Inbee Park admitted she was resigned to the prospect of losing the world No. 1 ranking, with Suzann Pettersen breathing down her neck at this week’s HSBC Women’s Champions in Singapore.
The South Korean starlet swept three major titles last year and she made a fast start to her season last week in Thailand, carding six-under 66 on Sunday to finish second.
However, Park, 25, said she expected a shift in the rankings, with Norway’s Pettersen capable of catching her this week, and defending champion Stacy Lewis not far behind in third.
Photo: AFP
“It’s actually really tough to win every tournament,” said Park, who made a delayed start to the year and missed the first two events in the Bahamas and Australia.
“It’s only my second week back this year and I think rankings points-wise, there’s not much gap between one to three. So obviously there are going to be some changes this year,” she said on Tuesday.
At last year’s edition in Singapore, Taiwan’s Yani Tseng was the woman under pressure as she struggled to extend her two-year reign as world No. 1. The US’ Lewis won a thrilling tournament by just one shot and went on to supplant the young Taiwanese at the top of the rankings just weeks later.
However, Park appeared relaxed about her 46-week stint at the top and said she was more focused on her overall performance this year.
“My goal would be maybe to maintain the No. 1 spot at the end of the year, but during the year, whoever has a good first week I think could change the rankings,” she said. “I think I’ll try to enjoy the week and try to enjoy while I’m here.”
Her standpoint is directly opposed to second-ranked Pettersen, a veteran at 32 who is highly motivated to be crowned the world’s best player for the first time in her career.
According to the LPGA projection, to go to the top Pettersen needs to win at par-72 Sentosa Golf Club and hope that Park does not finish better than tied for third with two players.
“I think I can be good enough to be the best in the world, otherwise I don’t think I would have kept playing. So that’s my motivation every day,” Pettersen said on Tuesday.
“I think the eternal drive of trying to get better every day is what gets you up in the morning, what gets you through the tough days, the good days,” she said.
“It’s obviously a dream of mine to become the best female golfer in the world, I’m not going to hide that, but at the same time, I just want to see how good I can be,” she said.
The US$1.4 million tournament has drawn nearly all of the world’s 60 highest ranked players, including 19 of the top 20.
Other players to watch include New Zealand’s world No. 4 Lydia Ko, 16, who is seeking her first LPGA Tour win since turning professional in October last year.
Shaquille O’Neal is staying with TNT Sports on a new contract worth more than US$15 million per year, Front Office Sports reported on Friday. The news means the cast of Inside the NBA is staying together even as TNT is set to license out the show to ESPN starting next season. TNT was the odd network out in the NBA’s recent TV rights negotiations, as NBC and Amazon joined previous rightsholder ESPN in inking deals for basketball games. That left TNT without a need for pregame and postgame NBA shows. In a trade with ESPN, TNT is licensing Inside the NBA to the
Juventus on Sunday stopped Inter from replacing SSC Napoli at the top of Serie A by beating their fierce rivals 1-0 and moving into the UEFA Champions League positions. Francisco Conceicao made sure that Napoli would stay two points ahead of reigning champions Inter by classily tucking home the winning goal 16 minutes before the end of an entertaining contest in Turin. Portugal attacker Conceicao netted his fourth goal of the season in all competitions after brilliant work from Randal Kolo Muani to give Juve a third straight league win. Juve are in fourth place on 46 points, ahead on goal-difference from SS
BELGIANS ADVANCE: Club Brugge gave Atalanta a lesson in efficiency, as Gian Piero Gasperini’s team had 29 efforts at goal, compared with seven from the visitors Seldom has a player’s sending off had such an influence on a game. AC Milan was to left rue Theo Hernandez’s second yellow card — for diving — as Feyenoord advanced to the UEFA Champions League last 16 at the former European champion’s expense with a 1-1 draw in the second leg of their playoff on Tuesday, giving the Dutch team a 2-1 win on aggregate. Bayern Munich, Club Brugge and Benfica also won their playoffs, eliminating Celtic, UEFA Europa League winner Atalanta BC and French team AS Monaco respectively. “In soccer everything changes in a second,” said Milan forward
Eugenie Bouchard already has her own signature pickleball paddle. She is No. 17 in the pickleball rankings and constantly appears on the main court at events because she is always a big draw. However, just to be absolutely clear, she is not retired from tennis. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist still practices on the tennis court, still competes at tennis events and still has a Women’s Tennis Association ranking (No. 1,288). The Canadian standout just has a new sport that has caught her attention. Bouchard is one of several familiar tennis names — like Jack Sock and Donald Young — crossing over to
RSS