Oh Ji-young Wins State Farm Classic in Playoff

It happened on the last day of the LPGA U.S. Open in June.

When Park In-bee celebrated after her final tap-in birdie, her fellow showered her with champaign. The fellow was Oh Ji-young, 20, who had winter training along with Park in Malaysia last winter.

Even though Oh tied for the lead at the first round of the competition, she ranked 31st at the final round of the game. After Park won the game, however, Oh gave hearty celebration to Park and had dinner with the winner at a Korean restaurant.

That girl finally fulfilled her dream.

It was at the LPGA State Farm Classic at the Panther Creek County Club in Springfield, Illinois, yesterday.

Oh, who finished the third round on the second place with only three stokes behind the third-round winner, fired a 3-under 69 to tie with Taiwan’s Yani Tseng, who is highly likely to be chosen as this season’s most potential rookie, and edged Yani Tseng of Taiwan on the first hole of the playoff. She earned $255,000 in prize for the first time since her LPGA debut last year.

Along with Park In-bee, Oh Ji-young is one of the "Se-ri kids." She began playing golf in 1999 after watching Park Se-ri won the LPGA U.S. Open in 1998. When she was a member of the golf club at Jukjeon Middle School, she had trained along with Park In-bee for five months before Park moved to the United States.

After winning a game hosted by Emerson Pacific Group, Oh got a chance to participate in the LPGA Tour last year. However, she did not perform well. She usually shots under par in the first round. However, she has always failed to reduce the number of strokes at the third or final round. In the McDonald LPGA Championship this year, she tied for the fourth place until the second round but lost four strokes and finished the game on the 29th place. The game was won by Tseng.

After going ahead by two strokes Saturday, Oh seemed to screw up the game by making a mistake on the 17th hole. However, Oh got a chance to take herself into a playoff with Tseng, who shot a bogey on the 18th hole.

On the first playoff hole, Oh drove into the thick rough but eventually won the game with her final tap-in birdie, beating Tseng who shot a bogey.

Korea’s female golfers have recently been showing strong performances as they had a combined five come-from-behind victories in seven competitions since June.

kjs0123@donga.com