INCHEON, South Korea (AP) – Se Ri Pak ended her Hall of Fame career Thursday in front of her adoring home fans in the LPGA KEB HanaBank Championship.
In tears as she walked off the final green, Pak retired in an emotional ceremony at the end of the sunny afternoon at Sky 72.
It mattered little to the fans and fellow players – many of both drawn to golf by Pak – that she shot an 8-over 80 and was tied for last in the 78-player field before withdrawing as planned.
Hampered by left shoulder problems, the 39-year-old Pak said in Phoenix in March that this season would be her last and she stepped away after the first round of the tour’s lone South Korean event.
Pak won 25 LPGA Tour titles – the last in 2010 – and five majors, two of them during a rookie season in 1998 that gave women’s golf its biggest boost since Nancy Lopez. The youngest player to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame when she was enshrined in 2007 at age 30, Pak won 14 times on the Korean LPGA and captained South Korea’s Olympic team – with Inbee Park winning the gold medal – in Rio.