Olympic Golf: Inbee Park Claims Gold Medal For Korea

After four hotly contested days, the women’s Olympic golf came to a close with Inbee Park on top of the podium.

Having already qualified for golf’s Hall of Fame, an Olympic gold medal means that 28-year-old Inbee Park has done virtually everything there is to be done in the women’s game.

In spite of a sporadic number of starts of late due to injury and increasing uncertainty over her future in the game, Park sent a reminder to the world of women’s golf this week in Rio; when she’s on form she’s near impossible to beat.

A round of 70 on Saturday gave the field a glimmer of hope that Park could be caught with a low score on Sunday, but in the end that turned out to be easier said than done.

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There could be no debating that low scores were up for grabs either. Russia’s Maria Verchenova, currently ranked 348th in the Rolex World Rankings, shot a 62 to catapult herself up the leaderboard to finish in a tie for 16th.

Verchenova’s round wasn’t just the lowest score this week on the Olympic Golf Course at Reserva de Marapendi, but it bettered the low 63 that had been recorded by Marcus Fraser in the men’s event last week to set a new course record.

The biggest run at Park’s lead on Sunday came from an unsurprising source. World no.1 Lydia Ko may have started the Olympic tournament slowly with rounds of 69 and 70, but a 65 on Saturday put her right in the hunt.

A mediocre front nine saw Ko turn in level-par, while a bogey at the tough 11th certainly didn’t help her charge either. Still, showing the class that everyone knew she had, Ko birdied three of the last five holes to secure a silver medal.

Behind Ko, world no.14 Shanshan Feng just managed to hang on to claim a bronze medal for China, in spite of having failed to birdie any of the perceived easy holes down the stretch.

At no. 3 and 7 in the world, Brooke Henderson and Stacy Lewis of Canada and the USA respectively did their utmost to claw their way into the bronze medal race.

Lewis recorded a 66 thanks to a strong finish, to just finish one behind Feng, while a 67 from Henderson had her just one place further back alongside Australia’s Minjee Lee and Great Britain’s Charley Hull.

Nobody could deny Park at the top though, as she closed out strongly with a 66 of her own to put the result beyond any doubt.

Adding a gold medal to her existing haul of seven major championships further cements Park’s spot in the history of the game, and now it’ll just be a case of waiting to see how much more she’ll play in the future.

Olympics Women’s Golf – Day 4 Scores and Leaderboard

1. Inbee Park — 66 (-16)

2. Lydia Ko — 69 (-11)

3. Shanshan Feng — 69 (-10)

T4. Harukyo Nomura — 65 (-9)

T4. Stacy Lewis — 66 (-9)

T4. Amy Yang — 67 (-9)

Next: Czech Masters: Thomas Pieters Takes Two Shot Lead Into Sunday

So, that’s it for Olympic golf for the next four years. A great two weeks wraps up in Rio with Justin Rose and Inbee Park the worthy champions for both the men and women.

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