April signals the coming of Spring, and also the arrival of the main part of the KLPGA season! They have already played two events outside of Korea back in December, but the 2023 KLPGA season really starts in earnest on April 6th at the Lotte Rent-a-Car Women’s Open. Before that happens, I will present to you our annual tradition, the KLPGA Primer: a brief look at the players to watch on the KLPGA this coming season.
Those who have left
First, a quick look at the players we won’t be seeing on tour in 2023. Some, like Eun Soo Jang and long hitting rookie Jeong Min Moon, lost their cards and will be trying to get them back on the Dream Tour (Jang, in fact, has already won an event on that tour this year, so she’s on pace to make it back). Some have left for other tours, and others have a big question mark by their names – have they left or not?
The most notable defector from the tour is Hae Ran Ryu.
The 2020 Rookie of the Year, Ryu has already won six times on the KLPGA tour, and nearly won the Player of the Year and scoring title in 2022, finishing second in both. She has also already achieved a tie for 13th at an LPGA Major, the 2020 US Women’s Open. She decided to go to the LPGA’s Q-Series last Fall, and to no one’s surprise, finished first to earn her tour card. In her first event as a member last week, the LPGA Drive-On Championship, she was just a shot back going into the final round and played in the final group on Sunday. She faded a bit on the final day and finished 7th, but that’s still a great start to her LPGA career.
She might in fact be better suited to playing the LPGA than the KLPGA: she’s a long hitter, and the Korean tour doesn’t tend to benefit such players as much as the LPGA does. The fans will miss her in Korea, but she’s definitely where she ought to be.
Meanwhile, the player with the question mark by her name (did she leave or didn’t she?) is Ji Hyun Oh.
A multiple winner on tour over the years, this beautiful and talented star was one of the biggest draws on tour. She also drew the love of the PGA player Si Woo Kim, and they married last December in what I believe is the first marriage between a PGA and KLPGA player. Just a few weeks later, Kim and Oh went to Hawaii so Kim could play in the PGA’s Sony Open. He promptly won, showing that Ji Hyun might be a bit of a good luck charm for him.
Articles in Korea have implied that Ji Hyun either has retired to be with her husband or at least has temporarily put her career on hold. I hope that, if she has retired, she at least returns to Korea to play one or two final events to let her fans say goodbye. Kim did enjoy caddying for her several times last year at KLPGA events, so with luck she will tire of tagging along with her husband and make another go of the KLPGA. But for now, she seems to be out of action.
The Superstar Repeats: Min Ji Park
In 2021, Min Ji Park had one of the most amazing seasons in tour history. She won six times and became the first player to ever earn over 1.5 billion won (around 1.2 million dollars) in a season. Well, unbelievably, she was almost as amazing in 2022. She once again led the tour in money, albeit only 1.477 billion won, just the second highest total ever achieved. She did not, however, win either the Player of the Year award or the scoring title. Despite that small blip, she was almost always incredible all year. She had 12 top tens and an amazing record in the five Majors, winning two and finishing second, third and fourth at the other three. Needless to say, she is once again the player to beat on tour in 2023.
She also had an opportunity to pair with Mexican legend Lorena Ochoa at a special event where KLPGA stars teamed with former LPGA superstars in a competition to see which team was the best. Park and Ochoa of course won. But the event also got her thinking for the first time about making a run at the LPGA. She intends to play overseas more often in 2023 with the hope of either winning an event to earn an LPGA tour card, or at least getting an idea how well she would do against top competition. She also is positioned to possibly make the International Crown team for Korea, which would put her on a team with three LPGA superstars. But if she is missing from the KLPGA frequently, that might give the rest of the tour a chance to stack up wins in her absence and possibly challenge her supremacy.
The new main rival: Su Ji Kim
If it weren’t for Min Ji Park’s dominance, we’d be talking a lot more about Su Ji Kim. Kim has been on the KLPGA since 2017, but made little impact until 2021, when suddenly she became one of the best players on tour. She finished 7th on the money list that year, winning two events (one a Major). She was even more amazing in 2022. That year she again won twice in back-to-back weeks, but accumulated a stunning 17 total top tens, meaning she was almost always on the leaderboard all season. This consistency earned her both the Player of the Year award and the scoring title over Min Ji Park, as well as over a billion won and second place on the money list.
Kim has made no bones about it. She wants to be #1 on the tour. Min Ji is standing in her way, but if Kim improves even more in 2023, she has a great chance of toppling the queen.
The Swing Girls
The fantastic rookie class of 2019 has yielded five big stars who continue to be among the most popular and successful players on tour. They have been given the collective nickname “The Swing Girls” based on a same named TV series that featured them when they were rookies (see what I mean by popular?). In 2022, all five of them were in the top fifteen on the money list and all but one of them collected wins.
The most successful of the five last year was Hee Jeong Lim.
Lim had another great season, finishing fifth on the money list with 750 million won earned. She had just one win, but it was the most important event on tour, the Korea Women’s Open. She dominated on the weekend, winning by six shots. She might have had an even better year, but suffered a car accident early in the season that affected her for several months.
Like Min Ji Park, she is preparing herself for possibly leaving the tour to join the LPGA. She played a couple of LPGA events early on in 2022 but didn’t have great results. But expect her to play more on the LPGA in 2023.
So Mi Lee finished 7th on the money list.
She had two wins – like Su Ji Kim in back-to-back events – and eleven total top tens. Like Lim, she is also thinking about moving to the LPGA soon. She had promising results in 2022, finishing fourth in Hawaii at the LPGA’s Lotte Championship in April. So Mi is one of the biggest characters on tour, and her fun and wacky personality has made her a big favorite there. She is consistent and knows how to win, so she should be expected to be near the top of the money list again in 2023.
Ga Young Lee finished 9th on the money list with 636 million won earned.
She has been a promising star among the Swing Girls for years but wins eluded her. That is, until last year, when she finally got her first, very long overdue win. Interestingly, it came at the only event all season played with the Stableford scoring system. For the moment, she is interested in staying in Korea rather than going overseas, and is looking to add more wins to her resume.
Hyun Kyung Park is arguably the most popular of the Swing Girls, although Lim has beaten her in the Most Popular fan vote the past two years.
Park, whose nickname is ‘Cutieful’, had an off year in 2022; she was the only one of the Swing Girls not to get a win, although she came close, losing to So Young Lee in a playoff. Still, she earned almost 600 million won and finished 12th on the money list. Park seems to excel at Majors in particular, so it’s quite likely she will get back on the winning track in 2023, possibly at one of the biggest events of the season.
The fifth and lowest ranked Swing Girl in 2022 is Ayean Cho, who was 15th on the 2022 money list.
Cho was not nearly as consistent as Lim or So Mi Lee in 2022, but she did manage two wins, her first wins on tour since 2019. Ayean and So Mi are best friends, so much so that one week when Lee was taking the event off, she served as Cho’s caddie! They have a hilarious, sarcastic relationship, frequently appearing together in extra-curricular golf TV shows, and since Cho is also pondering moving to the LPGA, they will possibly both end up cracking each other up on the LPGA tour next season. But for now, Cho, whose nickname is ‘Iron Cho’, will be one to watch on the KLPGA tour this season.
Surprise winners
The KLPGA had a few surprise winners in 2022, some of whom are worth looking out for in 2023. Yun Ji Jeong finished 6th on tour in 2022 with nearly 740 million won earned.
She had her win in May at the E1 Charity Open. She also had two seconds and two thirds and a total of eleven top tens. She had never finished in the top 20 on the money list in her previous two seasons, but her efforts in 2022 announced her as a player to watch.
Jeong Mee Hwang had an even less illustrious start to her career than Yun Ji Jeong.
It took her several years to make it to the KLPGA, finally qualifying in 2020. Her first two years saw her finish in the middle of the pack. But in 2022 she broke out with a win and two runner-up finishes. She wound up 16th on the money list. Is this a sign that she is about to become a big deal, or will she return back to the middle? Signs are good for her to keep up her momentum.
Jin Seon Han finished 17th on the money list in 2022.
She had more success previous to 2022 than the other women in this category, with a few top threes here and there and a previous best finish on the money list of 20. But in 2022, she broke through with a win at the High One Resort Women’s Open and two other 4th place finishes. She had to wait a long time for her win, even longer than Ga Young Lee, and her challenge in 2023 will be to prove she belongs with the elite players in the league.
Hyo Ju You has been better known as a fashionista than a golfer in her time on the tour.
In her first few years on tour, she has struggled to maintain her card, even losing it for a while in 2019. She was more consistent in 2022, but still shocked the tour by grabbing an unexpected win at the WEMIX Championship. The event turned into a free-for-all, with close to a dozen players having a chance to win on Sunday. Amazingly, it was the unheralded You who made the crucial plays for the victory. It was her only top ten of the season, her next best finish a tie for 12th. This would not suggest that she has a great career ahead of her, but she has surprised before and might do it again.
Big returnees
A couple of very popular players who had lost their cards will be returning to the KLPGA in 2023. Se Hee Lee had barely lost her tour card in 2021 when she finished 71st on the money list.
She played on the Dream Tour in 2022 but returned to the KLPGA via their Q-School. She gets good TV exposure in SBS golf programming, making her fairly popular despite her limited success. We can expect her to focus primarily on maintaining membership on tour, so it’s unlikely she will challenge the big girls for tour supremacy.
So Hyeon Ahn is one of the big bombshells in Korea golf.
She has spent several years in the wilderness after briefly belonging to the tour a few years ago, but she earned her card back at Q-School and will be a full member in 2023. Like Lee, it’s unlikely she will do more than just maintain her card, but it’s guaranteed that the cameras will be on her whenever she’s in the field.
Stars who were MIA last year
Da Yeon Lee has often been a top ten golfer in her career, but she struggled with injuries in 2022 and missed much of the year.
She still has not been sighted in 2023, so it’s possible she is not yet over her issues. Whenever she does return, she is bound to be a star again.
Ha Na Jang is a five-time LPGA winner who returned full time to the KLPGA several years ago.
She has done quite well since returning, but last year she had surprisingly bad results. She doesn’t seem to have been injured, as she played all season; she just didn’t play up to her usual standards. She only finished 80th on the money list and didn’t come close to winning. Is this a temporary slump or the sign of something more long-lasting?
Ju Young Park, the younger sister of LPGA star Hee Young Park., missed most of 2022 due to maternity leave.
But she’ll be back in 2023. She is best known for her famous sister and her wacky fashion sense. She hasn’t yet won on the KLPGA, but she has come close often enough that it seems like just a matter of time before she breaks through.
The Teenage stars
The 2022 Rookie class was full of great young players. Ye Been Sohn and Uhjin Seo came into the year with strong amateur records, but both just missed hanging on to their cards and had to go back to Q-School in the Fall.
They both got their cards back for 2023, and Seo has already managed a third place finish in one of the first two events of the year (back in December), so she is off to a great start in her sophomore year.
Jeongmin Moon, as mentioned before, certainly made an impression with her long hitting in 2022. But she was not able to keep her card nor earn it back at Q-School.
The biggest name in the rookie class was also one of the youngest. 19-year-old Yewon Lee had a fantastic season.
She was not able to win, although she came as close as you humanly can to winning without doing it. She was 1 up with two holes to play in the finals at the Match Play, but lost the final two holes to lose the match. She also finished runner up in back-to-back weeks, both times to Su Ji Kim, and once by just a single shot. In all, she had three seconds, three thirds, a fourth and four fifths, earning 850 million won, third on the money list. For context, that’s the most money a player EVER has earned on tour in a season without a win. She also had the highest rookie point total in history, becoming the first to break 3000 points. If there’s one player on this list who has a great chance to elevate herself to superstar status in 2023, it’s probably Ye Won Lee.
The other teen star is alas not allowed to play on tour in 2023, despite winning in 2022. Ina Yoon was the only rookie who won last year, but she confessed to cheating at another event and was banned from the tour for three years.
Lately, there have been several articles in the Korean press talking about a growing number of people clambering for her return, feeling that the KLPGA was way too harsh in their punishment. At this point it’s still an underground rumble, but the fact that she has made no known moves towards playing anywhere else lends credence to the idea that she might be working to get back to the KLPGA soon. Stay tuned. If Yoon, with her incredible long driving prowess (she makes Jeongmin Moon look like a plinker) returns to action, it could be a huge boon for the tour.
The Rookies to Watch
The 2023 rookie class looks as promising as 2022’s did. The big name seems to be You Min Hwang.
The teen has been getting ample chances to show what she can do. For instance, she was the only amateur chosen last year to participate in the event that paired KLPGA stars with legends. She came close to winning a KLPGA event last year, finishing second to Min Ji Park. More recently, she played in a special event a few weeks ago that sent teams based on their main sponsor to compete in a stroke play event. Despite the fact that their team had only two players, and thus they had to play every round, Hwang’s team won the trophy. And Hwang basically carried that team, which also included multiple tour winner So Young Lee. Hwang has a complete game, is long off the tee, and is not lacking for confidence. She seems to have ‘superstar’ written all over her, and its only a matter of time before she proves it.
Don’t sleep on teen Min Byeol Kim, however.
Kim won KLPGA Q-School last year, having just turned pro the previous month. She is known for her iron play and being a “cool customer” on course. Born in January, 2004, she is about a year younger than Yewon Lee.
Two of the top Dream tour stars from 2022 are also often mentioned as future stars. Ga Bin Choi finished third on the 2022 Dream Tour. She won three times last year on that tour.
Seo Yoon Kim 2 was the top player on the 2022 Dream Tour. She is 20 years old and also won three times.
Lastly, Min Sun Kim 7 has already played a few events on the KLPGA and stood out.
At 177 cm tall (about 5’10”) she is one of the tallest players on tour. She also is the first player to get the number ‘7’ appended to her name, meaning there are that many players with the same name as she has. There is also a Ji Hyun Lee 7 in the rookie class, so it will be fun to see which of the ‘sevens’ ends up being the better player.
We will start to get the answers to all the above questions and more as the KLPGA gets going this week. Another great season seems assured!