AT FIRST, LPGA NO WALK IN THE PARK NEWEST MAJOR CHAMP WORKS HARD FOR SUCCESS.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Staff Writer

Grace Park made it all seem so easy as an amateur, when there's little she didn't accomplish as a junior, collegian or open participant.

Tournament titles? She won 55 of them.

All-America honors? She earned them eight times, including six years in a row in the highly competitive American Junior Golf Association - the major league of junior golf.

National Player of the Year? Park was that twice in the AJGA and again in her first year at Arizona State, where she also helped the Sun Devils win an NCAA team title.

Then she stepped up to the LPGA and an eye-opener:

``It did not go as well as I would have hoped,'' Park said Wednesday of her introduction to the world's best women's golf tour. ``The professional level was much harder than I ever thought it would be. I thought junior, college, amateur, next step up professional. I'll just go along with it.

``But this is a gathering of the best players from all over the world. You can't flake out for one second out here. You've gotta give your best.''

Give 25-year-old Park highest grades for effort last week.

She arrived at Tarzana's El Caballero Country Club, site of this week's Office Depot Championship, as the newest major champion on the LPGA Tour - thanks to a one-stroke victory over 17-year-old Aree Song on Sunday in one of the most dramatic finishes in the 33-year history of the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

Park secured her victory with a six-foot birdie putt on the 485-yard, par-5 finishing hole after Song, playing in the same final group, rolled in a 30-foot eagle putt to set up a possible playoff.

``I knew I had to make a 3 to have any chance of catching Grace,'' said Song, who cleared a water-fronting lake with a 7-wood from 210 yards. ``... That putt was, I just read it perfectly, and I just hit it where I wanted to and it just went right in.''

But Park was up to the challenge, curving in the biggest putt of a four- year-plus LPGA career that had often displayed her ability while yielding few victories.

``Everything was just so much harder than I expected,'' said Park, who led the LPGA with 46 rounds in the 60s last year, tying the tour single-season record, but won only once. ``It took a while to get used to it and realize that I needed to push myself harder if I wanted to be at the top.''

That's what Park wants, ultimately: to be No. 1. It's why she can say, three days after winning a major for her fourth tour victory, that she needs to improve ``everything, from tee to green.'' It's why she's so committed to working on her game, even with a scoring average that shared the tour lead at 67.50 before she teed up in the Kraft Nabisco.

``Working harder makes you play better,'' she said.

The hard work put her in position to win last week at Rancho Mirage, where, before her final round, Park said, ``I crave winning more than ever.''

Nothing has changed since, except the satisfaction, fatigue and confidence boost that victory spawned.

``I think it's finally starting to sink in, because I'm really tired,'' she said. ``... I'm tired physically, but mentally I'm ready to get back to work.''

As sweet as that major was, Park is leaving it behind.

``It's something that I'll cherish forever,'' she said, ``but it's over, done with.''

It's an attitude that earned Park a nod of approval from her golf teacher, Peter Kostis.

``He said a new golf course doesn't know you're a champion. Your club, your ball, they don't know you're a champion. You've got to do the same things you've been doing and not get hung up in the past,'' Park said.

But she will be holding on to one part of her first major victory, even while trying not to get too far ahead of her ball - she won't forget the satisfaction and confidence that win inspired:

``I felt like I could go out and win every tournament,'' Park said. ``I felt like I owned the world.''

Dave Shelburne, [phone]

dave.shelburne(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color) ``The professional level was much harder than I ever thought it would be,'' said Grace Park, who won her first major title last weekend.

(2) Grace Park tees off at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana in preparation for the Office Depot Championship.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer

Box:

(1) OFFICE DEPOT CHAMPIONSHIPS

(2) FRIDAY'S TEE TIMES