPGA Championship in early June. Organizers staged a news conference after the first round at Bulle Rock, complete with a cake, and Pak was stunned to see a dozen South Korean players in the back of the room.
“She set the standard for the Korean gals,” Juli Inkster said. “All the Korean gals look up to her, how she lives. I don’t think that was her plan. She was just so successful.”
At the Kraft Nabisco Championship this year, where Pak was in contention on the weekend as she tried to complete the career Grand Slam, among those in her gallery was Birdie Kim, who had missed the cut.
No other South Korean had won a major until Kim holed out a 90-foot bunker shot on the final hole at Cherry Hills in 2005 to capture the U.S. Women’s Open. She made it clear that day Pak was, and always will be, her idol.
“I met her eight years ago when I was young, like middle school student, and at that time she was very big player in Korea,” Kim said. “So me, just I follow her always, watching her, always try to keep close, play like her. We have really good player like Se Ri Pak, everybody follow her. That’s why we can make it more easier.”
Pak will be inducted along with two-time U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange, U.S. Open and PGA champion Hubert Green, former British Open champion Kel Nagle of Australia and three-time British Amateur champion Joe Carr of Ireland.
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