|
 |
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE | |
Glorious Gloria Park becomes LPGA's 3rd straight 1st-time winner
Updated: Sunday September 09, 2001 7:01 PM
TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Gloria Park didn't act like a rookie after her first LPGA Tour victory. Park accepted her trophy with a subdued smile after shooting a 6-under-par 64 and overtaking Donna Andrews to win the inaugural Williams Championship on Sunday. "I wasn't thinking about winning, first of all. I just wanted to try as best I can do," said the 21-year-old South Korean native, who overcame a five-stroke deficit. "I just play a really good game, I guess, today." She was the third straight first-time tour winner, following Heather Daly-Donofrio at the Betsy King Classic and Kate Golden at the Rail Classic. That's the most in a row since there were four straight rookie champions in 1995. The winner of the 1999 Indonesian Ladies Open, Park won $150,000 with a 9-under 201 total, one stroke ahead of Andrews, who started the second round with a four-shot lead. Andrews set the course record on Saturday with a 62 that included a self-imposed one-stroke penalty in No. 18 for double-hitting the ball on a putt. She said that made her one-stroke loss "hard to swallow." "But I think I wouldn't have played as well today if I had that in the back of my mind, that I had not done the right thing," she said. "I wouldn't have felt good about myself. That's what is really important in the game of life." Park took the lead for good at No. 17 with 5-foot birdie putt. Andrews, who closed with a 70, had a chance to tie on 18, but her 50-footer was just shy of the hole. Park appeared calm throughout, even when a double-bogey on No. 10 cost her the lead. She recovered with birdies of 8 and 5 feet on Nos. 12 and 13 and then added another on 16. "I try to forget about that straight away," she said. "I really didn't think about the double bogey after. Like on 11, I try not think about it. Try to think about starting over again." Andrews had taken the lead with a birdie on No. 11 and went to 8 under with another one on 15, but parred out and couldn't catch Park. "After a great score like a 62, it's so hard to come back and shoot under par the next day," she said. "Plus, I just didn't make any putts today. I made a million miles of putts yesterday and that's the difference." Rachel Teske, who started the day in a three-way tie for second, had a 71 and was third at 207. U.S. Women's Open champion Karrie Webb and top money-winner Annika Sorenstam were nowhere near the leaderboard.
Sorenstam had a 71 and was at 3-over 213, while Webb, stymied
after a bad start in Friday's swirling gusts, also had a 71 and two
strokes further back.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
