2016 Rio Olympic golf: Park, Ko take medals as Americans just miss bronze
If men’s golf at the 2016 Rio Olympics featured one of the more intriguing final round duels of the summer between Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose, the women’s side produced exactly the opposite of that.
Inbee Park ran away with the gold medal for South Korea on Sunday by shooting a 66 for the third time this week to finish at 16 under for the tournament. She was five shots clear of Lydia Ko of New Zealand, who took silver.
Park has won 17 times on the LPGA Tour in her career, including seven major championships, and qualified for the LPGA Hall of Famer earlier this year. In the context of her career, this is not a surprising win. But in the context of this season, it is. Park has largely been hampered by injuries for most of 2016 including a balky thumb for the last few months. She has been a non-factor until this week.
Inbee Park hadn’t made a cut since April, hadn’t played at all since June and now leads by four trying to win Olympic gold. That’s golf.
— Jason Sobel (@JasonSobelESPN) August 20, 2016
Her performance in Rio was sublime, though. Back-to-back 66s to open the tournament before a 1-under 70 on Friday to take the 54-hole lead. Then she closed like the boss she is even with the No. 1 player in the world (Ko) on her tail for most of the day with a 69 over the final 18 holes.
Ko made a birdie at the last to take silver over Shanshan Feng of China, who finished at 10 under and earned the bronze. The U.S. went medal-less after Stacy Lewis left a putt on No. 18 short that would have gotten her into a playoff for the bronze. She finished T4, one shot back of Feng.