Can the first player to win the season this time? As the weather is getting closer to summer, the competition among players is getting hotter. To summarize this year’s Korean Women’s Professional Golf (KLPGA) in one word, it is ‘Spring and Autumn National’. Unknown players are making great strides.
Representatives include Lee Joo-mi, who won the Mediheal and Hankook Ilbo Championships last month, and Choi Eun-woo, who reached the top at the Nexen and Saint Nine Masters. Here, strong players of tradition such as Lee Da-yeon also joined the championship competition. It is now difficult to predict who will win.
Starting with two competitions held overseas in December 2022, a total of six competitions were held in the 2023 season. However, not a single player has come out with a 2nd win yet. In the KLPGA tour, different winners come out, and attention is focused on whether the first “multi-winner” will emerge in this tournament, or whether another first-winner will be born.
The KLPGA Tour Kyochon 1991 Ladies Open (total prize money of 800 million won) will be held at Asiad Country Club (par 72, 6565 yards) in Busan for three days from the 5th. Last year, it was held at Kingsdale Golf Club in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, but this year it was moved to Busan. A total of 132 players, including 8 recommended players, will participate in this tournament to compete for the championship.
Lee Da-yeon, who won the KLPGA Championship, a major tournament last week and climbed to second place (271.65 million won) in prize money, will not participate this week, while all other five season winners will participate in this tournament.
Park Ji-young, who won the Hana Financial Group Singapore Women’s Open in December of last year, which is the opening match of the 2023 season, and continues to promote and run 1st place in prize money (299.64 million won), depending on the results of this tournament, there is a possibility that the target points will also jump to 1st place. . Park Ji-young is in second place (155 points), eight points behind the current top-ranked Lee So-young (163 points) in her grand prize points, but Lee So-young is not participating in this tournament, so she has a chance to outperform Park Ji-young.
Lee Jung-min, who won the PLK Pacific Rings Korea Championship in December last year, is aiming for his second win of the season and a recapture of the championship for the first time in 9 years since 2014.
Lee Ye-won, the winner of the Lotte Rent-A-Car Women’s Open, the opening match in Korea, Lee Joo-mi, who won the Mediheal and Hankook Ilbo championships last month, and Choi Eun-woo, who reached the top at the Nexen and Saint Nine Masters, will also try to win their second season. As Lee Joo-mi and Choi Eun-woo are late-blooming flowers, they are making every effort to continue the current upward trend.
In addition, defending champion Jo A-yeon, KLPGA Championship runner-up Park Gyeol, tour star Hyun-kyung Park, and Lim Hee-jeong are also aiming for their first win in this tournament. In particular, Lim Hee-jung is looking forward to this tournament even more, having tied for 6th place on the last day in her last tournament.
Kim Hae-rim, who won the Kyochon Ladies Open three times from 2016 to 2018, also participates without fail and challenges again the record of “winning 4 times in a single event”.
Kim Min-byeol,크크크벳 who took first place (564 points) in the rookie of the year, and Hwang Yoo-min, who is chasing second place (386 points), were also on the list. In addition, newcomer Bang Sin-sil, who competed fiercely with Lee Da-yeon until the end at the KLPGA Championship last week, before her debut on the regular tour, caught the attention of fans and tied for 4th place, will also try to win her first championship in this tournament.