Shot of the Year
And the Winner is: In Gee Chun hits two aces in two Majors
You could make an argument that 2023 was In Gee Chun’s weakest year since joining the LPGA. She only managed one top ten all year, and her world ranking fell from near the top ten to outside the top 30 during the season.
But she did have two major highlights that somehow seem fitting for the famously charitable golfer. At the year’s first Major, the Chevron Championship, In Gee made a hole-in-one on the 17th hole during round 3. That in itself is a special memory, but what made it better is that Chevron promised to donate one million dollars to charity if anyone made an ace during the week. So, thanks to In Gee’s brilliance, a lot of people benefited.
Even more amazingly, In Gee did it AGAIN at the year’s third Major, the US Women’s Open. She aced the par 3 5th hole in the final round, then walked all the way down the hole, high fiving fans all the way. Has anyone ever had aces in two Majors in the same calendar year?
The crazy thing is, she nearly did it again at the KPMG, with the ball running over the hole and stopping slightly past. But two aces in two Majors is more than enough!
Other nominees: Jin Young Ko gets into playoff, Founders Cup
Jin Young drained an 18-foot birdie try on the final hole to force a playoff with Minjee Lee.
Amy Yang hole out, CME Group Tour Championship
Amy Yang had a pretty successful 2023 season, putting herself into contention several times. But wins eluded her until the final event of the LPGA season, the CME Group Tour Championship. She found herself in a battle for the lead with Nasa Hataoka all day. When she reached the 13th hole, she was one shot behind, but hit a brilliant pitch from the fairway that landed two feet past the hole and snapped back into the cup. This pole-vaulted her into the lead, and she went on from there to secure the title.
Round of the Year
And the winner is: Hae Ran Ryu, final round, NW Arkansas Championship
Hae Ran Ryu was a rookie on the LPGA in 2023. She had already been a star on the KLPGA, and proved she was a player to watch by earning her LPGA tour card by winning Q-Series in late 2022. But though she led the Rookie of the Year race much of the year, she had not yet won on tour when she reached the Northwest Arkansas Championship at the end of September, while several other rookies, notably Grace Kim and Rose Zhang, already had.
Hae Ran put herself into the lead through the first two rounds and was perfectly positioned to finally get that maiden win. She later would tell the press that she had been too tentative when in this position earlier in the year, and that she was determined to play aggressively on Sunday, win or lose. She struggled a little on the front nine, but hung in there, and after she made birdie on ten, she executed one strong, focused shot after another. The best came on the par 5 14th, one of the best played holes of the year. She pulverized her drive, then hit an approach with a shortish iron to just a few feet for a virtual tap-in eagle. Not long after that, she collected her first win.
Before her final round, she discovered when she saw a photo in the clubhouse that Seon Hwa Lee had won the very first edition of this event back in 2008. Ryu knows the Stone Buddha (as Lee was known) and texted her, saying she saw the photo. Lee replied that now it was Ryu’s turn to carry on the tradition and get the win. Seon Hwa’s inspiring words led to that very result!
Most Controversial Moment
And the winner is: The continuing story of Ina Yoon
Last year, one of the biggest new stars on the KLPGA was teen rookie sensation Ina Yoon. She won an event in July and seemed on her way to superstardom when she revealed that she had played the wrong ball at an event a month earlier and not told anyone about it. She immediately removed herself from the tour for the rest of the season while she awaited punishment from both the KLPGA and the KGA (the latter had a say because the infraction took place at the Korean Women’s Open, which the KGA runs). Both bodies suspended her from all events they were involved with for three years, a potentially career-ending punishment and much harsher than she deserved for her crime.
After receiving the punishment in September, 2022, Yoon virtually disappeared from sight. She did have a fan meeting in December, and a few photos of that were published, but then she completely disappeared from the press and social media.
Apparently, she was offered opportunities to play on other major women’s tours as sponsors invites but turned all of them down to show her sincere desire to rehabilitate and rejoin the KLPGA. She did, however, go to Winter training early in 2023, and then resurfaced in the most unexpected place imaginable. She moved to Florida and played on a mini golf tour called, literally, the Minor League Golf Tour. This is a men’s tour, and she was the only woman, playing from different tees. She played a number of events there, almost always finishing in the top five, including several runner up finishes. But she was not able to get a win in her brief time there. She donated what little money she made to charity. Even the Korean press did not seem to be aware of what she was doing.
In August, Ina returned to Korea and quietly petitioned the KGA for a reduction of her penalty. She submitted a massive number of fan petitions, over 5000, to bolster her case, and told them about her charity contributions on the minor league tour. In late September, the KGA announced that they would halve her punishment to 1 and a half years, meaning she would be able to play the Korea Women’s Open in 2024 and 2025. The announcement generated the most positive media coverage she had gotten in a while; several articles opined that it was time to reduce her sentence, and even Se Ri Pak said that Yoon had served her time and should now return to golf to entertain the fans.
But one big obstacle remained: the KLPGA. She next requested a review of her situation from the tour, submitting even more petitions to them.
But months went by and the KLPGA said nothing. Finally, they said that they would announce their decision on the 14th of December. But on that day, the KLPGA board was not able to come to a decision and delayed the decision another month. So what exactly is the problem? Why have they not been able to follow the lead of the KGA and give her a break? Why is this not a no brainer to let her off at this point?
According to a recent article, there is still a sizable number of fans who don’t want Ina to return. Even more surprising, according to the article, there was an “informal” poll of 70 KLPGA players around the time the KGA reduced her sentence, asking them if Ina should be allowed back, and NOT A SINGLE ONE said she should come back.
I don’t find either of these reservations compelling. For one, we don’t know what the poll really asked or how hardcore the resistance of the players is. There is no doubt that whenever Ina comes back she is going to face challenges from other players and fans. But did the poll indicate 100% intractable resistance to her return, or was it more of a lightweight leaning towards her not returning yet but nothing they couldn’t be talked out of? The same could be asked about the fan resistance such as it is. And of course, the biggest question: if she is punished the full three years, will that make any difference to these attitudes? In other words, will the same fans or players still not want her back even after that? Why is an additional year and a half going to make any difference?
Hopefully the KLPGA will do the right thing and reduce her sentence when they get back together in January. And if they don’t, hopefully Ina will finally realize that waiting for the KLPGA to let her back is a waste of time and she will move on with the next chapter in her life and play on some other tour.
[UPDATE]: On Monday, January 8th, the KLPGA announced that they would reduce Ina Yoon’s penalty from 3 years to 1 and a half years. She will be able to return to action in April, 2024, which means she will be able to play the entire domestic KLPGA season (she will be blocked from playing two earlier events outside of Korea). Fantastic news for the young player!
Other nominees: Yu Jin Sung wins the S-OIL Championship
The S-OIL Championship took place in early November on the KLPGA. Yu Jin Sung grabbed a one-shot lead after the first round and fell a shot back after round 2. In the third round, she fell into a battle with Jae Hee Kim for the lead. Kim had never won an event before and looked like she would go into the final round with at least a share of the lead, but then Yu Jin holed out for eagle and grabbed a one-shot lead herself.
On Sunday, the weather turned nasty. Sung plummeted down the leaderboard and out of contention. Jae Hee Kim, meanwhile, hung tenuously onto the lead, trying to convert her first victory. But then there was a rain delay. They resumed but had another delay. Finally, the KLPGA decided to cancel the final round. Since Sung had had the lead after the third round (largely thanks to a lucky hole out), she was awarded the win, even though she had been nowhere near the top of the leaderboard on Sunday since the first hole. Kim had to settle for second.
Even Yu Jin Sung felt a little embarrassed by how things had turned out, while Jae Hee Kim received well over 500 comments on her Instagram telling her to keep her chin up. The results started a conversation about possibly a fairer way to settle a tournament result if the final round cannot be completed, especially if most of the action had been finished. One suggestion was to determine the score at the highest hole that all the players in the field had finished. It’s doubtful that there will be any changes, but this result surely showed that sometimes a winner doesn’t seem to have earned the win as much as other times.
Biggest Diss
And the winner is: Korean US Women’s Open qualifier discontinued
This year, the USGA decided to discontinue their Korea-based US Women’s Open qualifier. They still have a specific qualifier for Japanese players in Japan, but they will no longer have one in Korea. The reason was that they felt that not enough top Korean players were playing the event.
Examining the qualifiers for the 2022 event shows that this is not exactly true. All four qualifiers were amateurs, but two of them were two of the top amateurs in Korea: Min Sol Kim and Youmin Hwang (who has since turned pro). Meanwhile, the Japanese players who made it through their qualifier did not contain a single player of note. It’s frankly hard to understand why the USGA made this move.
This follows a move by the LPGA which has removed KLPGA golfers from participating in the BMW Championship. Of course, the JLPGA still has full participation in their LPGA sponsored event, the Toto Japan Classic, and this year at that event JLPGA golfers were all over the leaderboard, with one of them winning and earning tour membership for 2024. With KLPGA players no longer allowed to play their LPGA event, one of the routes to KLPGA stars getting LPGA cards has been removed. It also reduces the excitement of the event and robs the KLPGA players of a great chance to test themselves against top talent.
Hopefully the USGA and LPGA will reverse course and put the Koreans back in these tournaments.
Happiest News
Weddings and Kids!
Several big stars have gotten married recently. Both Lydia Ko and Ji Hyun Oh tied the knot at the end of 2022, while Ran Hong got married earlier this year. In January, Ji Hyun Oh went with her husband, Si Woo Kim, to a PGA event in Hawaii just a few weeks after their wedding, and Kim won! He credited having Ji Hyun there with helping him to focus on the task at hand.
A few months later, the happy couple attended the Masters and Ji Hyun was allowed to hit a tee shot on one of the par 3s. Impressively, she got her tee shot closer to the hole than Kim did. Not so surprising considering her talent, but for those who didn’t know she was a 7-time KLPGA winner, her great swing became a twitter sensation.
The news kept getting better for the happy couple! Si Woo Kim earned a full exemption from military service by leading the Korean men’s team to the gold medal at the Asian Games. Around that same time, Ji Hyun announced that she’s expecting her first child. Big congrats to them!
Several other stars have had children recently, including Inbee Park, Ju Young Park and Hee Young Park. Ju Young returned to the KLPGA tour and even got her first career win! She is only the fourth mother in KLPGA history to get a win.
Goodbyes for now
There were also a few retirements this year. The most notable was Bo Mee Lee’s. Bo Mee had a great KLPGA record which included a Player of the Year in 2010, but her career really took off when she moved to Japan. For two years she was the top player on the JLPGA, setting the record in 2015 for most money ever earned in a season on that tour. Her money total even broke the record for the men’s tour in Japan. Her fame in Japan was greater than just golf; for a while she appeared on game shows, variety shows and even had a travel show (!). I recall a cartoon featuring her as well. Marrying into K-Drama royalty didn’t hurt her popularity; her husband is the younger brother of superstar Kim Tae Hee and is himself an actor of some fame.
Her game has not been as strong in the last few years, although she did team with So Yeon Ryu to win the team event at last year’s Simone Cup. It was time for her to wrap it up, but you can bet we will be seeing her still involved with the game for many years to come.
Chae Young Yoon, another KLPGA star who played for a time in Japan, also retired. She earned the nickname ‘8 head’ in Japan owing to her tall lean body, which was as tall as 8 heads stack on top of each other. Yeah, it’s weird.
Si Won Kim, who originally went by the name Min Sun Kim 5, also announced her retirement. She played on the KLPGA tour since 2014, winning multiple times along the way.
SeoulSisters 
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