Se Ri Pak

Hometown

Daejeon

South Korea

Year Inducted

2007

Inducted Category

Competitor

Birthdate

Sep 28,1977

Major Championships: 5

U.S. Women’s Open: 1998
LPGA Championship: 1998, 2002, 2006
Women’s British Open: 2001

Additional LPGA Wins: 20

1998: Jamie Farr Kroger Classic, Giant Eagle LPGA Classic
1999: ShopRite LPGA Classic, Jamie Farr Kroger Classic, Samsung World Championship of Women’s Golf, PageNet Championship
2001: YourLife Vitamins LPGA Classic, Longs Drugs Challenge, Jamie Farr Kroger Classic, AFLAC Tournament of Champions
2002: The Office Depot Championship, First Union Betsy King Classic, Mobile LPGA Tournament of Champions, CJ Nine Bridges Classic
2003: Safeway International, Chick-fil-A Charity Championship, Jamie Farr Kroger Classic
2004: Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill
2007: Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic
2010: Bell Micro LPGA Classic

Additional Wins: 8

1996: Dong-Il Renown Ladies Classic, Fila Women’s Open, SBS Women’s Professional Golf Challenge, Seoul Women’s Open
1997: Cheil Industries Rose Women’s Open, Seoul Women’s Open
2003: MBC Xcanvas Women’s Open
2012: KDB Daewoo Securities Classic

Awards & Honors:

Rookie of the Year: 1998
Player of the Year, GWAA: 1998
Order of Merit, South Korea: 1998
Vare Trophy: 2003
Heather Farr Award: 2006
USGA Bob Jones Award: 2020

Se Ri Pak will always be remembered as one of golf’s most important pioneers. With her victory at the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open, she inspired the wave of Korean women who have swept over the top rank of the LPGA.

Pak remains the standard. Indeed, when she qualified for the Hall of Fame at age 29 having already won 24 times on the LPGA Tour, including five Major Championships, she became the youngest person ever to be inducted (Young Tom Morris, who died at age 24, was elected posthumously in 1975).

Pak’s most influential victory took place at Blackwolf Run in Kohler, Wisconsin. Seemingly beaten when she hooked her drive into the water on the 72nd hole, Pak stood in knee-deep water to fashion a recovery back into the fairway, then wedged to 10 feet and made the putt to gain a playoff berth against amateur Jenny Chuasiriporn. The next day, Pak fell behind early but rallied late to tie after 18 holes. Finally, on the 21st hole, she made an 18-foot birdie putt to become the-then youngest U.S. Women’s Open champion ever.

Pak also won the McDonald’s LPGA Championship that year, giving her LPGA Rookie of the Year honors and making her – along with Juli Inkster – one of only two woman ever to win two Majors in her first season.

“I’ve given them the confidence to come out here, I think of them like my sisters.”

Pak would go on to win two more LPGA Championships, as well as the 2001 Women’s British Open. She also won the 2003 Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average, the first Asian player ever to do so.

In 2007, she won the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic for the fifth time, becoming only the third woman in LPGA history to win the same tournament five times. Her playoff record of 5-0 is an LPGA record for most wins without a loss.

Pak also competed in a men’s professional event at the 2003 SBS Super Tournament on the Korean Tour. She finished 10th, becoming the first woman to make the cut in a professional men’s event since Babe Didrickson Zaharias did so in 1945.

Pak was born September 28, 1977 in Taejon, South Korea. Blessed with powerful legs, Pak was a track star before being introduced to golf at age 14 by her father, a former professional baseball player in Korea and a demanding taskmaster. The regimen he designed for his daughter included runs to the top of their high-rise apartment building through the stairwell and working out without shoes in the snow. As an amateur, the teenage Pak won 30 tournaments. After turning professional in 1996, she won six of 14 tournaments on the Korean LPGA tour, finishing second in seven others. In her first six seasons on the LPGA Tour, Pak finished second on the money list four times and was third once.

Fact

Se Ri Pak won the Rolex Rookie of the Year award for the 1998 season.

Despite all the rigor she endured, Pak has always been known for her bright smile and friendly disposition. However, the imposed stress of her journey and the pressure of carrying South Korean hopes took its toll. In late 1999, she was hospitalized for exhaustion. In 2005, Pak completely lost her game, her best finish a tie for 27th. Injuries played a role, but the root cause was burnout from a life she said “needed balance.”

Pak regrouped and came back strong, winning the 2006 McDonald’s LPGA Championship in a playoff with Karrie Webb for her fifth Major.

A national hero in Korea, where children’s books are written about her, Pak is proud of being the trailblazer hundreds of Korean golfers have followed to the LPGA.

“I’ve given them the confidence to come out here,” she said. “I think of them like my sisters.”

Se Ri Pak was originally inducted through the LPGA category.