Annie Park Readies for U.S. Open

With the U.S. Open just two months away, MacArthur Graduate Annie Park will be the lone golfer representing Long Island.

Park, from Levittown, won the NCAA Women's Individual Title in convincing fashion, finishing 10 strokes under par and helping the No. 1 ranked USC Trojans women's golf team win the NCAA National Championship.

This isn't Park's first taste of the action, as the Levittown resident played as an amateur in the 2012 U.S. Women's Open. She qualified for that by finishing first at the U.S. Women's Open sectional qualifier at Trump National in Colts Neck, N.J. 

She models herself after Annika Sorenstam, because "she showed great sportsmanship and manner on and off the golf course".

"I was reading something about bamboo grass. It can take two years to grow three inches, then in the next two months it will grow four feet. I think we might have seen something like that in Annie,'' Sean Foley, Park's swing coach since she was 13, told Newsday.

Among Foley's other clients are Tiger Woods and Justin Rose, who just won the U.S. Open.

She's confident in her ability to outperform her last experience with the U.S. Women's Open.

"I feel like I can do better because I know what the course looks like, I've played there and I played pretty well," she said. "It's just going to be me and the golf course."

How far do you think Park can go? Tell us in the comments section below.