Oh, what may have been. The LPGA’s final round of the HSBC Women’s Champions was poised for a major showdown. The top three female golfers in the world sat a few strokes apart and were paired together in the final group.
Inbee Park (2) had a two shot lead over Lydia Ko (1) and Stacy Lewis (3) at the start of round four. With the three of them so tightly packed on the scoreboard and on the course the stage was set for some final round drama. We wanted some back and forth, some to and fro, some final round fireworks. 
What we got instead was a display of solid, but unspectacular golf from Park who seemed to be able to make every shot and avoid any bit of trouble. She hit every green and made every shot as she continued to make par after par after par. Oh, she did sprinkle two birdies amongst her 16 pars and that was enough to keep her two shot margin and give her the championship.
Park didn’t light up Singapore’s Serapong Course but rather played a workmanlike brand of golf all week. She failed to card a single bogey in 72 holes, in fact she has played her last five rounds bogey free and with Ko and Lewis unable to make that claim the South Korean was able to earn her 13th LPGA Tour win.
Park sank a long, curling birdie putt on the seventh hole and with Ko and Lewis unable to make a charge it was essentially over then.
The world rankings will stay the same for the three with Park moving that much closer to the seventeen year old world number one.
The $210,000 first place check isn’t the only cash Park earned this week.
She had made a bet with her dad that would pay her $500 for each birdie and cost her $1,000 for each bogey. The final tally for the week: Inbee $7,500, her dad $0.
I call that an effective bit of motivation.
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