Pak Se-ri

Pak Se-ri grew up in Daejeon, South Korea, where her father, a former athlete, decided when she was a teenager that she would become a golfer. His training was severe. He had her run up and down the stairs of their apartment block, practise in snow, and, famously, sit alone at night in a cemetery to cure her of fear. She has said she both resented it and understood it.

In 1998, her first year on the American LPGA tour, she was 20 and spoke little English. She won the LPGA Championship in May. In July, at the US Women's Open, she went to a play-off and hit her ball to the edge of a pond on the 18th hole. She took off her shoes and socks, waded in and played it out, and went on to win on the 20th extra hole. The image of her pale feet next to her tanned legs was shown endlessly in South Korea, which was in the depths of a financial crisis, and she became a symbol of what hard work could do.

Girls across the country took up golf. The players who followed her, known as Se-ri's kids, went on to fill the top of the world rankings. She won 25 tour titles and five majors, was elected to the Hall of Fame at 29, and in 2016 coached the South Korean team at the Olympics, where one of those kids, Park In-bee, won gold.