The first crack of thunder brings a roar from the crowd
A summer’s tempest no match for revelers gay and proud.
But I’m witnessing something else outside the norm
I’m watching Inbee Park in the eye of the storm.

It’s a steamy June Sunday on my New York street
In the upper Midwest golfers face final-round heat.
A bigger juxtaposition is hard to imagine
West Village players and those at Interlachen.

At the U.S. Open, the hardest major to win
How to explain this 19-year-old Korean?
Metronomic tempo, she keeps her form
Inbee Park is the quiet storm.

Windy conditions and treacherous greens
The Pink Panther plummets but not this teen.
Methodical, unruffled, resplendent in white
The quiet storm seems to fit Inbee just right.

The leaderboard is riddled with foreign names
Jingoistic Americans search for someone to blame.
The Korean women are the most impressive crop
ButJohnny Miller, chastened, avoids an ethnic malaprop.

The Timescovered golf on its Saturday front page
A Phoenix private club inspires their rage.
But equally shocking was a lack of attention
All-sports talk radio gives the Women’s Open no mention.

With women fighting for equal pay and respect
These clubby inequities are used to deflect.
Save a front-page story for the truly afflicted
Not the spurious cause of the money addicted.

But back on TV Annika takes to the stage
It’s perhaps her last Open, the Swedish sage.
She jars her final shot for eagle three
The quiet storm isn’t bothered, typical Inbee.

Textbook, clinical, an unwavering force,
Just how a player dreams of playing an Open course.
Simply unbelievable, but I witnessed with my own eyes
Inbee Park, the quiet storm, that nobody could deny.

– Rico Williams