Ohio, the Promised Land for Se Ri Pak

“I don’t know why. But, every time I come here, I feel great.”

The US State of Ohio feels like home to Se Ri Pak.

Since her debut in the U.S. LPGA, she has been strong in any event held there.

The spell still worked for her yesterday.

She showed an impressive performance in the first round of the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic held yesterday in Sylvania, Ohio.

She has won the title four times. Yesterday was not an exception. She recorded an 8-under 63, two strokes apart from Alena Sharp, who finished the round second on the leaderboard.

She recorded the lowest round score of 63 in the Classic’s 23-year history. It was her career best round since August 2002.

Se Ri Pak earned 807,000 dollars in total last year from her nine participations in this event.

“I’ve won a lot here. The good memories are definitely helping me,” says Pak.

If Pak wins this time, she will set another world record. Previously, Mickey Wright won the Vare Trophy five times from 1957 to 1963. In addition, she will become a Korean Hall of Famer as well as a U.S. LPGA Hall of Famer.

Prior to the round, Pak expressed her confidence, saying, “If I don’t make any putting mistakes, it will work out fine.” She successfully made all eight relatively long birdies into the cup. Her average putts per hole were 1.77, amounting to 24 in total.

A Korean rookie, Jin Young Pak, finished third, followed by Mi Hyun Kim.

kjs0123@donga.com