Tuesday, July 21, 1998

Four and twenty

South Korea is not ordinarily thought of as a source of golfers. Se Ri Pak is causing the golf world to rethink that proposition.

Pak, 20, is a rookie phenom who has won three tournament titles, including the U.S. Women's Open. In one, she set an LPGA record low for a round - 61. She just played in one of those tournaments that symbolize the internationalization and commercialization of golf, the Japan Airlines' Big Apple Classic in the New York suburbs.

Like another phenom to whom she is frequently compared, Tiger Woods, now a grizzled 22, Pak promises to draw a whole new crowd of young fans to her sport. Like Woods, she was the willing pupil of a driven father, and also like Woods, her parents are her most attentive spectators - her mother from beneath a parasol.

A pro golf career is a long arduous one, full of hazards and bad bounces, and as Pak says in her typical short, declarative sentences, "I just start." True, and it's a great beginning.