Youngest Open Winner Ever, Pak Revisits 1998 Win

By Rhonda Glenn, USGA

North Plains, Ore. – Fourteen teenagers are competing in the 2003 U.S. Women’s Open.  It’s impossible to determine if this is a record youth wave. 

On Wednesday, Se Ri Pak relived her 1998 Women's Open victory with the media. (John Mummert/USGA)

When the Women’s Open began in 1946, it was in an era in which few reporters (or USGA staff members) dared to ask a woman’s age.  Suffice it to say that 14 teenagers in a field of 156 players at least has impact on the imagination because there’s always the chance that one of them will win. 

After all, Michelle Wie, 13, became the youngest winner, male or female, of any USGA championship for adults less than two weeks ago when she won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links.

So far, however, the youngest Women’s Open winners have been in their 20s when they captured the national title. Liselotte Neumann was 22 years, two months and four days old in 1988.  Even younger was amateur Catherine Lacoste at 22 years and five days (she celebrated her birthday that week) in 1967.  But the youngest winner of all was a mere 20 years, nine months and eight days old on a magical day in 1998.

It was a Women’s Open of unrelenting drama. The two main characters were attractive and sympathetic. Se Ri Pak was already a wealthy and polished professional. Jenny Chuasiriporn was a college student, an amateur with scuffed shoes from Timonium, Md.  Each had her fans, but surely Chuasiriporn was the underdog.

It was July 13.  The fourth round was underway.  What I remember was that morning’s drive to Blackwolf Run Golf Course in Kohler, Wisc.  I listened to the morning radio talk shows and contemplated the upcoming action as I drove down the interstate.  Suddenly, we stopped and began to advance toward the course in a slow-moving pack.  Thousands of spectators inched toward the course in a long snaking line of crawling cars.  I had attended 27 Women’s Opens, yet the congestion of thousands of spectators heading for the championship was a sight previously unseen.

Pak had a clear four-stroke lead when the day began. Playing conservatively, Chuasiriporn kept chipping away.  Finally, on the 72^nd green, Chuasiriporn and her caddie, brother Joey, contemplated a long, curling birdie putt.  Chuasiriporn was one stroke off the lead.  The spectators, en masse, seemed to hold a collective breath.  There was not a sound when Chuasiriporn nudged the ball toward the hole.  It began its long roll slowly, then gathered speed, broke left and fell into the hole some 40 feet away.  Chuasiriporn clamped her right hand over her mouth in disbelief, her eyes as big as silver dollars.

Pandemonium.

The gallery and reporters in the media tent burst into cheers.  It was so sudden, so unexpected, so unbelievable.  How many championships have been decided when an incredibly long putt is a must-have on the final hole?  How many such putts go in?  Very, very few.

Pak safely navigated the 72^nd hole and the championship was tied with Pak and Chuasiriporn at 290, 6 over par. Playoff.

After 18 holes of the playoff, the two were tied again when Chuasiriporn could not get up and down for a par from the fringe of the 18^th hole.  And for the first time in history a USGA championship went to the 19^th extra hole.  Halved with pars. 

On the 20^th, a par-4 hole, Pak made a 19-foot birdie to win.  The championship was hers.

Chuasiriporn played on the USA’s winning Curtis Cup team that summer, then turned professional.  She floundered in pro golf, and finally was named an assistant golf coach in Maryland, a job in which she could remain close to the family she loves.

Pak, meanwhile, went on to win 20 professional tournaments on the LPGA Tour, including four majors.  She remains a polished and wealthy professional.  On Wednesday, she remembered her exhilarating battle with Chuasiriporn.

"I have such a great, great memory…always come back," said Pak.  "I was kind of starting to play with Jenny on Tour, then I can’t see her on Tour.  We didn’t actually have any time for each other to talk, or to be honestly friends.  But hopefully, she’ll be doing well and (be back on Tour) and I can play with her again."

And so, one of two 20 year olds had won the U.S. Women’s Open.  It was Pak, a fine and fitting champion.  But just as surely, with another turn of the ball on another hole it could have been the stalwart little amateur from Maryland.  Their place in golf’s history is forever etched in film of that 40-foot putt dropping into the hole, another stunning moment in the history of the Women’s Open.

Rhonda Glenn is the USGA Manager of Communications. E-mail her at rglenn@usga.org with questions or comments.