Player Diary: Se Ri Pak
In 1998 Se Ri Pak won her only Women’s Open title, becoming the
youngest-ever champion at 20 years old. In Thursday’s first round at
Pumpkin Ridge, she shot a 5-over 77 and shared her thoughts with www.uswomensopen.com:
The first round was not exactly what I had planned. My irons got out
of control and it cost me in numerous places. The whole year I have
been hitting the ball very well with my irons, but [Thursday] I don’t
know what happened; the shots didn’t go where I wanted them to. [Wednesday]
in my practice round and on the range my iron shots were pretty good,
but [Thursday] it was a struggle.
Golf is just a silly game; I just go around the course fine and then
all of the sudden my irons don’t behave. It’s OK, it’s just the first
round.
This course will test every part of your game. The tee shot was tough
for me -- the fairways are so narrow -- if you miss the fairway you
have a hard time, but it seemed like I was OK off the tee and not from
the fairway. I would get on the fairway and miss the green, miss the
green. I’d said to my self ‘no way’ after some of my approach shots,
just some horrible misses.
Well, [Friday] is a new day. I will go out there with a fresh attitude.
I am going back to my hotel, relax and come out with a new attitude;
it’s a new day.
I think I’m going to play well [Friday], one day’s bad, one day’s good.
That’s golf pretty much.
