Last updated: August 2026
| Full Name | Pak Se-ri (Se Ri Pak) |
| Born | September 28, 1977, in Daejeon, South Korea |
| Nationality | South Korean |
| Profession | Professional Golfer (retired), LPGA Hall of Famer |
Se Ri Pak is a retired South Korean professional golfer widely credited with sparking the wave of Korean players on the LPGA Tour. She is a World Golf Hall of Fame member with 25 LPGA Tour wins and career prize money exceeding $12.5 million; no further independently verified net worth figure has been published for her.
Early Life & Family
Se Ri Pak was born on September 28, 1977, in Daejeon, South Korea. Her father introduced her to golf when she was 14, and she quickly excelled, winning 30 tournaments as an amateur in South Korea.
Rise to Fame
Pak turned professional in 1996 and moved to the United States the following year to train under renowned coach David Leadbetter, joining the LPGA Tour in October 1997. In 1998, at age 20, she won the U.S. Women’s Open, becoming the youngest champion in that event’s history at the time and igniting global attention on Korean golf.
Career History
Over her LPGA career, Pak won 25 tournaments, including five major championships: the LPGA Championship in 1998, 2002 and 2006, the U.S. Women’s Open in 1998, and the Women’s British Open in 2001. She also won 14 times on the Korean LPGA Tour and went 6-0 in tour playoffs, an LPGA record for most playoff wins without a defeat. In 2003 she won three events and claimed the Vare Trophy for the season’s lowest scoring average. She was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2007, becoming, at 30, the youngest living player so honored at the time. Battling injuries in her later career, she won only once more after her induction and retired from the LPGA Tour in 2016.
How They Built Their Wealth
Pak’s wealth was built primarily through LPGA and Korean LPGA Tour prize money, which totals more than $12.5 million on the LPGA Tour alone, along with endorsement deals tied to her status as a pioneering figure who inspired a generation of Korean golfers, often referred to as the ‘Se Ri Kids.’
Se Ri Pak’s Hall of Fame career, anchored by five major titles and more than $12.5 million in documented LPGA prize money, changed the trajectory of women’s golf in South Korea and remains one of the sport’s most influential legacies.