RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Se Ri Pak could hear the burst of noise from 500 yards away and it wasn't hard to figure out what was causing the commotion.
Inbee Park had made one last birdie.
Pak could hear it from the back of the 18th green at Olympic Golf Course. She was the team leader for South Korea at the Olympics, the player who inspired a nation that has become the most formidable in women's golf. Park with a gold medal around her neck only affirmed that.
Long ago, in another big moment for women's golf in South Korea, their roles were reversed.
Park was fast asleep in her apartment outside Seoul when she was jarred awake in the middle of the night. The 9-year-old girl came downstairs to find her parents in front of the TV, cheering wildly as Pak won the 1998 U.S. Women's Open at Blackwolf Run, a landmark moment for golf in South Korea.
Two days later, Park wrapped her hands around a golf club for the first time.
Ten years later, she was the youngest U.S. Women's Open champion ever.
That was the first of seven majors for Park, and a big reason why this year she became the youngest player (27) to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame. Her most recent major was the Women's British Open last year to complete the career Grand Slam.
And now she's an Olympic champion.
"I've won majors, but I haven't won a gold medal," Park said after her five-shot victory ahead of Lydia Ko, the No. 1 player in women's golf. "So this feels very, very special, nothing I want to exchange. Being able to receive the gold medal on the golf course was an unforgettable moment."
She had been coping with a ligament injury in her left thumb that led her to take two months off from the LPGA Tour - including the U.S. Women's Open and her title defense at the Women's British Open - to get ready for the Olympics. She wanted to test her thumb in competition, so she played a Korean LPGA event and missed the cut.
All that did was spark chatter she should give up her spot in Rio to another South Korean, and it created unnecessary confusion and doubt for Park.
She responded with a quiet determination.
"I really wanted to do well this week to show a lot of people that I can still play," Park said.
But this victory was more than just validation.
An Olympic gold medal, particularly under these circumstances, should allow Park to take her place among the best in LPGA history.
Park wants to start a family, so maybe retirement is closer than she lets on. She said on a couple of occasions last week she had no retirement plans.
Then again, how much longer Park plays is no longer relevant.
She already has earned a spot in the same conversation as Pak. There will never be another like Pak, whose legacy goes beyond her five majors and 25 victories on the LPGA Tour. She was the pioneer, whose exploits woke up a little girl in South Korea and inspired greatness.
Just to be alongside her speaks to what Park has achieved.