By Pat Jenkins The Dispatch Sadena Parks isn't saying she's destined to be a female version of Tiger Woods. But she's getting closer to her stated goal of having a similar effect on women's professional golf Parks, the former Bethel High School student-athlete, fired a 5-under-par 67 in the final round and then defeated Jackie Stoelting on the second playoff hole Aug. 10 to win the New England Charity Classic women's professional golf tournament on the Symetra Tour in Goffstown, N.H. It was Parks' second victory in three weeks in Symetra events. Her breakthrough professional win came July 27 in the SEFCU Championship in Albany, N.Y. The first-place prizes vaulted Parks to third place in the Symetra money standings, virtually assuring her of having playing privileges on the LPGA Tour next year. The top 10 moneywinners at the end of the Symetra season earn their LPGA cards, and only four tournaments remained in the 2014 Symetra season after Parks' New England Charity victory. Parks, who graduated from Bethel in 2008 with a glossy golf resume and then starred at the University of Washington before turning pro, is just the second African-American woman to win a Symetra event in the 34-year history of that tour. The first was LaRee Sugg, in 1998. The Symetra is a proving ground for players trying to become regulars on the LPGA Tour. When Parks joins the latter, she'll be the fifth African-American to tee it up on the biggest stage of women's professional golf. Parks, 24, said she hopes she's influencing African-American girls and boys and their parents to get younger kids "more involved in this game. Kind of how Tiger Woods changed golf, I want to be the next African-American out there on the LPGA Tour. I want to be ranked number one on the tour one day." Before she started winning Symetra events, Parks already was making a name for herself this year. She earned a spot in the U.S. Open by winning a 36-hole sectional qualifier in Scottsdale, Ariz. And earlier, Parks was a contestant on Golf Channel's "Big Break Florida," a national reality TV show that pitted 12 women in an opportunity to qualify for the LPGA Tour. Parks defeated a fellow "Big Break" contestant, Stoelting, at Stonebridge Country Club in Goffstown, N.H. in the playoff for the New England Charity Classic. She birdied the final regulation hole to force the playoff, in which her par on the second hole topped Stoelting's bogey. "This second win just shows how much I've improved over the year," Parks said after claiming the $15,000 winner's check and pushing her season earnings over the $50,000 mark. Her first professional victory, in the SEFCU Championship in New York, was equally dramatic. Trailing by seven shots entering the final round, she wound up winning by a shot after firing a nine-under 62 that tied the course record. The come-from-behind triumph, her first in two seasons on the Symetra circuit, left her eager to celebrate the moment with her father and friends. And now the big-time awaits. "Ever since I was 9 years old, the LPGA Tour was my goal, and it has been a long journey and now I am almost there," Parks said.
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment