Se Ri's Hall of Fame Career

It took her six seasons and a little bit, but Se Ri Pak did it! She has become the second youngest player in LPGA history to qualify for the tour's most august honorarium: The Hall of Fame. Her win at the Kingsmill Resort last week also made her eligible for the World Golf Hall of Fame. She will not make it in, of course, until she has played on the tour for ten years. But this win is the perfect time to look back on some of the highlights of Se Ri Pak's unbelievable Hall of Fame career in the LPGA.

1996:
October:
Se Ri plays in her first LPGA event, the Samsung Championship. She qualifies because she leads the KLPGA money list. In a field featuring many of the top LPGA stars, she finishes third, and is disappointed she did not win. She has just turned 19. The official entry sheet calls her "Sheri Park".

1997:
January:
Se Ri Pak plays in the Australian Ladies Masters, then an official event on the LPGA tour. She finishes 6th.

July:
Playing in her first US Women's Open, at Pumpkin Ridge, Oregon, she finishes 21st. She is still 19 years old.

October:
Se Ri qualifies for the LPGA tour at Q-School. She ties for 1st place with Cristie Kerr at 10 under par, then a record. She caught Kerr on the back nine with a scintillating gaggle of birdies. The next week, she is on the cover of GolfWorld magazine for the first time, labeled as 'The Female Tiger Woods'.

Se Ri made a name for herself in the
US even before she won her first
LPGA event.

Se Ri's most famous win: the 1998 US Women's
Open. She was the youngest champion
in history

1998:
January:
Se Ri starts her rookie year on the LPGA tour. In her first event, The HealthSouth Inaugural, she finishes tied for 13th. Laura Davies had secretly made a wager with a British bookie that Se Ri would win this event.

May:
Se Ri has yet to make a top ten when, at the first Major she plays as an LPGA member, she explodes from the pack and wins after leading wire to wire. It is the McDonald's LPGA Championship, and it makes her a star.

July:
Se Ri went into hibernation again after her Major win, but at the US Women's Open in Kohler, Wisconsin, she again found herself leading the tournament. This time, thanks to an impossible 45 foot birdie putt by game amateur Jenny Chuasiriporn, Se Ri found herself in a 20 hole playoff on Monday. Among the many highlights of that day was her incredible rescue from near disaster on the 18th hole. To hit her second shot, she had to take off her shoes and stand in water. It is the iconic moment of her career. Following this second Major win, Korea and the States were gripped in the throes of Pakmania.

The next week, she won the Jamie Farr Kroger Classic by shooting the lowest 18 hole score in LPGA history, a 61. Se Ri became huge news everywhere.

Two weeks after that, she won her fourth event of the year, the Giant Eagle Classic.

November:
Se Ri returns home to mass adulation. She is swamped by reporters everywhere she goes. After several days of this, she collapses and is hospitalized. Even in the hospital she is given no peace; the TV cameras film her with IV tubes running out of her arms and tears coming from her eyes.

The LPGA season ends, and Se Ri wins Rookie of the Year. She also finishes second on the money list to Annika Sorenstam. Hall of Fame Point total: 6.

December:
Se Ri fires her coach, David Leadbetter, and her manager. She arranges for IMG to handles her management. She is also named the AP's female athlete of the year. That includes all sports, not just golf.