No female golfer has ever won the same major championship four consecutive times. Only two males have done so, and you have go back a very long way to find them -- Walter Hagen in the PGA Championship from 1924 through 1927 and Tom Morris Jr. in The Open (1868, 1869, 1870 and 1872; it wasn't played in 1871).
Inbee Park laughed hard when reminded she would be trying at this week's KPMG Women's PGA Championship to equal an achievement so rare and first accomplished in the 19th century by one of the game's mythic talents.
Even if Park were healthy and arriving at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington, with competitive momentum, pulling off a four-peat would be difficult. But the South Korean star will be taped up and trying not to flinch from the pain of a damaged ligament in her left thumb, making this a quixotic quest. Playing four rounds, much less winning the event known until last year as the LPGA Championship, will be a tall order.
"It's just an unreal opportunity, and that's why I really wanted to play this week," Park told espnW.com in a phone interview. "I know I'm injured. I know I might not be able to play the full [tournament]. But I didn't want to miss the opportunity. I'm going to try hard to play as long as I can play."
There is more to the Park plot this week than simply teeing it up at a major in far less than peak shape. This is Park's 10th event of her 10th LPGA season, and if she is able to complete at least 18 holes at Sahalee, it will satisfy the longevity requirement for Park to make the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame, for which she reached the demanding 27-point threshold last year by claiming the 2015 Vare Trophy for low scoring average.
Park has reached her biggest career objective quicker than she thought she would, sooner than anyone who has entered the LPGA shrine. Only 27, Park is two years younger than countrywoman Se Ri Pak was in 2007 after blazing a path that brought a large wave of talented, dedicated Koreans into women's golf. Park was introduced to the game as she turned 10 by her father right after Pak won the 1998 U.S. Women's Open on the heels of a LPGA Championship triumph two months earlier.
"It's hard to express how I feel in one word," Park said. "Getting inducted into the Hall of Fame was my ultimate goal as a professional golfer. It's still so surreal. It hasn't hit me yet. It's about all the moments that I've had as a professional golfer -- not just good moments, all the moments. I truly feel honored and blessed that I am going to achieve this."
The LPGA Hall of Fame, of which Park will be the 24th inductee, was established in 1967 but is rooted in the Hall of Fame of Women's Golf developed in 1950, the year the LPGA was founded. That entity had honored six players -- Patty Berg, Betty Jameson, Louise Suggs, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Betsy Rawls and Mickey Wright -- who were installed as the first members of the LPGA Hall of Fame.
Only Jameson (13) has fewer career victories than Park (17) among LPGA Hall of Famers. But just six women -- Berg, Wright, Suggs, Annika Sorenstam, Zaharias and Rawls -- have more major titles than Park (seven), who has won six of the 16 LPGA majors contested since 2013, including two last year. Only Tiger Woods and Wright won seven majors at a younger age than Park, who in 2015 became the seventh LPGA player to complete a career Grand Slam as defined by the LPGA (winning four different major championships).
Park's injury woes began late in 2015, when a cyst on the middle finger of her left hand forced her to withdraw from the Blue Bay LPGA in China. She had the cyst removed and was fine, battling Lydia Ko for season honors last November. Park shot 80 in the first round of the 2016 season opener in late January, the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic, and withdrew with a lower back injury.
After a break, Park returned to action and had her only top 10s of 2016, finishing second at the Kia Classic and tying for sixth at the ANA Inspiration. Just two events after the ANA, however, Park was unable to play in the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic because of a painful left thumb.
"It's not exactly torn, but in the stage just before a tear," Park said. "It's inflamed and strained. It's not like back pain, where I can't move from the bed. But when I try to make certain movements in the swing, it hurts. I feel like I'm fine, but some movements are restricted. This thumb injury is different from the back injury. It's a very small part of my body but it's bothering me enough that it affects my game."
Last month Park shot an opening 74 in the Kingsmill Championship and withdrew after playing six holes in the second round. The following week at the LPGA Volvik Championship, she withdrew after shooting a first-round 84, her control game replaced by two-way misses. "I see balls going right and left, and I'm not used to that," she said. "It's hard losing confidence on the course."
Park, who is scheduled to talk to reporters Wednesday afternoon in a pre-tournament news conference at Sahalee, said her doctor has told her that she "can't make it too much worse" by playing with the injured thumb. Surgery is a last resort.
"I have to take a long break if I want my thumb to be totally fine," Park said. "The doctor said about six months of resting is going to help big-time. I'm not going to have a surgery before trying a break."
Sorenstam, who qualified for the Hall of Fame at 33 in 2003 and retired from competition at the end of 2008 -- a season that saw Park win the U.S. Women's Open at the record age of 19 years, 11 months, 17 days -- hopes Park isn't too uncomfortable this week.
"I know she's been struggling the last month or so with an injury," Soresnstam said. "You certainly don't want to limp through the finish line, but you start thinking about what you have achieved. You start looking back. It was like, 'Wow, Is this really happening? I feel I'm too young for a Hall of Fame induction.'
"But it's a great week to reflect on your achievements, and I hope that she can enjoy it. She's worked so hard, and her record speaks for itself."
For Park, it is a crossroads with a yield sign.
"I was pretty free of injuries until my 10th year on tour," Park said. "It had to happen. I worked hard. I used my body a lot for the last 10 years. It's a little bit worn out, and I just have to take some rest."