By Torleif Sorenson on 12/27/13

Apparently, three consecutive major championship victories and three more wins worldwide
by a woman from South Korea just isn't news to the Associated Press.

In their news reporting, the Associated Press has exhibited some pronounced biases over the last couple of decades. But now, their sports reporters seem to have recently developed a bias against women's golf. Nobody should say that pro tennis star Serena Williams did not deserve to win the AP's 2013 Female Athlete of the Year award; she won two major championships in tennis. Williams received 55 of the 96 votes, while basketball player Brittney Griner finished second with 14, followed by swimmer Missy Franklin with ten (in a non-Olympic year, no less).

The problem is that Inbee Park won three consecutive majors — the first to do it since the legendary Babe Didrikson Zaharias. For Park's amazing achievement, she didn't even finish third in the voting by 96 AP sportswriters.

All Park did was win the Kraft Nabisco Championship by four shots, the LPGA Championship in a playoff over veteran Catriona Matthew, and then three weeks later capturing the U.S. Women's Open Championship in brutal conditions at Sebonack on Long Island. In fact, Park was the only golfer to break par in Saturday's third round. In golf's modern era, Park is one of only three women to win three majors in a single season, joining the legendary Hall of Famers Mickey Wright in 1961 and Pat Bradley in 1986.

All told, Park won three majors and three other tournaments in 2013, including the inaugural North Texas LPGA Shootout by one stroke over European Solheim Cup'er Carlota Ciganda. In comparison, Tiger Woods had five impressive wins, albeit with no majors.

Given that the AP's award went to Annika Sörenstam or Lorena Ochoa each year from 2003 to 2007, the Associated Press evidently feels some concerted need to focus on other sports for awhile.

And as Golf Channel's Randall Mell points out, we also had several other major storylines in women's golf, including "Lightning" Lydia Ko, Stacy Lewis's magnificent performance at the Women's British Open — including golf's best shot of the year, 18-year-old Lexi Thompson, Suzann Pettersen winning the Evian in France, and then the stunning Solheim Cup victory by Team Europe at Colorado Golf Club.

Again, Serena Williams had an impressive 2013, but to completely ignore Inbee Park and her impressive season smacks of journalistic bias.


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