Inbee Park Is Back (Again) And Incredible Again
/She turned up in Rio, won the gold medal and seemed to be setting the stage for a walk-off (career) win. Turns out, Inbee Park took six months off and beat a top field in the HSBC Women's Champions. And seems to be back? Maybe?
Either way, the Inbee legend grows and becomes more intriguing if she continues to play a limited schedule, especially when she hits turns up to hit 64 of 72 greens and 55 of 56 fairways in beating an elite leaderboard that included Ariya Jutanugarn, Brooke Henderson and a resurgent Michelle Wie.
Beth Ann Nichols of Golfweek reports on the win and Park's ability to post incredible numbers off a layoff.
“Today was pretty much, everything I looked at, it wanted to drop in,” said Park, who hit 17 greens (her first miss coming on the 18th hole) and took only 27 putts.
It wasn’t that long ago that an ailing Park struggled to finish tournaments to even qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame. A lingering thumb injury made her future on tour seem doubtful. But then she shocked the golf world in Rio by taking Olympic gold after a two-month break.
At the HSBC Women’s Champions, Park stunned once again, winning in only her second start since last August.