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EmailSINGAPORE – Angela Park thought about quitting golf. Things got so bad last summer that she took all of August off to try and figure things out.
The problem? Her drives were flying “off the earth, right.” Eventually, it crept down through the rest of her bag until Park lost all confidence.
“People thought I had injury or was ill,” she said.
Park began the 2009 season with three top 7s in her first four events. Starting in May, she had an 11-tournament stretch that included seven missed cuts and three withdrawals.
“I didn’t think I’d recover from where I was,” said Park, who won Rookie of the Year honors in 2007. “It happened too quickly.”
Looking back, Park wonders how much changing instructors may have impacted her game. She switched again this offseason, moving to Cristie Kerr’s instructor, Bryan Lebedevitch. Together they’re looking at old tapes of Park’s swing. Remember that swing Johnny Miller called the best in the women’s game three years ago at Pine Needles? They’re trying to find it.
Park, 21, begins her 2010 season this week at the HSBC Women’s Champions and said her driver is back on track. Now she’s trying to get her putter straightened out (right, again).
Last season Park finished 53rd on the money list after placing 17th and eighth in the two previous years. She didn’t qualify for last week’s event in Thailand.
As for quitting, Park said her father spoke truth into her life. He said she could end her golf career, but that won’t make life easy.
“He said ‘whatever you face in life after that is going to be just as hard,’ ” said Park, who turned professional out of high school. “I didn’t want to quit then, too.”
