“I had to grit my teeth,” says Park Hyun Kyung, who cut her hair and broke her 9th ring.

Park Hyun-kyung, a popular and accomplished golfer on the Korean Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA) Tour, chopped off her long locks after the Daebo Household Open on April 1.

With the short haircut, Park won the SK networks-Seoul Economic Ladies Classic on Sept. 29, just four tournaments later.

Park has finished as runner-up nine times in two and a half years since her career high of three wins at the Chris F&C KLPGA Championship in May 2021. Despite her three wins, she was nicknamed the “runner-up specialist.

Park broke down in tears after her win. During a televised interview, she broke down and couldn’t speak for a while.

“Everyone said, ‘It’s okay,’ or ‘Your time is coming,’ but only I know how hard it was,” Park said.

“The hardest part was when I started to doubt my abilities, especially after every runner-up finish,” he said.

“I prepared really hard and trained and worked hard to win,” Park said, adding, “I didn’t see (the runner-up finish) as a failure, but as a time to grow to the next level, and I feel like I received the gift of winning like this.”

“I thought I just needed to relax because my shots have been good lately,” Park said. “In the first half of the year, I felt impatient and thought I needed to win quickly, but in the second half of the year, I decided that I would do it until the end, no matter how many years it took.”

When junior Kim Joo-hyung, who plays on the U.S. Professional Golf (PGA) Tour, won his second straight Shriners Children’s Open, he said in a press conference, “The opportunity is the next hole, the next round, the next tournament,” which resonated with Park.

“She’s my sister, and I’m very close to her, so I felt like I needed to learn that positive attitude,” Park said.

Cutting her hair was also a way to get her mind right.

“I didn’t get good grades in September, so I threw away my worries and anxieties with my hair,” Park said. “After I cut my hair, my grades improved.” However, she laughed, saying, “I will grow it back.”

But unlike before, she was also determined.

“Last year, I was complacent and thought I did well just to make it to overtime, but I regretted it a lot,” Park said. “Even today, when I teed off on the first hole of overtime, my dad (who was caddying) said, ‘You did well to make it this far,’ and I said, ‘Don’t think about that.’ I gritted my teeth.”

Park is grateful to her father, Park Se-soo, who took up the bag again in the second half.

Park, a former Korean Professional Golf Association (KPGA) Tour professional, had been her caddie for most of her career, but hung up the bag for a while in the first half of the year when she used a professional caddie.

“It was a bit of a blow to my pride, but I asked my dad to help me again,” Park said, “and in the second round, when the wind was strong, he read the wind well. Today’s birdie putt on the 16th hole was also thanks to him reading the line.”

“It would be great to win the remaining two tournaments, but I will try to maintain my good shot feeling from last week,” Park said. 토토사이트