Grace Park (born 6 March 1979) is a retired

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

n professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

er on the

LPGA Tour The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekl ...

. 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 Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

: 박지은) in

Seoul, South Korea Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

. She moved to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

at the age of 12, and then to

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. She received the 1996

Dial Award The Dial Award was presented annually by the Dial Corporation Henkel Corporation, doing business as Henkel North American Consumer Goods, and formerly The Dial Corporation, is an American company based in Stamford, Connecticut. It is a manufa ...

as top female high-school scholar-athlete in the United States. She attended

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

and graduated from

Ewha Womans University Ewha Womans University () is a private women's university in Seoul founded in 1886 by Mary F. Scranton under Emperor Gojong. It was the first university founded in South Korea. Currently, Ewha is one of the world's largest female educational ins ...

in 2003. In 2002, she won the Honda Award (now the

Honda Sports Award The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in th ...

) as the best female collegiate golfer in the nation. Park had an outstanding amateur career in the United States being Rolex Junior Player of the Year in 1994 and 1996, winning several amateur championships in 1998 including the U.S. Women's Amateur and the

Women's Western Amateur The Women's Western Amateur is an amateur golf tournament for women. It is organized by the Women's Western Golf Association, which also organized the Women's Western Open from 1930 to 1967. It is one of the oldest women's amateur tournaments in the ...

. She tied for eighth as an amateur in the 1999

U.S. Women's Open The U.S. Women's Open, one of 15 national golf championships conducted by the United States Golf Association (USGA), is the oldest of the LPGA Tour's five major championships, which includes the Chevron Championship, Women's PGA Championship, W ...

Professional career

Park turned professional in 1999 and decided to play on the

Futures Tour The Epson Tour, previously known as the LPGA Futures Tour, and known for sponsorship reasons between 2006 and 2010 as the Duramed Futures Tour and between 2012 and 2021 as the Symetra Tour, is the official developmental golf tour of the LPGA Tour ...

instead of taking exemptions to

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. She was named Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year. She won at least one LPGA tournament in each season from 2000 to 2004, including her only major, the 2004

Kraft Nabisco Championship The Chevron Championship is a professional women's golf tournament. An event on the LPGA Tour, it is one of the tour's five major championships, and has traditionally been the first of the season since its elevation to major status in 1983. Fou ...

. 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. In June 2012, Park announced her retirement from golf. The ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' has described Park as "the striking beauty, the tall and proud walk, the dazzling smile" and she has attracted sponsorship from

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine give ...

and

Rolex Rolex SA () is a British-founded Swiss watch designer and manufacturer based in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1905 as ''Wilsdorf and Davis'' by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London, the company registered ''Rolex'' as the brand name of ...

Professional wins (11)

LPGA Tour (6)

LPGA Tour playoff record (0–1)

Futures Tour (5)

*1999 (5)

Betty Puskar FUTURES Golf Classic The Betty Pusker Golf Classic was an annual golf tournament for professional women golfers on the Futures Tour, the LPGA Tour's developmental tour. The event was part of the Futures Tour's schedule from 1992 through 2007. It took place at The Pines ...

, YWCA Briarwood FUTURES Open, SmartSpikes FUTURES Classic, Carolina National FUTURES Classic, Greater Lima FUTURES Open

Major championships

Wins (1)

Results timeline

^ The Women's British Open replaced the du Maurier Classic as an LPGA major in 2001. CUT = missed the half-way cut
WD = withdrew
"T" = tied

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 The Espirito Santo Trophy (World Women's Amateur Team Championships) is a biennial world amateur team golf championship for women organised by the International Golf Federation. The inaugural event was held in 1964. It was instituted by the Fren ...

(representing South Korea):

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

Professional *

Lexus Cup The Lexus Cup was an annual golf tournament played between 2005 and 2008 for professional women golfers contested by a team representing Asia and an international team representing the rest of the world. It was sanctioned by the LPGA Tour,

(representing Asia team):

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

(winners)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Park, Grace South Korean female golfers Arizona State Sun Devils women's golfers LPGA Tour golfers Winners of ladies' major amateur golf championships Winners of LPGA major golf championships Ewha Womans University alumni South Korean emigrants to the United States Golfers from Seoul Golfers from Scottsdale, Arizona South Korean Buddhists 1979 births Living people