Grace Park (golfer)

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Grace Park 박지은
— Golfer —

Personal information
Full name	Grace Park
Born	(1979-03-06) 6 March 1979 Seoul, South Korea
Height	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Nationality	South Korea
Residence	Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S.
Career
College	Arizona State University Ewha Womans University
Turned professional	1999
Retired	2012
Former tour(s)	Futures Tour (joined 1999) LPGA Tour (joined 2000)
Professional wins	12
Number of wins by tour
LPGA Tour	6
Symetra Tour	5
Other	1
Best results in LPGA Major Championships (Wins: 1)
Kraft Nabisco C'ship	Won: 2004
LPGA Championship	2nd: 2003
U.S. Women's Open	T6: 2000
du Maurier Classic	DNP
Women's British Open	T3: 2003
Achievements and awards
Futures Tour Player of the Year	1999
LPGA Vare Trophy	2004

Grace Park (born 6 March 1979) is a retired South Korean professional golfer on the LPGA Tour. She was a member of the LPGA Tour from 2000 until her retirement in 2012 and won six LPGA Tour events, including one major championship, during her career.

Amateur career

Park was born Park Ji-eun (Korean: 박지은) in Seoul, South Korea. She moved to Hawaii at the age of 12, and then to Arizona. She received the 1996 Dial Award as top female high-school scholar-athlete in the United States. She attended Arizona State University and graduated from Ewha Womans University in 2003.

Park had an outstanding amateur career in the United States being Rolex Junior Player of the Year in 1994 and 1996,^[1] winning several amateur championships in 1998 including the U.S. Women's Amateur and the Women's Western Amateur. She tied for eighth as an amateur in the 1999 U.S. Women's Open.

Professional career

Park turned professional in 1999 and decided to play on the Futures Tour instead of taking exemptions to LPGA Tour tournaments. She won five of the ten tournaments she entered and became one of the first three golfers to gain automatic LPGA Tour exempt status by finishing top of the money list.^[2] She was named Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year.^[3]

She won at least one LPGA tournament in each season from 2000 to 2004, including her first major, the 2004 Kraft Nabisco Championship. The years 2005 and 2006 were difficult for Park as she suffered from back and neck injuries, and success continued to elude her the following two seasons as well. In April 2009 it was reported that Park had undergone a successful hip surgery, and that she would be off the LPGA tour for several months.^[4]

In June 2012, Park announced her retirement from golf.^[5]

The Boston Globe has described Park as "the striking beauty, the tall and proud walk, the dazzling smile" and she has attracted sponsorship from Nike and Rolex.

Professional wins (12)

LPGA Tour (6)

Legend
LPGA Tour major championships (1)
Other LPGA Tour (5)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	Jun 4, 2000	Kathy Ireland Greens.com LPGA Classic	66-68-70-70=274	−14	1 stoke	Pat Hurst Juli Inkster
2	Jan 28, 2001	The Office Depot	70-69-70-71=280	−6	1 stroke	Karrie Webb
3	Nov 3, 2002	Cisco World Ladies Match Play Championship	22 holes			Midori Yoneyama
4	May 4, 2003	Michelob Light Open at Kingsmill	67-68-69-71=275	−9	1 stroke	Cristie Kerr Lorena Ochoa Karrie Webb
5	Mar 28, 2004	Kraft Nabisco Championship	72-69-67-69=277	−11	1 stroke	Aree Song
6	Oct 31, 2004	CJ Nine Bridges Classic	66-69-65=200	−16	5 strokes	Carin Koch Annika Sörenstam

LPGA Tour playoff record (0–1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent	Result
1	2003	McDonald's LPGA Championship	Annika Sörenstam	Lost to par on first extra hole

Futures Tour (5)

1999 (5) Betty Puskar FUTURES Golf Classic, YWCA Briarwood FUTURES Open, SmartSpikes FUTURES Classic, Carolina National FUTURES Classic, Greater Lima FUTURES Open

Other (1)

2004 Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge (with Juli Inkster and Cristie Kerr)

Major championships

Wins (1)

Year	Championship	Winning score	Margin	Runner-up
2004	Kraft Nabisco Championship	−11 (72-69-67-69=277)	1 stroke	Aree Song

Results timeline

Tournament	1995	1997	1998	1999	2000
Kraft Nabisco Championship	CUT	CUT	23	T39	DNP
LPGA Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	CUT
U.S. Women's Open	T63	CUT	DNP	T8	T6
du Maurier Classic	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP

Tournament	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Kraft Nabisco Championship	T28	T9	CUT	1	5	T35	T69	CUT	CUT
LPGA Championship	T30	T15	2	3	WD	CUT	CUT	DNP	DNP
U.S. Women's Open	T39	T18	T10	T64	T52	DNP	CUT	CUT	DNP
Women's British Open ^	T32	T53	T3	T13	T8	DNP	T50	CUT	DNP

Tournament	2010	2011	2012
Kraft Nabisco Championship	T10	CUT	CUT
LPGA Championship	WD	77	T71
U.S. Women's Open	DNP	DNP	DNP
Women's British Open ^	DNP	CUT	DNP

^ The Women's British Open replaced the du Maurier Classic as an LPGA major in 2001.
DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
WD = withdrew
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

Summary

Starts – 46
Wins – 1
2nd place finishes – 1
3rd place finishes – 2
Top 3 finishes – 4
Top 5 finishes – 5
Top 10 finishes – 11
Top 25 finishes – 15
Missed cuts – 15
Most consecutive cuts made – 11
Longest streak of top-10s – 5

Team appearances

Amateur

Espirito Santo Trophy (representing South Korea): 1998

Professional

Lexus Cup (representing Asia team): 2005, 2006 (winners)

References

↑ "All-Time Rolex Junior Players of the Year". American Junior Golf Association. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
↑ Mickey, Lisa D. "Silver Anniversary Salute: FUTURES Tour Prepares For Next 25 Years". Duramed Futures Tour. Retrieved 2007-04-27.
↑ "Duramed FUTURES Tour Awards". Futures Tour. Archived from the original on 2007-02-18. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
↑ "Grace Park to miss four months". Retrieved 2010-04-05.
↑ "Grace Park announces retirement". ESPN. Associated Press. 2012-06-08. Retrieved 2012-06-08.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Grace Park (golfer).

Grace Park at the LPGA Tour official site
Grace Park bio

v t e Dinah Shore/Kraft Nabisco Championship champions

1983 Amy Alcott 1984 Juli Inkster† 1985 Alice Miller 1986‡ Pat Bradley 1987‡ Betsy King 1988 Amy Alcott 1989‡ Juli Inkster 1990 Betsy King† 1991‡ Amy Alcott 1992 Dottie Mochrie† 1993 Helen Alfredsson 1994 Donna Andrews 1995 Nanci Bowen 1996 Patty Sheehan 1997 Betsy King 1998‡ Pat Hurst 1999 Dottie Pepper 2000‡ Karrie Webb 2001 Annika Sörenstam 2002 Annika Sörenstam 2003 Patricia Meunier-Lebouc 2004 Grace Park 2005 Annika Sörenstam 2006 Karrie Webb† 2007 Morgan Pressel 2008 Lorena Ochoa 2009 Brittany Lincicome 2010 Yani Tseng 2011 Stacy Lewis 2012 Sun-Young Yoo† 2013 Inbee Park

† event won in a playoff; ‡ event won wire-to-wire

Authority control	VIAF: 14528812

Persondata
Name	Park, Grace
Alternative names	Park, Ji-eun
Short description	Professional golfer
Date of birth	6 March 1979
Place of birth	Seoul, South Korea
Date of death
Place of death

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