Photo: Beverly Schaefer/ (c) Action Images

For a moment, everything looked all too familiar.

In the two years since winning the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill, very little has gone the way of Se Ri Pak. When Pak three-putted away a chance to seal last month’s McDonald’s LPGA Championship on the 72nd hole, followers of Pak and the LPGA all shared a common thought: “Here we go, again.”

Pak, however, didn’t worry and marched back to the 18th tee box, knowing there was still work to be done. Even after her opponent, Hall of Famer Karrie Webb, drilled a drive that left her just 132 yards to the pin, Pak didn’t panic.

Instead, she lofted a 3-wood down the center of the fairway that left her with about 200 yards to the cup. What came next was something many, perhaps Pak included, thought no longer possible. Pak launched her second shot with a hybrid 4-iron and watched as it kicked straight toward the hole, stopping a mere three inches away.

After Webb missed a 20-foot birdie attempt, Pak tapped in for her fifth major championship, and her seemingly improbable comeback was complete.

“I’m very happy to be back again,” Pak told the Associated Press after her recent victory. “I’m a very lucky person. I’m as happy a person has ever been.”

Those close to Pak, however, would argue that her recent achievement is hardly a comeback. Rather, it’s the result of an ongoing process that included some much-needed rest and relaxation followed by months of intense training with her coach, sometimes up to 15 hours a day.

Golf Queen Takes LPGA by Storm

Since moving to the United States in the mid-1990s from her home in Taejon, South Korea, Se Ri Pak has been a force to be reckoned with. In her rookie year, Pak, appropriately nicknamed the Golf Queen, became the youngest woman to ever win the LPGA Championship, one of the four majors in women’s golf. She also captured the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open, went on to be named the Rolex Rookie of the Year and has enjoyed continued success since her inaugural year.

The former high school track star has posted more than 20 tour victories, including three additional major championships, counting her triumph at Bulle Rock in June. With the aforementioned victory at Kingsmill in 2004, Pak earned the final point she needed to be eligible for the LPGA Hall of Fame. Shortly after reaching that plateau, however, Pak began to struggle and stumbled through the two worst years of her career.

Pak’s troubles first came when she became unable to drive the ball with any consistency, which had been a staple of her game. What had once looked so easy for the Korean superstar suddenly became painful to watch. As Pak tried to overcompensate for her inconsistency off the tee, the rest of her game began to falter.

In the final 14 events of the 2003 season, Pak finished in the top-10 in all but one event. By comparison, she managed just one top-10 finish in the final 13 events of 2004. The once dominant Pak even took a month off in the middle of the year to try to repair the holes in her game. Following the retreat, however, Pak finished in last place for the first time in her illustrious career.

Pak is not the first professional golfer to suddenly lose part or all of her golf game. David Duval’s driver was the first thing to go in a demise that took Duval from the pinnacle of his profession to the pits of it. Before Duval, there was Ian Baker-Finch, who had won a combined 16 events in PGA Tour and international play in the first-half of his career, including the 1991 British Open. In 1995 and 1996, however, Baker-Finch either missed the cut, withdrew after one round or was disqualified in all 29 PGA Tour events he entered. But unlike Duval, who struggled with vertigo when trying to get back into his game, and Baker-Finch, whose problems were largely psychological, Pak has been able to overcome her struggles primarily thanks to good old hard work.

Hurts So Good

While beginning her 2005 campaign, Pak hoped she had turned a corner and would return to earlier form. Unfortunately her slump was just getting started. Pak didn’t produce a single top-20 finish and was unable to break into the top-100 on the money list. She dealt with aches and pains in her neck, shoulder and lower back, but ultimately it was a broken finger from the Weetabix Women’s British Open that forced Pak to take off the rest of 2005 to recoup.

The injury, as it turns out, may have been a blessing in disguise.

The stress associated with professional golf, especially when things are going badly, became too much for Pak. The once jubilant young star who was always smiling began patrolling up and down fairways looking and feeling both physically and emotionally drained.

The injury to her hand prevented Pak from even picking up a golf club. It was her first break in nine years and she used the time off to pick up some new hobbies like kickboxing and mountain climbing to help her build a life outside of golf.

Big Four Brightens LPGA Future

After her time off, Pak rededicated herself to the game and began making strides towards a strong return in 2006. She returned to Florida in the winter to begin intensive training and worked with her coach, Tom Creavy, to refine her swing and tweak her game.

The results speak for themselves. Pak hovered at 13th on the money list in mid-July, earning more than $380,000 for the 10 events she has entered. In the 12 events she played in 2005, Pak earned just over $62,000.

“It totally feels like I’m back, and that my game right now has more consistency than ever before,” says Pak.

With Pak and Webb recapturing the magnificence of their duels in the late 1990s, Annika Sorenstam still always in contention on Sundays, and Michelle Wie poised and ready to make a run at greatness, the LPGA Tour appears to be well on its way to providing many more years of marvelous golf and remarkable rivalries.