Debuting in 2015, Park Gyeol (27), the ‘model of the field’, won only once. It was already October 2018, four and a half years ago. That year, he won the first championship in his career at the SK Networks · Seoul Economic Daily Ladies Classic held in Jeju.
Prior to that, although he did not win, he jumped into the championship competition several times. The number of runner-ups speaks for itself. Since the first runner-up at the NH Investment & Securities Ladies Championship in May 2015, it has been runner-up a total of six times, including the S-OIL Championship in June 2018. His first win came after six runner-up finishes.크크크벳
However, he was happy with his first win, but after that, the championship as well as the runner-up disappeared. After placing 5th in the Lotte Rent-A-Car Women’s Open and 3rd in the Nexen/Saint Nine Masters in April of last year, she has not even made the top 10. After falling into extreme sluggishness since the middle of last year, even a gloomy prospect of disappearing from the ‘winning front’ now appeared.
However, Park Gyeol still had the competitive edge to win.
Park Gyeol finished runner-up at the Chris FNC KLPGA Championship (total prize money of 1.3 billion won), the first major tournament of the KLPGA tour season, held on the 30th at the Lakewood Country Club Mountain Path and Forest Course (par 72) in Yangju-si, Gyeonggi-do. He competed for the championship with Lee Da-yeon, who had returned from injury, but the challenge to win the championship after 4 and a half years ended in failure.
Lee Da-yeon, who shot 68, won the championship with a total of 13 under par, 275 strokes, and Park Gyeol tied for second place with Son Ye-bin with 9 under par, 279 strokes. It was Park Gyeol’s best result in four and a half years and the seventh runner-up in his career. Park Gyeol soothed his disappointment by winning 123.5 million won as the runner-up prize.
On this day, Park Gyeol started anxiously from the first hole (par 5), but did not give up easily. She couldn’t even look anymore. She caught her first birdie on the day on the 5th hole (par 3), and also added a birdie on the 8th hole (par 4). In the second half, she made a par march in 8 holes and was the only birdie in the 15th hole (par 5).
Due to Lee Da-yeon’s overwhelming performance, Park Gyeol withdrew from the competition for the championship in the second half.
In this tournament, Gyeol Park, who said, “I hit it with all my strength every time I hit a tee shot,” showed tenacity that did not easily give up in the competition for the title by jointly leading the first round, leading alone in the second round, and tying for third place in the third round.
In this competition, he caught a total of 15 birdies and only 6 bogeys. It was regrettable that 3 bogeys were poured in the 3rd round, but in the 1st, 2nd and 4th rounds, he showed excellent performance by committing only one bogey each.
Park Gyeol, who jumped to 11th place in the prize money rankings (138.32 million won) through this tournament, is drawing great attention to what he will do in the future.
Lee Da-yeon, who ended the season after only playing 10 tournaments due to a ruptured arm ligament last year, won her 7th career victory in 1 year and 8 months after the 2021 Hanwha Classic. Lee Da-yeon, who received 234 million won in prize money after winning the 4th tournament after his comeback, also jumped to second place (271.65 million won) in the prize money rankings.
Bang Sin-sil tied for 4th place with Lee So-young (8 under par, 280 strokes), and defending champion Kim A-rim finished the tournament with a tie for 22nd place (2 under par, 286 strokes).