New York (AFP) – South Korea’s Pak Se-Ri, who won five major titles and 39 crowns overall in a pioneering 20-year women’s golf career, was named winner of the Bob Jones Award by the US Golf Association on Wednesday.
Pak, who was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2007 and retired in 2016, will receive the award in June during the US Open men’s championship at Winged Foot in suburban New York.
The USGA presents the award annually to an individual who shows the spirit, character and love of golf as Jones, a four-time US Open and three-time British Open winner who also took five US Amateur crowns and the 1930 British Amateur as part of what historians consider a Grand Slam of that era.
Pak, 42, inspired a generation of South Korean golfers with her breakthrough success when she joined the LPGA Tour in 1998, capturing two major titles in her rookie campaign, the US Women’s Open and LPGA Championship.
Pak went on to capture the 2001 Women’s British Open and the 2002 and 2006 LPGA Championships.
Her final career LPGA title came in 2010 at Mobile, Alabama, when she birdied the third extra hole to defeat American Brittany Lincicome in a playoff.
Pak also won 14 Korean LPGA titles, including her last overall crown at the 2012 KDB Daewoo Securities Classic.
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