On-song park clinches fifth title of season
World number one Park In-Bee birdied the first playoff hole to defeat fellow South Korean Ryu So-Yeon and win the LPGA Northwest Arkansas Championship for her fifth triumph of the season.
Park, who has captured the first two women's major titles this year, took the $300,000 top prize from the $2 million event and a confidence boost from winning the 54-hole tune-up for next week's third major, the US Women's Open.
Park won major titles at the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April and the LPGA Championship earlier this month, defeating Britain's Catriona Matthew on the third playoff hole to collect her second major crown of the year.
“It’s never getting easier,” Park said. “I’ve had playoffs the last couple weeks. It was really tough.”
Park's other LPGA titles came in Thailand and the North Texas Shootout. In all she has won five of 14 tour stops so far this year.
If the 24-year-old from Seoul, who won the 2008 US Women's Open, wins next week's edition of the Open, she will match Babe Zaharias from 1950 by taking the first three major titles in a season.
While there were only three majors when Zaharias did it, Park would also need wins at the Women’s British Open, where she was second last year, and the Evian Championship, a first-year major in France, to complete an LPGA Grand Slam.
“Everything has been going really well,” Park said. “I’ve been hitting the ball and putting well. Everything in my game is really coming together.”
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