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Has 2007 LPGA Rookie of the Year Angela Park retired? Update- The answer is no

Update- Connie Wilson the LPGA Tour’s Vice president of communications was very kind to answer an email inquiry of mine. She said there was no truth to the rumor.

LPGA Caddy Larry Smith had the following on his blog.

She’s toast! The player I heard that was quitting golf didn’t but another did, I was told. Angela Park has packed it in. Jimin Kang was included in the field as her replacement.

For those of you who don’t know who Angela is, here is some biographical information from SeoulSisters.com-

Angela Park was born in Brazil. As a young girl, she moved to southern California, where she grew up. She took up golf and became one of the top young amateur golfers in the country, finishing in the top 10 in 24 of the 29 AJGA events she played. Perhaps her biggest achievement as an amateur was beating In Kyung Kim at the 2005 US Women’s Amateur before losing to Morgan Pressel in the semifinals.

Note- Angela was born in 1988. She will turn 21 next month.

Angela turned profession in 2006. At the end of the year she made it through qualifying school and began playing on the LPGA Tour in February 2007. She almost immediately had success. In the 2nd LPGA tournament of 2007, she finished tied for 3rd. She followed this up with seven more top 10 finishes on the year and finished with nearly one million dollars in earnings and won the Rookie of the Year title in a rout. Angela’s strongest finish in 2007 was a tie for 2nd at the U.S. Open.

The 2008 campaign while not as impressive for Angela, was still solid. She lost the Evian Masters in a playoff to Helen Alfredsson and again contended at the U.S. Open. This time she finished third in the most prestigious event there is for Ladies Professional golfers.

It was also during 2008 that Angela became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Two of her brothers are also naturalized and currently serving in the United States military.

Angela began 2009 strongly with two 3rd place finishes but has played very poorly for over a month. In fact some LPGA bloggers began to speculate if Angela was injured. Then comes this news.

Note- Caddy blogger Larry is not a fan at all of the Korean players. You have to take most of what he says about them with a heavy grain of salt. In this case, I don’t believe at all that Larry would make up a player’s retirement. It is possible he is misunderstanding Angela’s future plans.

I wasn’t able to find Angela’s twitter page, but a golf blogger said she twittered recently about needing another profession.

Bottom line- If Angela has given up pro golf, I wonder what the cause is. Injury, personal illness, family problems? Remember Angela has two brothers serving in the U.S. military. I sincerely hope nothing happened to either of them.

Steve Elling wrote an excellent article in 2008 about Angela. I have put it underneath the fold.

Sunday, Angela Park said she plans to wear a specially selected blouse, embroidered with an American eagle and all the colors of the U.S. flag.

It’s not a sappy move because it’s U.S. Women’s Open week, and she was the event’s 36-hole leader for the second year in a row, we swear.

Actually, she has taken an oath, too. The reigning LPGA Rookie of the Year became a United States citizen earlier this month, attending a massive naturalization ceremony at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Along with about 5,000 other teeming, beaming immigrants.

Unlike the vast majority of international athletes competing in this country, Park went through weeks of preparation for the tests required of new citizens, exams most of us homegrown sons and daughters of Uncle Sam would butcher beyond comprehension.

“I thought it was going to be easy, like, ‘What are the colors on the flag and how many states are there?’” she laughed. “But it was way harder than that.”

As the biggest tournament in women’s golf is contested this weekend, just days before the July 4 holiday will be celebrated, Park could soon represent the quickest American success story on record. It’s hard for native Yanks to imagine how a victory would be received in her family, because in an era when many Americans take their lives and luxuries for granted, the Park clan has paid its dues and then some.

Park, whose parents are of South Korean heritage, was born in Brazil, where her father had relocated to pursue a business opportunity. Angela, now 19, thus was considered a Brazilian citizen. But since moving to Southern California at age 9, she’s become as All-American as any homegrown mall rat.

When the family relocated, the Parks made it a point to become fast immersed in the culture and traditions, which in her case, included golf. Angela, the youngest of four kids, has three brothers — all of them have already passed the difficult U.S. naturalization exam.

More impressive, two of her brothers are in the armed services — one in the Marines, another in the Navy.

“My dad is so proud of that,” Angela said. “It was such a long journey for him, to Brazil, to the U.S., so for us to become citizens, he took great pride in that.”

That said, if the baby of the litter was to win the U.S. championship, dad might keel over in a dead faint, and Park seems headed in that direction. Playing in her second Open last year on North Carolina, Park finished in a tie for second with Lorena Ochoa, making a huge impression in what amounted to her coming-out party. NBC analyst Johnny Miller, a man who does not sling around praise lightly, gushed several times that she owned the best swing on the LPGA Tour.

After beginning the second round at even par, Park on Friday matched the low round of the week with a 6-under 67 to climb atop the leaderboard in the morning wave of players at Interlachen Country Club. In keeping with the general Americana theme here, Park’s round included an eagle.

Hard as the U.S. Open might be to negotiate, it amounts to her second-toughest test of the month. Applicants for U.S. citizenship are grilled on language, history and other exam topics that many of us spoiled natives purged from our memory banks before we exited high school. Park said it was not a multiple-choice exam, either, so luck played no part in the process.

After surviving the testing, Park was blown away when she arrived at the Staples Center, waded through hours of lines and thousands of excited candidates. Then the federal judge appeared before the throng, Park raised her right hand and solemnly swore to root, root, root for the home team.

On the U.S. Golf Association website, this week’s live tournament leaderboard features a miniature flag next to the score of every player, and as ever, the international players are doing a great job of whacking us in our own backyard event.

Having not heard the news, which Park only casually mentioned after completing her second round, the green Brazilian flag is still linked to her name on the Internet scoreboard. On Sunday, dressed in her blouse festooned with the U.S. flag, there will be no mistaking her new, true colors.

If our newest national Park should happen to hoist the U.S. Open trophy overhead, she’d be the embodiment of the new Lady Liberty.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

Think that story might have some legs in the upper Midwest, smack in the middle of Heartland, USA? Raise your right hand and repeat after me: Heck, yes.

It’s hard enough to envision becoming a national champion at age 19, but in a span of days after becoming a national citizen, too?

Her dad wouldn’t just burst a button, but a blood vessel. A few thousand friends from the Staples

Center, might, too.

 
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