Se Ri Pak: An Appreciation

Imagine coming to this country at age 19, not being able to speak the language. You have just left behind everything you know: your relatives, your friends, your hometown, your food and culture, all to pursue a dream. Now imagine you are doing this with the hopes of your sponsors, home country media, and millions of fans riding on what you do. If you can imagine that, you have some idea of what Se Ri Pak faced when she came here in 1997.

In the previous few years, Se Ri Pak had established herself as undeniably the top amateur golfer in her homeland. It had been extremely tough for her to do. Golf is a sport better suited to the wealthy in Korea, where public courses are almost nonexistent and memberships in private clubs can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. But Se Ri's father saw that she had talent, and drove her, sometimes relentlessly, to make the most of it. Within just a few years of taking up the sport, she was the top amateur in the country. She was often not treated well by the other girls and their families, who looked down their noses at the middle class kid from Daejeon. In one famous incident, her father ripped the trophy away from a startled tournament organizer and handed it to Se Ri, claiming that she would soon win it anyway -- which, of course, she did. But she continued through the tough times, even as her family barely had enough money to support her dreams, even as she had to take public transportation to events, carrying her clubs with her on the train. Did she or her father even know what might be in store down the road? Not really - he had a vague idea that she might some day be able to support herself playing golf. No one could have truly known what was about to happen.

When the school girl star turned pro, she did to the pro ranks in Korea what she had done to the amateurs - she dominated them. Samsung came calling, giving her one of the most lucrative sponsorship deals for a female athlete in the country's history. In two years on the KLPGA tour, she played 14 events, winning six times… and finishing second seven times. There were clearly no more challenges to be had by staying in her country, and her sponsors agreed. They decided on a bold plan of action - they would pay for Se Ri to get the top golf instruction in the world, from world famous golf instructor David Leadbetter. In return, Se Ri would travel to the United States with the goal of joining the LPGA tour. At the time, there had been few Koreans who had played the tour, and though a couple had managed wins, none had really distinguished themselves among the top women golfers in the world. But Se Ri had that something special that made Samsung, her father, and her fans believe that, if anyone could do it, she could.

And so she traveled to the States and spent a lonely time there, training with Leadbetter from morning to night. He was suitably impressed, and that fall, Se Ri easily earned a tour card for the next season, in the process winning the co-medalist honors alongside another future LPGA star, Cristie Kerr. But in the first dozen or so events she played in 1998, things didn't go like she had hoped. She hadn't even managed her first top ten finish when she arrived at the LPGA Championship, her first Major as a tour member. But she seized the lead after the first round and held on to it relentlessly for four rounds. Long after the naysayers and the doubters thought she (or any rookie) would have faltered, she tenaciously remained atop the field. And by the end of the week, she had won her first Major, accomplishing something no other Korean golfer had ever done before. The legend was born.

Pak electrified her country people in 1998. She won a second Major a few months later at the US Women's Open when she outlasted Jenny Chuasiriporn in a grueling 20 hole playoff, the longest in tour history. By winning she became the youngest woman to ever win that tournament. The country went crazy for her; millions had stayed up all night to watch her play, and when she returned home to her country in November, she was treated like visiting royalty, mobbed by reporters everywhere she went. One cannot overstate the impact Se Ri had on her country that summer.

But much of that impact would not become evident until years later. While Se Ri continued to excel in America, young up and coming golfers in her own country were given a career path many of them had never considered before. Suddenly, it became quite possible to not only make a living at golf, but to become a star, perhaps even a superstar. The top golfers in the country realized that they could compete on the American tour, and in the next few years traveled to the LPGA to try their luck; many of them had great success in the process. Meanwhile, the younger golfers, those who were just starting out, idolized Pak, sometimes patterning their whole lives on her. Jin Joo Hong, who recently won the Kolon-Hana Bank Championship to gain membership on the LPGA tour, was just starting out in golf when Se Ri won the US Women's Open. She and her family were so inspired by her, they even moved to Se Ri's hometown of Daejeon to train, perhaps hoping that playing on the same fairways and drinking the same water as Pak had would somehow give her that intangible boost to greatness. Jeong Jang, who grew up in that hometown, also admired her "big sister" Se Ri, saying that Se Ri showed what was possible. She would go on to win a Major herself.

Stories like these were plentiful in Korea in the late nineties and early 2000s. These young women, with the Pak blueprint in hand, committed themselves to intense, round the clock work, just as their hero had done. If they had to leave their home country to get where they wanted to go, then so they would. Many left for the States in their early to mid-teens; some went to other places, like Australia. Their efforts would reshape the face of women's golf. In the mid-nineties, there were virtually no Korean golfers playing full time on the LPGA tour. Little by little, the children of Se Ri came to try their luck. Some fell by the wayside, but many made it onto the tour, and a significant percentage of them became world class, winning events or scoring numerous top ten finishes. By the time Se Ri qualified for the LPGA Hall of Fame this year, there were 45 Korean golfers with some sort of status on the LPGA tour, and more than thirty on the Futures Tour, the minor league farm team for the LPGA. Several more Koreans from other countries, such as Brazil, France and the US, also joined the tour. Is there another golfer who has had such an overwhelming, and rapid, effect on his or her tour than Se Ri Pak has had?

While all this was happening, Se Ri soldiered on. Her career path was never a smooth one, for even as more and more Koreans joined the LPGA, she still remained clearly the gold standard among them. She may have enjoyed her status as the top dog, but she also felt intense pressure to remain at the top. By the time she had returned home in November, 1998, it all became too much. She dropped out of a tournament that was hastily concocted to showcase her for her fans, citing exhaustion. She checked into a hospital to be treated, and the cameramen followed her there, filming her hooked up to IVs, gently sobbing. Even in her lowest moments, the press was there to document all. Around this time, she also parted ways with David Leadbetter and several other key members of her entourage, in her first of many efforts to gain some control over her life.