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Park In-Bee won the US Women’s Open on Sunday, her third straight major triumph of this year. Photo: Reuters

US Open victory puts Park In-bee on track for record

South Korean poised to become the only player to take out the first four major titles of a year when she competes at the British Open next month

Park In-bee has the chance to become the first golfer, male or female, to win the first four professional major championships in a calendar year after taking her second US Women's Open title.

Park, 24 and world No 1, is the only woman to have won the first three majors of the year when there were at least four played. She also won last month's LPGA Championship to add to her success at April's Kraft Nabisco Championship. The fourth of five majors this year is the Women's British Open at St Andrews, Scotland, from August 1-4.

"It's scary to think what I'm capable of doing," Park, who was second at last year's Women's British Open, said at the trophy presentation at Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton, New York. "I just hope this is not a dream. I don't want to wake up tomorrow and play the final round again."

Babe Zaharias was the most recent woman to win the first three women's majors in a season in 1950, five years before a fourth major tournament was added. Pat Bradley in 1986 was the last woman to win three major titles in a year.

"Trying to put my name next to hers [Zaharias] means just so much," Park said. "I would think I would never get there; it's somewhere that I've never dreamed of. But all of a sudden, I'm there."

Tiger Woods held all four men's major titles at the same time by winning the US Open, British Open and PGA Championship in 2000 and adding the Masters tournament the following year.

Park has won six times already this year, including three successive tournaments. She added to another historic US Women's Open victory in 2008, when she became the event's youngest champion at 19.

"I didn't know what was going on at that time," Park said. "I played very good golf then, but I didn't know what I was playing for, and that was just my first win. It was a great championship then, but now I think I really appreciate more and I really know what this means."

Fellow South Korean I.K. Kim matched Parks' 74 on Sunday and took second at four-under 284 but was never able to really challenge.

Another compatriot Ryu So-yeon was third at one-under 287 with Americans Paula Creamer and Angela Stanford and England's Jodi Ewart-Shadoff tied for fourth at one-over 289.

This was Kim's fourth top-four finish at a US Women's Open, but she is still seeking her first major title. She was a foot away last year at the Kraft Nabisco, then missed a short putt on the 18th that would have clinched the championship, She went on to lose in a play-off.

"You can obviously feel for someone like I.K. Kim who would be winning any other US Open on this golf course if it weren't for In-bee," said seven-time major champion Karrie Webb.

Asked if she feels she's on the verge of a major breakthrough, Kim paused for a moment then said: "Yeah, to be honest, yeah, it's time to win it."

"But I think things have to come naturally, and it's great to play with In-bee, and she's doing so well. Seeing her doing it, it just makes me want it more."

The Evian Championship is the last major of the year, in September. Park won last year before it became a major.

Park contemplated the definition of which is included in a golfing grand slam.

"So I think the British Open is one I have to win," she said. "So it would be great if I could win five, but I still think four means a grand slam.

"I'm glad that I can give it a try at St Andrews [for the British Open]," Park said. "That's going to be a great experience. Whether or not I [win it], I'm just a very lucky person."

Laughing, she added: "I think four out of five is very big."

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: U.S. Open victory puts Park on track for majors' mark
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