ROGERS — Inbee Park had a quick turnaround and not much time to waste before catching a flight to Southampton, N.Y.
By now, though, she should have winning down to a routine.
Park posed for photographs, signed autographs and met with the media on Sunday before leaving Pinnacle Country Club for what could be the next stop on her dominant run through the LPGA Tour.
The world’s top-ranked player remained composed as she made a charge during the final round of the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.
And Park never lost her touch while making a pair of birdies on the par-5 18th hole to edge close friend So Yeon Ryu for her second straight win and fifth victory of the season.
“I’ve won a lot of times this year, but I still feel the pressure coming into the final round every time and definitely feel a lot of pressure in the playoff,” said Park, who fired a 4-under-par 67 on Sunday to finish at 12-under.
“I think that’s just got to happen no matter how many times I win.”
Park is having the type of dominant run that Yani Tseng enjoyed a few years ago before hitting her current drought. Park will retain the No. 1 ranking for an 11th consecutive week, and with Sunday’s paycheck of $300,000, she’s earned $1.5 million this season.
That’s almost twice as much as the next closest golfer.
Considering the rate at which she’s collecting trophies, Park could talk to Tseng about how to deal with the expectations to win every week. But Park admitted after her latest victory that she hasn’t talked to any golfers who have experienced something similar.
“I think they probably would have felt the same way as I do now,” Park said. “They were probably very happy like me.”
Park is the first player since Annika Sorenstam in 2005 to win the first two majors of the season, and she can move a step closer to completing the Grand Slam when she tees off next week at the U.S. Women’s Open.
“She’s No. 1, so I think everybody is scared of Inbee because she’s playing super well the last 12 months, even more like 14 months,” said Ryu, the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open winner who finished second to Park at the Kraft Nabisco Championship in early April.
“So, if her name is top on the leaderboard, she makes everybody really nervous.”
Park had a stretch of three straight birdies on holes No. 6-8 on Sunday to move up the leaderboard. She then avoided getting into too much trouble on the back nine to force a playoff with Ryu.
Park’s shot at the 18th green during the round rolled downhill, putting her in a difficult position to birdie the hole. But she rebounded with a chip shot that spun to within 8 feet of the hole.
Park sank the putt, and moments later, Ryu made her birdie putt to force the practice partners to play No. 18 again in a sudden-death playoff.
Park improved her chances when Ryu smacked her tee shot on the playoff hole into the rough.
While Ryu attempted to recover, Park hit from the fairway onto the green, then knocked a chip shot to within 4 feet of the hole.
From there, much of the suspense was gone.
Park is regarded as perhaps the LPGA’s best putter, and she has shown this month that she can remain composed in a playoff. She sank a 4-foot birdie putt for the win.
Two weeks ago, Park sank an 18-foot birdie putt on the third hole of a playoff with Catriona Matthew to claim the Wegmans LPGA Championship at 5-under.
“That really felt like normal to me that I have to go into a playoff,” Park said. “I didn’t feel nervous. I felt actually nervous on the final day, the final hole.
“But on the playoff, I felt really comfortable out there.”
It was all just routine for her.