Grace Park Carries Nike Golf to a Record Win in Korea

Press Release

Posted 2004-11-04

For Nike Golf's Grace Park the third time was the charm as she captured the CJ Nine Bridges Classic in just her third event since adding the new NDS (Nike Distance Series) Irons to her bag, and after posting back-to-back second place finishes. In addition to the first win for the NDS Irons, thanks to Park, Nike Golf's Ignite driver has now been in winners' hands 18 times since its professional debut last October, and the new One Black golf ball has now won seven times in the past 10 weeks.

Park finished at 16-under par, a tournament record, and five strokes ahead of her closest competitor. The win marks the first for Nike Golf's NDS Irons, a cousin to the award-winning Slingshot Irons, and rounds out victories in 2004 for all of Nike Golf's performance irons currently in the line, including the Slingshot Irons, the Forged Pro Combo Irons, the Forged Blade Irons and NDS.

"Four weeks ago I changed my clubs to Nike NDS irons," said Park before journalists after her win on Sunday from Jeju Island, Korea. The 25-year old scored her first hole-in-one during the tournament Pro-Am last Thursday using an NDS 7-iron on the 165-yard Par 3 No. 18. "Since then I have been playing really well. I was runner-up twice and won today. The clubs are easy to hit. When a player is feeling well and keeps that feel, then you can win."

The victory also marked the seventh time the new Nike One Black golf ball has won on a major Tour in the past 10 weeks. Stewart Cink started the One Black on a roll by winning the NEC Invitational on August 22.

Craig Stadler took the hand-off at the Jeld Wen Tradition the following week, winning after switching to the One Black mid-tournament. Stadler proceeded to win the next two tournaments he started, a total of three wins over four weeks, the third coming on September 26 at the SAS Championship. Chris Nallen won his Nationwide Tour debut two weeks later with the One Black, before D.J. Trahan captured his first professional win, also on the Nationwide Tour, on October 24.

Park is enjoying her most successful year on Tour carding two wins including a Major victory at the Kraft Nabisco. She has finished in the Top 10 a total of 11 times in 2004.

Nike Golf designed the new NDS Irons from research and materials gleaned from previous award-winning projects most notably the Slingshot Irons. By manipulating the center of gravity and progressively weighting the NDS set using a notch system similarly to the way Slingshot's Slingback technology is used, Nike Golf has created its fourth set of performance irons in under three years in the club business.