Rolex Rankings No. 1 on (Updated) List of Goals for Inbee Park
Inbee Park has spent 106 weeks as the Rolex Rankings No. 1 in her pro career, but has not held the top position since July 29, 2018. Following her win on Sunday at the Kia Classic, she’s knocking on the doorstep.
It’s an easy add to her list of goals, especially since it aligns with her primary objective: representing the Republic of Korea at the Tokyo Olympic Games in August.
“I really haven’t thought about being No. 1, but to qualify for the Olympics, being No. 1 definitely helps a lot,” said Park, who moved up two spots to No. 2 after stepping into the winner’s circle for the 21st time in her LPGA Tour career three days ago. “I guess that would be a big yes [to focusing on it more].”
A seven-time major championship winner, most recently at the 2015 AIG Women’s Open, Park owns 11 top-10 finishes across her last 20 major championship starts since that victory. Beyond the Rolex Rankings and the Olympics, there are other grand ambitions for the LPGA Hall of Fame member, starting this week in Rancho Mirage, Calif., with golf’s first major in 2021.
“Playing good in majors is a big focus of my season,” Park said. “I haven’t won a major in a while, so hopefully this year could be the one. I have come close a few times, but my putting wasn’t exactly there. That is part of the game I am really trying to improve a little bit. I’m trying to get back to where I was, in 2013-2015, that area. I think that is something that I have been missing.”
Park begins her quest for a second consecutive win off the first tee at 12:33 p.m. PT tomorrow. She will be joined by Jin Young Ko, the current Rolex Rankings No. 1, and Stacy Lewis, another former World No. 1.
Meadow finishes in style as Tavatanakit makes her first LPGA win a Major one
Stephanie Meadow’s stunning final round 67 for a total of six-under-par 282 in the ANA Inspiration lifted the 29-year-old Northern Irishwoman up to tied-19th which, apart from a payday of $34,340, also ensured an exemption into next year’s championship.
In recording a career-best finish in the season’s opening Major, Meadow also made a significant upward move in the Race to CME Globe points order of merit from 82nd up to 56th position, with the rankings led by American Nelly Korda.
Leona Maguire, too, finished strongly with a 70 for 284 that left the 26-year-old Co Cavan golfer finished in tied-28th. Maguire, though, slipped from 18th in the order of merit to 22nd.
Patty Tavatanakit’s magnificent win (earning her a cheque for $465,000) saw the 21-year-old Thai golfer move up to third on the order of merit and also move ahead of Maguire in the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year rankings. Tavatanakit moved to the top of the standings on 407 points accumulated so far this season, with Maguire in second with 149 points.
Although both Tavatankit and Maguire earned their full tour cards of the Symetra Tour in 2019, there was no rookie award on the LPGA Tour in 2020 due to the reduced playing season caused by Covid-19 and so both are eligible in that category again this season.
With no tournament on the LPGA Tour this week, both Meadow and Maguire will have a week off before resuming their schedules at next week’s Lotte Championship in Hawaii.
Tavatanakit, ranked 103rd in the world before the championship, made her first win on the LPGA Tour a Major one. The Thai golfer’s statistics were impressive: she averaged drives of 323 yards, hit 61 of 72 greens-in-regulation and averaged 29 putts a round.
“Coming into this year I didn’t really set any goals just because I knew how tough it was last year, and I just wanted to come out, to learn to be a better player. My dad told me, if anything, you should keep your goal at [getting] under 100 Rolex rankings and top-60 for CME. That’s just been my goal at the back of my mind,” said Tavatanakit, poised to jump into the world’s top-15 and with exemptions into the season’s four remaining Majors.
Final scores
(USA unless stated, Par 72):
270 Paphangkorn Tavatanakit (Tha) 66 69 67 68
272 Lydia Ko (Nzl) 70 69 71 62
277 Sei-Young Kim (Kor) 72 71 68 66, Nelly Korda 71 70 70 66, Shanshan Feng (Chn) 67 69 72 69, Nanna Koerstz Madsen (Den) 72 68 71 66
278 Ind-Bee Park (Kor) 70 69 70 69, Jin-Young Ko (Kor) 69 70 71 68, Ally Ewing 71 70 66 71
279 Mi-Rim Lee (Kor) 69 70 68 72, Moriya Jutanugarn (Tha) 68 69 73 69, Megan Khang 68 73 71 67
280 Danielle Kang 72 70 73 65
281 Pernilla Lindberg (Swe) 72 72 69 68, Hannah Green (Aus) 71 71 70 69, Melissa Reid (Eng) 71 73 70 67, Mi-Hyang Lee (Kor) 73 71 68 69, Charley Hull (Eng) 69 69 71 72
282 Brooke Henderson (Can) 75 69 68 70, Gabriela Ruffels (Aus) 72 70 69 71, Yu Liu (Chn) 71 71 69 71, Stephanie Meadow (NIrl) 71 73 71 67, Christina Kim 70 70 73 69, Ryann O’Toole 71 71 72 68
283 Anna Nordqvist (Swe) 68 70 74 71, Min-Jee Lee (Aus) 72 70 74 67, Gaby Lopez (Mex) 73 67 70 73
284 Leona Maguire (Irl) 67 73 74 70, Jenny Shin (Kor) 71 74 72 67, Cristie Kerr 72 73 74 65, Azahara Munoz (Esp) 70 72 72 70, Lauren Stephenson 71 72 72 69, Yui Kawamoto (Jpn) 71 69 75 69, Hyo-Joo Kim (Kor) 72 73 70 69, Pajaree Anannarukarn (Tha) 71 69 71 73
285 Alexis Thompson 70 72 75 68, Georgia Hall (Eng) 69 70 77 69, Jessica Korda 69 76 68 72, Xiyu Lin (Chn) 72 72 73 68
286 Stacy Lewis 76 69 67 74, Angela Stanford 72 73 70 71, Mi-Jung Hur (Kor) 71 71 71 73, Austin Ernst 73 68 73 72, Amy Olson 73 69 73 71, Gerina Piller 70 72 71 73, Jaye Marie Green 71 71 70 74
287 Jeon-Geun Lee (Kor) 71 70 72 74, Hee-Young Park (Kor) 73 72 72 70, Maria Torres (Pur) 73 72 72 70
288 Som-Yeon Ryu (Kor) 72 72 68 76, Celine Boutier (Fra) 75 69 72 72, Amy Yang (Kor) 70 73 73 72, Bronte Law (Eng) 69 74 76 69, Yuka Saso (Phi) 69 71 77 71, Pornanong Phatlum (Tha) 70 75 71 72, Daniela Holmqvist (Swe) 70 70 74 74
289 Brittany Lincicome 73 70 73 73, Linnea Stroem (Swe) 75 69 68 77, Angel Yin 72 73 70 74
290 Ariya Jutanugarn (Tha) 68 75 76 71, Sophia Popov (Ger) 70 69 73 78, Jennifer Kupcho 69 72 77 72
291 Eun-Hee Ji (Kor) 72 72 76 71, Caroline Masson (Ger) 73 71 73 74, Kelly Tan (Mal) 71 73 76 71, Nicole Broch Larsen (Den) 71 74 73 73
292 Nasa Hataoka (Jpn) 75 69 74 74, Aditi Ashok (Ind) 73 72 75 72
293 Jennifer Song 72 72 74 75
294 Cydney Clanton 74 70 73 77, Kristen Gillman 72 73 74 75
The Arrival Of Golf’s Next Superstar
Every win is hard. And first wins as a rookie can be like climbing Everest. But making the ANA Inspiration your first win as a rookie is, well, historic. No rookie in the 50-year history of the event had ever made the ANA Inspiration her first win. Juli Inkster won as a rookie way back in 1984 but she came into Mission Hills having already won on the LPGA Tour.
Of all the impressive accomplishments Patty Tavatanakit achieved with her two-shot victory in the season’s first major – coming within a shot of Dottie Pepper’s all-time scoring record, sleeping on a lead every night, leading the field in driving distance by an eye-popping margin, and holding off one of the most impressive final-round charges in major championship history, a 62 by Lydia Ko – Patty making this championship her maiden win as a rookie might be the best. Annika didn’t do it. Lorena couldn’t pull it off. Inbee didn’t get it done. Pepper, Inkster, Judy Rankin, Patty Sheehan, Betsy King, they all won in the desert. But only Patty Tavatanakit made it her first victory as a rookie.
“Amazing,” the winner said, still dripping from her plunge into Poppie’s Pond after a closing 68. “It makes me feel accomplished. You know, coming into this year I didn’t really set any goals because I knew how tough (golf in general) was last year. I just wanted to come out and learn to be a better player.
“My dad kind of told me that if anything, you should set a goal of being inside the top 100 on the Rolex Rankings and top 60 on the CME (points list). But it’s been kind of my goal at the back of my mind, I really wanted to win. I told Grant (Waite) my coach about it. But I didn’t expect to win here.”
That sort of honesty makes you love Patty T. even more. But then she spoke about the texts she sent back and forth with on Easter Sunday with her coaches, Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott of Vision 54.
Grabbing her phone, she read the messages.
“’Reality check,’” she said, reading what Nilsson and Marriott had sent her. “’You don’t know if you’re going to win or not today. You can play good and not win or you can play so-so and still win. You do want to make yourself proud by taking the best actions possible to manage yourself and your game plan. That was huge.’
“I took that really seriously. Just focus on what is 100% under your control, because the outcome is – you can’t control it.”
Then she read her reply.
“I said, ‘I agree. No matter what happens today my core values are: one: my parents will be proud of me and still love me no matter what; two, I’m already so proud of myself to be able to play good the last three days and just be a better player already since last year; and, three, I’m still going to be the same Patty who appreciates the love and care from the people that matter in Patty’s life; and four, at the end of the day there is always room for improvement and I won’t stop trying to get better.’
“I feel like those words, I just keep making them sink into my system,” she said. “And I really think those core values helped me win today.”
The word superstar gets thrown around too often in sports. But as a thoughtful, caring and extraordinary human being who is also now a history-making major champion, Patty Tavatanakit can legitimately lay claim to being our game’s newest superstar.