South Korean rookie goes low, takes charge

ROGERS -- Sung Hyun Park has a few nicknames in her native South Korea.

One is "Namadalla," which means "I am different." The other is "Dak Gong," which translates to "Shut up and attack."

She lived up to both monikers during Friday's opening round of the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, playing aggressively and recording nine birdies en route to firing an 8-under-par 63 to separate herself as the sole leader through the tournament's first round.

"My play was best with putter today, very good," Park said through a translator.

That was an understatement, if anything. Park needed only 24 putts to come within a stroke of tying the tournament record at Pinnacle Country Club. The round was good enough to give her a two-shot lead over fellow South Korean So Yeon Ryu, Mel Reid and Ally McDonald.

The 23-year-old Park won seven times on the Korean LPGA Tour in 2016 to earn player of the year honors. When she announced her plans to play full-time on the LPGA Tour in November, she did so with the stated goal of winning Rookie of the Year honors.

So far, Park is off to a good start. She has recorded four top-4 finishes and nine top-20 showings in 11 starts on the LPGA Tour this year to go along with the five top-5 performances she put together the previous two years as a non-member. She plays an exciting brand of golf, entering the week ranked fourth on the tour in average driving distance at 275.2 yards. She averaged 290.5 yards Friday.

"She was a really great player in KLPGA Tour for a while, so I wasn't really surprised to see how well she is (doing)," Ryu said of Park.

Park is already ranked No. 8 in the world and has a trio of runner-up LPGA finishes on her resume. Friday's opening round put her in position to contend for the first of potentially many victories on tour even as she continues to adjust to life in America.

"Most difficult part must be language and culture, because when you cannot really communicate with someone, you cannot be comfortable playing, but it looks like she figured it out really well," Ryu said. "Culture-wise, the good thing is we have plenty of Korean players on the tour, so a lot of Korean players have been helping her out to feel really comfortable."

If history is any indication, Park will need to continue to go low to have a shot at winning. Last year, Lydia Ko set the tournament record by finishing 17-under. In 2015, Na Yeon Choi won at 15-under.

Ryu, Reid and McDonald are lurking two back heading into Saturday's second round. The latter two got their rounds in during the morning Friday, before rain showers caused a 45-minute afternoon delay. Ko, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 2 in the Rolex Rankings, wrapped up a 1-under 70 on Friday evening.

Arkansas graduate Stacy Lewis and 56-year-old Juli Inkster each opened the tournament with solid 5-under rounds of 66 to position themselves in a five-way tie for fifth, firmly in contention heading into the weekend.

Lewis is searching for her first victory since winning the tournament in 2014, a dry spell that caused her to slip from No. 1 to No. 18 in the Rolex Rankings. She started her round on the back nine and was even through her first eight holes before getting hot and closing with five birdies in her last 10 holes.

"Making the turn, I was not happy with the way things were going," Lewis said. "It was kind of a flat start. Really, that was probably one of the best front nines or back nine holes on this front nine that I've ever played. Pretty excited about the way I finished and (it was) nice to see some putts go in."

Sports on 06/24/2017