Grace Park: The Seoul Sisters Magazine
Exclusive Interview

Grace Park practices in the shadow of
a big dog; yet she seems strangely unworried...
(click to expand)
SeoulSisters.com photo

SS: I also heard that you won some sort of a contest when you were a kid, and the version I heard was that it was to get a contract in a movie.

GP: Oh no, it's two different things. I won... there was a pageant, Miss Korea, Little Miss Korea, when I was four, and my mom's friend was all into that, and she made me (laughs). You know, and I went in and I won.

SS: What was your talent?

GP: No, that was it! It was just pretty, cute baby...

SS: You didn't have to have a talent?

GP: Yeah! That's that. And then I did a little kid's acting contest, and I won there, too. So I almost became a movie star!

GP: No, I don't remember a thing about it. I remember... here and there. All I know is that I didn't like it.

SS: What did you have to do there?

GP: I remember doing a little audition. In front of judges and parents.

SS: Did they give you a script you had to memorize?

GP: Yeah. This tiger grabbed my mom... (in the script, of course!) I was stuck in the jungle, and there were tigers in the trees... I was a four year old.

SS: You were just four when you did this? Oh my gosh.

GP: Yeah. But I remember the audition.

SS: You had a really active life for a four year old!

SS: But you just didn't want to do it?

GP: I didn't want to do it. My dad didn't want to let his daughter be...

SS: What do you think you would have been in? Soap operas? Movies?

GP: Yeah, I got calls from directors and whatnot until I was about twelve or thirteen.

SS: Wow. You know, in Asia, there also seem to be a lot of actors who double as pop singers. So you could have also gone into that...

GP: (Laughs). I chose golf!

Grace does her best 'sultry look', perhaps
thinking about what might have been had she
decided to pursue acting instead of golf...
SeoulSisters.com photo

Grace hits an iron during the pro-am
SeoulSisters.com photo

SS: (Laughs) But you chose golf, which was a good choice! Do you remember the point at which you decided, or your parents decided, that you were going to leave Korea and come to the United States? Do you remember anything about that process?

GP: I do. They asked me if I wanted to go and I said 'yes', because I have an older sister who has very bad asthma. She's had attacks all the time, especially in the winter, so they sent her to Hawaii when she was in second grade and I was in first grade - she was a year ahead of me - to be in a warmer climate. So they bought a house. And my aunt was living there, so she lived with her. Every time she'd come over, in the summer, when it's not cold, to Korea, they would do everything for her, because they felt so bad that they had to send an eight year old over to the States. So (as a result) she never got in trouble, she got everything she wanted, and I never got anything, and I was the one always getting in trouble.

And I didn't like golf at the time; this was probably the second year I was playing... a year and a half. You know, I was pushed at times to practice. And when I was at a friend's birthday bash, my parents would call me and pull me out to go to the range. So I used to hate it. So then, yeah, I'm definitely going to Hawaii, because that way, when I come back home during vacation, I could be the princess, and they would do everything for me! So I said, yeah, I'm going to go, which was a...

SS: Which was a?

GP: I don't know...

GP: No, I had a great time in Hawaii! But I wish I would have stayed in Korea a little longer. With my friends and...

SS: Do you still have a lot of friends in Korea?

GP: I have some.

SS: From when you were that young?

GP: Yeah.

SS: Would you say that's where you have most of your friends? Or Phoenix? Or the tour?

GP: To tell you the truth, I don't think I have that many friends. I know a lot of people. I have friends from college, and friends from when I was little, I have friends out here (on tour), I have friends that I've met since I turned pro, which aren't that many... I used to be close to everybody; when I was in college, I was closest to my college friends, and whenever I go back to Korea, I see my friends all the time. But on the road, it's so hard to keep in touch with everybody that I know. You know, they're always there for me, but I feel like I'm not as good friends as we were.

Grace on Thursday
SeoulSisters.com photo

GP: Yeah, I think so. You get older, and you lose touch...

SS: In my case, a lot older...

GP: (Laughs)