New Face of Korean Golf Gust, `Koala`

``If I won the title, I could have interviewed wonderfully without an interpreter….``

`Koala` Park Hee-Jung (21, Channel V Korea) finally demonstrated her fluent `Australian English`.

Park won her first LPGA title in the Williams Championship (total prize of $ 1 million) at Tulsa Golf Course (par 70, 6233 yards), Oklahoma.

In the final round, since Park teed off with 5 shots behind Donna Andrews, nobody anticipated her victory. However, Park`s inspired iron shots have landed near the holes, and she captured a heap of 8 birdies. With the outstanding performance in the final round, Park won the dramatic come-from-behind victory by one shot over Andrews who only recorded an even-par (70 shots).

Following Koo Ok-Hee, Pak Se-Ri, Pearl Shin, Kim Mi-Hyun and Grace Park, Park Hee-Jung became the sixth Korean lady who mounted on the US LPGA top.

When she passed through the qualifying school of the US LPGA at 19 years old in 1999, many people optimistically anticipated that she would win over one title in the first year.

Park left for Australia for the golf at her first year in the middle school, and has accomplished the dazzling records including the three straight wins in Australian Junior Championship (1996-1998), and a win in the Australian Amateur Championship (1997).

Park earned the victory in Sports Seoul Ladies Open in 1998, when she made a professional debut in Korea. And after conquering the Indonesia Ladies Open in 1999, Park left for the United States to play at the greater stage.

However, playing without sponsors, Park was placed in 134th in the prize board. As she suffered from an obsession that she should with the title in order to meet the tremendous tour expense, Park finally took a nervous stomachache. Especially, she had groaned under a heavy mental burden on her parents who invested their whole possession to her.

However, nothing is impossible to a willing mind. As she found a sponsor in this season, Park regained the stability and for the first time advanced to the top 10 in the Canadian Women`s Open last month.

In particular, Park obtained more valuable thing than the prize of $150,000 in this tournament in which the top-class players such as Annika Sorenstam (Sweden) and Karrie Webb (Australia) participated. It was a confidence that ``I can do it.``

Experts say that with a sturdy physical condition of 1m65 and 70 kg, Park`s driver shots and iron shots are great enough to compete with the LPGA players. Especially, the short game that she drilled in Australia reached the top of the world.

Ahn Young-Sik ysahn@donga.com