Inbee Park is about to become the youngest ever Hall of Famer, but Tiger must wait another decade

Inbee Park has achieved a lot in the last 10 years

The Women’s PGA Championship starts today at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington.

Inbee Park has won the tournament for the last three years in a row, meaning she would be hot favourite to become the first female golfer to win the same major four times in a row, were it not for an injured thumb that has kept her off the course since May, when the inflammation forced her to withdraw after a painful 84. That was Park’s second successive first-round withdrawal, but she hopes the Women’s PGA Championship won’t be a third.

“I’m going to do my best to play as many holes as I can,” says Park. “That’s what I try and do every time I play. I feel like this week is such a better week than the weeks I’ve had before. I’m very positive that I can play some better golf than the last couple of weeks.”

Whether or not her thumb allows her to compete for an eighth career major win, Park only needs to complete the first round to cement her place in golf’s Hall of Fame. 

Completing the first round will officially mark 10 years competing on tour, which is the final requirement Park needs to meet to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame. At just 27 years of age, Park will be the youngest player ever to qualify. Her induction, however, won’t take place until she turns 50, after the minimum age limit increased recently from 40 to 50. 

That change also means 40-year-old Tiger Woods must wait a decade longer than expected to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Woods, who met the other criteria with ease years ago, will now not be eligible for induction until 2027. Unless…

The only way for a player under 50 to be inducted is if they meet the alternative criteria, which is being inactive in professional golf for five years. With Woods’s return date still unknown, there is speculation that we have seen the last of the greatest golfer of a generation. 

Even on that front, however, Inbee Park looks likely to beat Tiger into the Hall of Fame. 

“I’d like to have a family, probably within three years or so,” she says. “And after that I’m not sure if I’m going to play professionally or whether I’m just going to retire. That I don’t know.”

Retiring in your 20s while number two in the world might seem unusual, but it’s worth remembering that Lorena Ochoa retired when she was 28 and number one in the world.