The 23-year-old carded a final-round five-under-par to finish on 11-under and win by two shots from amateur compatriot Choi Hye-jin.

Park, who had led after 36 holes last year, started the day three shots behind overnight leader Shanshan Feng of China.

She moved into contention with three birdies in the first eight holes before picking up her only bogey of the round at the ninth.

Birdies at the 12^th, 15^th and 17^th saw Park pull clear of the field and she sealed victory with a tricky up-and-down for par on the 18^th as her closest challengers stumbled behind her.

"It's almost like I'm floating on a cloud in the sky," Park was reported as saying by BBC Sport.

"I did not have the best first and second rounds so I wanted to believe in myself in the remaining rounds."

Choi’s hopes ended on the 16th hole where she posted a double-bogey five after finding the water.

Rio 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Feng required an eagle on the final hole to tie the lead, but she ran up a triple-bogey eight after her ball rolled off the back of the green.

She subsequently fell back to six-under and a three-way tie for fifth place with Spain’s Carlota Ciganda and South Korea’s Lee Jeong-eun.

Two other Koreans, Mi Jung Hur and world number one So Yeon Ryu, shared third place on seven under.

Choi had been aiming to become only the second amateur to win the US Women's Open, following in the footsteps of France’s Catherine Lacoste who triumphed in 1967.

Her amateur status meant she missed out on the $540,000 (£413,000/€471,000) runners-up prize.

"It will be nice if I could get the money but I think my primary goal was to come here and compete so, to me, getting this second place as runner-up actually means more to me and it's a greater honour," she said. 

"Even if I could just come and play, that alone would be an honour, but I get the runner-up and it is an unbelievably joyous thing for me."

Organisers ignored calls to move the event from Trump National, which was awarded the tournament in 2012, amid disrespectful comments made by American President Donald Trump towards women.

In October, the month before he was elected, a video from 2005 emerged of Trump bragging about how "you can do anything" to women "when you are a star".