By Tim Maitland
Inbee Park has become the latest star to confirm her entry to the HSBC Women's Champions. The 20-year-old returns to Singapore as a Major champion, but the 20-year-old winner of the 2008 US Women's Open has mixed feelings going into the 2009 season.
After making her maiden LPGA win the big one at Edina, Inbee had only one top 10 in her remaining 11 events of the year and only broke into the top 20 once in her last 10 tournaments. So, while on the one hand there is a desire to prove her form in the first half of the year was no fluke, on the other there is the delight at hearing her name together with the words "US Open Champion"
"I'll never get bored of that ever. It was a really good experience for me. It was a lot of fun. It was my first LPGA victory and being a Major championship it was a great honour," she smiles.
Park is also energized by the impending dominance of the generation of Koreans dubbed "Se Ri's kids" and particularly her age-group, the 1988-born girls nicknamed the "Dragon Ladies" that includes Inbee, 2008 Women's British Open winner Ji-Yai Shin and In-Kyung Kim; a group that seem certain to produce Korea's first world number one.
"I think that's a possibility. I do feel a little bit that I'm part of something exciting. Just look at the number of events Koreans have won last year and how young they were," says Inbee, who ironically may be just as familiar with the group of blossoming American rivals like Morgan Pressel, Paula Creamer, Brittany Lang and Brittany Lincecome who she cut her teeth with on the American junior circuit.
Creamer's four-win season in 2008, coupled with the uncertainty surrounding Lorena Ochoa's plans after she gets married in December, suggests that the Pink Panther may be the main obstacle to Korea's young tigers. If this year's HSBC Women's Champions is as accurate as a barometer as last year's - when Lorena's stunning victory marked a run of five wins in her first six events - then Singapore's Tanah Merah Country Club could be a veritable crystal ball into the future. Inbee, for one, can't wait to get back on the Garden Course.
"It was a great championship. It was a great golf course. It's exciting…. And the food was good. Everything was very well set up. For the first year it was very, very good," she says.
"Definitely I want to make a good start to the season; it will really set up the rest of the year!"
A fast start for Park is more important to her than most considering her form for the second half of 2008.
"I think I was a little bit burned out," she admits.
"I used a lot of my energy at the start of the season. At the end of the season my motivation wasn't quite there. Especially towards the end of the year - I just wanted to go home and rest," said Park, a relative rarity among Koreans having forged her path to the LPGA by playing amateur golf in the States.
The Seoul-born Las Vegas resident also conceded that the fanfare that followed her four-stroke victory at the US Open drained her more than she expected.
"It takes a lot of energy too. That's why I respect Lorena for being able to win that many tournaments. She must be really strong mentally," she explained.
"I think a lot of people experience it after their first win. I think it's something you have to go through if you want to be a good player. It's the most golf I've played in my life. I think I did pretty well for playing 9 or 10 months. Both physically and mentally I was tired. I'm definitely going to do a little bit better with the schedule and make sure I don't burn out too quickly. The schedule looks pretty good until the end of the year. There are a few more breaks in the middle of the year."
Park's schedule for 2009 already looks lighter after withdrawing from February's ANZ Open and Women's Australian Open; she instead starts her season in Hawaii at the LPGA's SBS Open. The recent loss of the Ginn Open looks likely to reduce the LPGA's 2009 schedule to 30 events; further reducing the demands on the youngster who admits that understanding how her body is responding to its workload is a part of the steep learning curve for a professional golfer.
"Sometimes I don't really know how tired I am. You have to realize how your body condition is and know how your body is feeling," she states.
Inbee's extracurricular activity might help with that. Last year she started studying, mostly as an internet correspondent, for a degree in Physical Education at KwangJoon University.