Annie Park is a very quick learner. Always has been, from her days as a tiny junior golfer tackling winter and the difficult Bethpage Black Course in New York to fast starts in college at Southern Cal and now with a late but great sprint on the Epson Tour.
The 20-year-old grew up on Long Island and developed an intense desire to become a top golfer as soon as age 8, much of it derived from winter practice sessions at Spring Rock Golf Center’s outdoor driving range which was covered and heated but still exposed to the elements. She may have also been bound for golf because of an April 9, 1995 birthdate – the day Ben Crenshaw won the Masters Tournament during a mystical week when his mentor, Harvey Penick, died.
“Those were pretty tough sessions during the winter,” Park said of the public facility, not far from her home of Levittown, N.Y. “There aren’t that many indoor practice facilities there, so you still got a chill hitting balls. Especially practicing in the evenings after school. You had to work really hard to not only get better but also to stay warm.”
The American-born daughter of South Korean immigrants, she fell in love with golf’s cerebral focus. She also found a home course that is celebrated. Bethpage State Park’s five courses are located just 10 minutes from her home. At age 10, she shot 81 on the Black Course, the site of the 2002 (Tiger Woods) and 2009 (Lucas Glover) U.S. Open. An ominous first-tee sign reads, “Warning – The Black Course Is An Extremely Difficult Course Which We Recommend Only For Highly Skilled Golfers.”
“During the fall, I played a lot of twilight golf on the Black,” Park said. “There weren’t a lot of people playing then. It was pretty tough but also really cool.”
Indications of her accelerated ability became even more evident in 2012 at Bethpage when she won the Nassau Boys Championship by six strokes with a record score of 8-under par against a field of 132 boys. Said two-time defending champion Matt Lowe: “It’s like being hit by a freight train.”
That win started a quick procession up the ladder of success. Park graduated early from MacArthur High School at the end of 2012 and enrolled at USC in January. Just five months later, the Lady Trojans won the 2013 NCAA Women’s title in Athens, Ga., by 21 strokes and Park the individual crown by six despite playing the final four holes 4-over par.
Cut to two years later when Park made the decision to turn professional after her junior season. She underwent thyroid surgery in February and recovered quickly as Southern Cal lost in the semifinals of the NCAA in late May. Then it was on to the Epson Tour, where in six starts beginning with the Four Winds Invitational in late June, she has won twice (Toyota Danielle Downey Classic on July 19 and the PHC Classic on Aug. 2). She was the first two-time winner on the 2015 Epson Tour, is riding a streak of 14 rounds of par or better and leads the Epson Tour in Scoring Average and rounds in the 60s. She moved to seventh on the Epson Tour money list by early August.
“Both situations were really similar,” Park said. “Everything was happening so fast. My first semester in college, I barely had my class schedule and the first tournament was two or three weeks after I got to school. When I turned pro, I didn’t have any time to rest either. I just went straight to my first pro tournament.”
Another consistency has been Park’s reliance on going home to be with her family. Her mother, Ann, travels with her as a driver, cook and excitable caddie, jumping about whenever her daughter makes a birdie, and has been on the bag for both pro wins. “She has caddied for me since I was really young and knows me better than anybody,” Park said. Her sister, Bo, 13 years older, keeps watch over the family nail salons back home on Long Island and has been a longtime influence on her sister. Home in New York means seafood dinners and familiar surroundings, including a membership at nearby Colonial Springs Golf Club.
The only time she has strayed from there was a brief move to Florida in middle school to be near golf instructor Sean Foley and the college days at Southern Cal, where she has developed a keen interest in desserts and is still learning to come out of her social shell by studying Communications. She continues to take classes toward her degree and will live in Los Angeles while completing the 2015 Epson Tour schedule.
“In Communications, you have to get in front of people and talk and that’s not me,” Park said. “Communications is what SC is known for. I believe it will help in the future. Eventually, I hope to fall in love with speaking in front of a crowd. That’s one of my goals.”
With the way her golf is going, that goal will soon be met.
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