Koreans Fill Leaderboard of U.S. Women’s Open

The United States Golf Association (USGA) has posted the rankings of the players participating in the 62nd US Women’s Open on its website yesterday. Korean national flags dotted the leaderboard. Counting in Korean players with foreign citizenship, it looked like a party of Korean golfers.

Yesterday, the first round took place at the Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club (par 71) in Southern Pines, North Carolina, United States.

A thundershower interrupted the round for almost three and a half hours. Despite the bad weather, Angela Park led the round with a 3-under 68 with four birdies and one bogey.

Born in Brazil and educated in America, Park commands the fluency of three languages: Portuguese, English and Korean. She showed a very stable and promising performance, missing only one chance on the fairway.

Korean-American Jane Park and Korean citizen Jee-young Lee jointly held the second place. Ji-yai Shin, Ju-mi Kim, Si-hyun Ahn, and Mi-hyun Kim ranked fifth.

11 Korean players and overseas Korean players ranked within the top five spots out of the 156 participants.

Michelle Wie, however, had a bad round, shooting an 11-over par 82, sliding back into the 150th spot. Ashamed, Michelle dropped her head down in disappointment.

kjs0123@donga.com