Pak Finds Happiness in Playoff

The shot was spectacular enough, a hybrid four-iron from 201 yards that held a picturesque line in the air and on the green until it settled three inches from the cup to give Se Ri Pak a stunning victory Sunday in the LPGA Championship.

What she relished was her reaction.

Pak raised both arms in the air, then delivered a playful uppercut. When the magnitude of the shot sunk in, she leaped into her caddie’s arms with that dynamic smile that, along with her game, had been missing from the LPGA Tour for the better part of two years.

“First time I jumped on the golf course,” Pak said.

Her playoff victory over Karrie Webb was a sign that Pak was on top of her game again, especially the way she held off a dozen challengers -- from an early charge by Annika Sorenstam to a late surge by Michelle Wie -- on a bustling afternoon at Bulle Rock.

The jump was pure joy, something that had been missing from her life.

Burned out by so much golf, she found herself miserable on the course. An injury late last year forced Pak to sit out the last three months of the 2005 season and reassess what’s important. She returned happier than ever, especially when her shot on the first playoff hole nearly went into the cup.

“I’m very happy to be back again,” Pak said. “I’m a very lucky person. I’m as happy a person has ever been.”

Webb missed birdie putts of four feet and 10 feet on the final two holes and closed with a four-under-par 68. Pak could have won in regulation, but she three-putted for bogey on the 18th hole and shot 69.

Four other players had a chance to join them at eight-under 280 with a birdie on the 18th hole. Cristie Kerr and Shi Hyun Ahn hit into the water, My Hyun Kim missed a long birdie putt, and Wie wound up three-putting when her 50-footer to join the playoff just missed to the left and ran eight feet by.

Wie made three birdies in a five-hole stretch to get within one shot, but a four-foot par putt swirled 270 degrees around the cup on the 16th, she grazed the lip with a 10-foot birdie on the 17th and she settled for a tie for fifth, two shots behind.

“I feel like I’m getting closer and closer,” Wie said. “It shows a lot that I played my ‘B’ game and I’m still in the top five.”

Pak made it all the way back, winning for the first time since she reached the performance criteria for the World Golf Hall of Fame two years ago at Kingsmill in Virginia. It was the 23rd victory of her career, her fifth major, and she joined a storied list of three-time winners of the McDonald’s LPGA Championship -- Mickey Wright, Kathy Whitworth, Nancy Lopez, Patty Sheehan and Sorenstam.