Lorena Ochoa Invitational: Inbee Park fights hard, but loses momentum in final round
South Korean Inbee Park came close to winning the Lorena Ochoa Invitational 2012, but a woeful 72 in the fourth round brought her crashing down to a tie for the second position.
Park started brightly at the prestigious tournament, named after former world number one Lorena Ochoa of Mexico, but the lineup was strong enough to make the competition fiercer than the last
year.
With the defending champion Catriona Matthew of Scotland seeking to win again, the field featured almost all the top-ranked Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) stars such as Yani Tseng,
Stacy Lewis and South Korean Na Yeon Choi.
Park, who was among the hot favourites for the event, stood firm in the first three rounds and managed to grab a lead after she shot a 66 in the third round on Saturday.
She, however, tainted her scorecard in the final round, as she made mistakes on most of the holes and ended up with a 72.
Park remained bogey-free in the third round, but she switched to a jittery mode on Sunday as she carded four bogeys.
The LPGA titan started the round on Sunday with a clear plan, but her putting looked awry right from the start of the day. She parred the first four holes and ended up registering two straight
bogeys on the 5th and difficult par-3 6th.
She, however, tried to put herself back on track by posting two back-to-back birdies on the 7th and 8th hole.
On the back nine, Park remained as shaky as she was at the start of the round. She birdied the 12th, but marred the score again after she carded another two consecutive bogeys on
the 13th and 14th hole.
Sharing her thoughts at the end of the round on Sunday, Park said that she tried hard, but the winner—Cristie Kerr—was far better than her rivals this time, and she deserved to win.
“I gave my best, but Cristie played very good today and today I made some mistakes with my long game,” said the 24-year-old who has grabbed two LPGA titles in the current season.
She went on to say that her short game was not up to the mark, and that was what hampered her from advancing. “When I was putting, it seemed like today wasn’t the day so maybe next week”.
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