The Hanwha LifePlus International Crown, a women’s golf national competition, was held not long ago. In this tournament, Korea tasted the bitter pain of being eliminated from the preliminaries. She beat Japan in the final game and kept a minimum of pride, but the unexpected ‘dropout in the preliminaries’ left a scar on Korean women’s golf. Korea, led by Ko Jin-young, Jeon In-ji, Kim Hyo-joo, and Choi Hye-jin, lost all four matches against Australia and Thailand at the beginning of the group stage and was eliminated early. In particular, as Thailand, the same Asian country, won the championship, they were more prepared.
However, Ko Jin-young prepared a clue to the rebound. Recently, Korea, which has been losing its ‘strongest’ appearance on the LPGA tour, has prepared a foothold for a rebound through the performance of ‘representative runner’ Ko Jin-young.
On the 15th (Korean time), Jinyoung Ko tied with Lee Min-jee (Australia) with a final total of 13 under par 275 at the LPGA Tour Cognitive Founders Cup held at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, New Jersey, USA, and won the championship with an overtime victory. did. It was a dramatic victory overturning a four-stroke gap on the final day.
With this victory, Korean women’s golf is expected to gain momentum once again. Ko Jin-young’s victory this time is more meaningful because it came amidst concerns that the prestige of Korean players on the LPGA tour is not the same as before. Ko Jin-young, who is currently ranked 3rd in the world, the highest among Korean female golfers, has achieved “many wins” in one season for the first time in two years since 5 wins in 2021. In 2022, there was not a single multiple winner among Korean female golfers. Ko Jin-young, Kim Hyo-joo, Ji Eun-hee, and Jeon In-ji each won one victory. Anyway, the fact that a player representing Korea is standing in front of me is reassuring enough.
Here,스포츠토토 it is worth putting our hopes on Yoo Hae-ran, who passed the qualifying series in first place. Yoo Hae-ran finished 4th in this competition, the best result of the season in this competition. In particular, she is leading Korean women’s golf by placing in the top 10 in two consecutive competitions following a tie for 6th at the LA Championship at the end of last month, where she participated just before. There are many stories about her being at the top of the Rookie of the Year race.
Yet the season has just begun. It’s still a long way from turning around. There are still four major tournaments left. As there are more than 20 matches left in this tournament, there is plenty of time for Korean women’s golf to recover its reputation. Korean women’s golf is slowly stretching with the good performances of Ko Jin-young and Yoo Hae-ran.