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
Tavatanakit Performance No Surprise To Those Who Know Her
RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIFORNIA | It surprises no one who knows her. Unfortunately, that is still a relatively small number of people.
Patty Tavatanakit, the 21-year-old second-year rookie out of UCLA, shot a ho-hum 6-under 66 on Thursday at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course to take an early first-round lead over an impressive list of contenders, including Shanshan Feng and Rolex Rankings No.1 Jin Young Ko. Those who have watched Patty T., as she’s known informally, said, “Of course she did.” This is, after all, a player who won three times on the Symetra Tour in 2019; a player who is so powerful and physically gifted that she can almost overpower a course; and a player who, playing on a sponsor’s exemption at the 2019 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic as a 19-year-old, shot a tournament record 11-under 61.
Still, with the abbreviated 2020 schedule and a lot of players choosing to stay in their home countries for most of last year, many of her LPGA Tour peers (and a fair number of fans) are seeing her or perhaps hearing her name for the first time.
On Tuesday, for example, Jin Young Ko walked over and introduced herself to Patty on the 10th tee. The two had signed up for a practice round at the same time. A minute later, Ko hit a hybrid into the middle of the fairway and was surprised to turn around and see Patty at the back of the tee box with a driver in her hand. A second later, Patty blasted a towering tee shot that was barely on its way down when it cleared a bunker 250 yards downrange. Ko’s eyes widened and she looked back at her caddie as if to ask, “Who on earth is this?”
The world will know soon enough. Tavatanakit is the real deal, a player who reached every par-5 on Thursday, three with irons and one with a 3-wood. On the 18th, she didn’t hesitate to pull 6-iron from 175 despite being in the rough. Strength and a ball-flight that would bring a smile to Rory McIlroy’s face makes those kinds of decisions easier. Patty hit her second shot to 10 feet and barely missed a closing eagle.
“It’s pretty much a long par-4,” Patty said. “I just wanted to hit the green. I don’t care about anything else. It’s a pretty wide green and I had a 6-iron, so it’s always nice to have a higher ball flight into that green. I was able to stop it just about pin high.”
Watch her in person and you can’t believe that you haven’t heard of her. But she’s young. The performances haven’t matched up with the gifts so far. Patty only had one top-10 in 2020 to go with seven missed cuts and more ups and downs than the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. So far in 2021, she’s had a T5 at the Gainbridge LPGA at Lake Nona in Florida but missed the cut by a mile last week at the Kia Classic.
“Basically, it’s still my rookie year so there is a lot to learn,” she said on Thursday after her 66. “Everyone is good out here, so you have to show a lot of respect to the other players, too. It’s not like, oh yeah, I dominate the course. I still have to execute. I still have to hit good shots. I still have to play smart. I can’t ever get ahead of myself out there because literally anyone could shoot low numbers and sneak up there really quickly.”
She has a PGA Tour winner, Grant Waite, as her coach and caddie, proving that someone who knows the game sees her potential.
“Grant just kind of straightened out my path, just got me up and down a little better, which makes – my ball doesn’t curve that much,” Patty said. “It’s always nice to hit a straight kind of baby draw or baby-fade shot.
“You know, golf is a whole sport. It’s not just mental. It’s part mechanics, too. You have to even it out pretty good, which I think I did a good job of that.”
So, what are the next steps? How does Patty go from a surprise name with a mountain of potential to someone who gathers wins in bundles?
“You know it takes a lot out here to play well week after week, day after day,” she said. “It’s a really tough job, a tough sport. Not every day is going to go your way. But I feel like the growth from being in contention will pay off. I just have to keep learning, keep being in it. Eventually I’ll be able to finish it out. It doesn’t have to be this week. I have a long career ahead of me, and I’m just going to keep playing the way I’m playing.
“The thought process is really good. And I think that’s really important to finishing strong in the future as well.”