In-Bee Park Profile, Area High School Golfer

Hello everyone,

This is a story about one hell of a young golfer here in Las Vegas. I found out about her in August when I was doing the high school girls golf preview for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. She moved to town in July and joined the defending state champion golf team. Last season the team won by 61 strokes and also had the individual champion. The individual champion, along with one other player graduated, but the team was so loaded they were going to be favored to repeat before In-Bee showed up. The coach of the girls team tried, though he would never admit it, to deflect my attention away from her during the preview. I understand why he did this. He is dealing with high school age kids and he did not want In-Bee to become the focus of the team before the season even started. However, after the season started one thing quickly became obvious; there is In-Bee and then there is everyone else.

Interviewing In-Bee and her family was a wonderful experience. One thing the story did not tell was her human side; about how self-confident and self-effacing she is. For a 16-year-old girl, she is so comfortable with her abilities. She will sit out school matches to let other girls on the team get time in competition, but will be practicing in uniform in case she is needed. She hangs out with her teammates and really tries to have the regular high school experience. She knows she will become a player on the LPGA tour, but her education is important to her and her family. Everyone kept reiterating how important it is for her to go to college before joining the tour full-time. Being from South Korea, she told me she wants to have better command of the English language before she goes out on the tour.

I am not a big follower of golf, but just being around her you get the sense that something is different about her. The way she talks about herself, the way she drives balls off the tees, there is just something different. She is humble, her family is warm and welcoming. I really believe you will read her name again one day. Please read the article and see why.