Here are the winningest South Korean players in LPGA history

Seri Pak’s success in 1998 changed women’s golf in profound ways. Pak was the only South Korean player on the LPGA when she won two majors that season. A decade later, more than 40 South Koreans had LPGA cards, and the phenomenon soon spread throughout Asia.

Pak, however, wasn’t the first South Korean to win on the LPGA. That bit of history belongs to Ok-Hee Ku, who won the 1988 Standard Register Turquoise Classic. Woo-Soon Ko, a South Korean who never became an LPGA member, won the Toray Japan Queens Cup, a co-sanctioned event, in 1994 and 1995.

Pak was the third Korean-born player to win on the LPGA and the first to win a major. It’s only fitting that the sporting icon now has her own namesake event on the LPGA in the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship, which kicks off this week in California at Palos Verdes Golf Club. (Pak, who went by Se Ri during her LPGA career, is now going by Seri.)

A total of 49 South Korean players have won a combined 220 LPGA titles. Here are the winningest South Korean players in LPGA history:     

Se Ri Pak during first-round play in the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports Copyright © 2007 Geoff Burke

While Pak’s 1998 U.S. Women’s Open Championship gets all the attention, her first title actually came just a couple months prior at the McDonald’s LPGA Championship. Pak’s 25 LPGA victories include five majors. She became the first South Korean to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame in 2007 and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame that same year. Pak retired from the tour in 2016 after playing one round on home soil at the LPGA KEB Hana Bank Championship.

Inbee Park hoists the U.S. Women’s Open trophy after her victory at Sebonack in 2013.

A seven-time major winner, Park won the first three majors of the calendar season in 2013, with her streak coming to an end at the Old Course, where she tied for 42nd at the Ricoh Women’s British Open. Park qualified for the LPGA Hall of Fame in 2016, the same year she won the gold medal at the Summer Olympics. Park hasn’t competed on tour since giving birth to her daughter in April 2023.

Jin Young Ko lines up a putt on the eighteenth green during a playoff hole against Megan Khang at the end of the final round of the CPKC Women’s Open golf tournament at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Bob Frid-USA TODAY…