Talk of career grand slams in golf is not confined to the men’s game. Whereas the quests of Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth have dominated the sport’s storyline of 2015 Inbee Park has her own chance to etch her name in history this summer.
Park heads to Turnberry for this week’s Women’s British Open needing only that event and the Evian Championship, which is held in France in September, to complete a clean sweep. The 27-year-old Korean, the world No1, has reclaimed the spotlight from Lydia Ko on account of three victories on the LPGA Tour already this season.
“I really want to achieve the grand slam,” Park says. “That’s been my goal for the last two, three years, since I have won three other majors.”
The issue of professional legacy, though, in a sport that is in need of heroes is one that Park tries hard to avoid. “I really haven’t thought about that seriously or looked at the stats that closely,” Park continues.
“Since the day I started playing golf I knew that I wanted to be a professional golfer. And if you want to be a professional golfer I want to win every major tournament there is. So it’s been my goal. I haven’t really thought about the legendary stuff. It’s always a big honour to put my name next to all the legendary players. But I still feel like I’m young and still a long way to play, a long career to look forward to. So I can probably look back into stuff after I retire.
“It doesn’t really help, looking at the stats when you’re playing. I really want to focus on the present right now, playing golf and just playing good golf. That’s really what I want to focus on.”
Still the figures make pleasant reading. This year alone Park has accumulated more than $1.7m (£1.1m) in prize money, taking her career total to just short of $12m (£7.7m). Her seasonal scoring average of shots per round is below 69.5 and she has had 50 rounds under par from a total of 61. At Turnberry Park will clearly be the one to beat.
She tied fourth in this event a year ago at Royal Birkdale. It was a tournament result that resonated for all the wrong reasons. “I was leading by two going into the last back nine and I knew that I had a really good chance of achieving the career grand slam,” Park recalls. “I think I just got too ahead of myself. I made way too many mistakes on the back nine. It was a windy day and tough day but shooting a five over on the last day just is not going to do it.
“So it was very disappointing. It’s probably like the most disappointing tournament I had in all my career. I thought last year I came really close to winning it and it was probably the closest one in my British Women’s Open career. So I feel like I’m getting closer and closer. I have a lot more years to play.
“I’m going to have a lot more chances. And this time I’m just trying not to rush for it and I’m going to try to just make it happen naturally.”
Turnberry is not a familiar venue: she will play the Ayrshire links for the first time on Monday. Unperturbed, that is. “I feel like I’ve done my homework,” Park says.
“So I’m just trying for maybe the bonus stuff. The British Open is really big for me. And that’s something that I will probably want the most from the season. I said I want to win the British Open since the start of the year. So I have really worked hard for it and I’m really looking forward to it.”
