Best Amateur
And the winner is: Min Sol Kim
16-year-old Min Sol Kim has had a fantastic year in golf. Already one of the best amateurs in the world, she finished the year ranked third in the world in amateur women’s golf, the highest of anyone in Asia.
Min Sol’s great year started at the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific Championship in March. The event featured some of the best female amateur golfers from Asia and the Pacific Rim. Kim immediately made an impact, taking the lead in the second round. Alas, she struggled in round 3, but still managed a solo second behind Thai teen star Eila Galitsky.
A few months later, she contended at the Korea Women’s Open, finishing tied for 4th, three out of the lead. She also notched a t-9th finish at the Doosan E&C We’ve Championship and a tie for 5th at the OK Financial Group Open.
She continued to excel in amateur tournaments as well. She led the Korean team – including Kyo Rim Seo and Hyun Jo Yoo – to a 5-shot victory at the Queen Sirikit Cup in May. This is a team event that pits teams of three golfers from different Asian and Pacific Rim countries against one another. She also was on the Asian Games team, and though they were the only team in the top five with no professionals, they won a silver medal there.
In late October, Min Sol Kim, Kyo Rim Seo and Hyo Song Lee were the Korean team at the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship aka the Espirito Santo Cup, a biennial event much like the Queen Sirikit Cup, except that it features teams from countries all over the world, not just Asia. Korea had won this event four times in the past, but their last win came in 2016, when the team included future KLPGA stars Hye Jin Choi, Hyun Kyung Park and Min Ji Park. This year’s Korean amateur squad came out on top again, shooting a 22 under par total to win the gold by four shots over Taiwan. Kim’s final round 68 and Seo’s 71 made the difference, while in the previous round it had been Lee who had led the team with a 67. This was also the fourth win for Korea in the past seven editions of this event.
Min Sol ended the year by teaming with Lee at the Simone Cup. Despite being the youngest team in the event and facing mostly pros, their team finished tied for second behind the Thai team that included world #9 Atthaya Thitikul. Kim also finished tied for 4th (with her teammate Lee among others) in the individual competition; she made a birdie on the final hole to rise to that level.
I eagerly await having Kim play a few events over here to see what she can do against the top amateurs in the West.
Other nominees: Hyo Song Lee
As mentioned above, 15-year-old Hyo Song Lee has really come on strong in the past two years. She won the 2022 Korea Women’s Amateur, then repeated as the champion this year in dominating fashion (see ‘Most Dominating Performance’ for more details). She teamed with Min Sol Kim to win the Espirito Santo trophy (aka the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship) and the runner-up in the team competition at the Simone Cup (and tied for 4th in the individual standings, beating several players who play full time on the LPGA in the process). She also played in a few KLPGA events this year, though she didn’t shine in those like Min Sol Kim did.
In fact, although her world ranking is below Kim’s, she is now considered the top Korean amateur. It will be interesting to see if the girl whose nickname is ‘The Second Inbee Park’ (talk about pressure!) will make a major international splash in 2024.
Best Hot Streak
And the winner is: Jin Seon Han, Hi-One Resort Women’s Open
Going into the final round at this year’s Hi-One Resort Women’s Open on the KLPGA, Jin Seon Han was in contention, one shot back. But she had a ridiculous final round that allowed her to blow out the field by six shots. She had TWO hole outs for eagle, and at least one very lengthy birdie before the second hole out. This resulted in the best score of the day, a 65, and her only win of the year.
Rookie to Watch in 2024
And the winner is: So Mi Lee
Before I get into the rookies to watch in 2024, a brief review of which rookies I predicted would make noise in 2023. I said:
“On the KLPGA, the names I’ve heard most about are You Min Hwang and Min Byeol Kim.“ Well, good prediction there, since those two finished second and first respectively in the KLPGA Rookie of the Year race.
I then added:
“But without question, the rookie to watch in 2023 will be Hae Ran Ryu. Her longtime goal has always been to get to the LPGA, and she has the talent to be a big star, something the LPGA Koreans definitely need. “
Another good call! Hae Ran won the Rookie of the Year award with one win during the season and most definitely established herself as a top up and coming star on the LPGA. As mentioned before, she led the league in overall long game (combining her accuracy and distance off the tee).
This year, there were four KLPGA stars who earned LPGA cards at Q-Series, three of them earning full status and one (Jung Min Hong) conditional status. All four players have won on the KLPGA tour before and have the potential to be breakout stars on the LPGA. The one who has had the most success playing overseas coming into the season has been So Mi Lee, who has contended a few times on the LPGA, and she very nearly won Q-Series, finishing tied for second, so I’ll call her out as the rookie to watch in 2024.
Lee has apparently spent the last year preparing for this move, so it’s no wonder she did so well at Q-School. In interviews, she has talked about how hard she is working to prepare every facet of her game for this challenge. She is a five-time winner on the KLPGA and usually features in the top ten on the money list. She has played a few LPGA Majors, and though she missed the cut at the Evian this year, she finished tied for 33rd at Pebble Beach and made the cut at the 2022 US Women’s Open as well. She has also contended internationally, finishing fifth at the 2022 Lotte Championship in Hawaii and t-4th at the 2019 BMW Championship when still a rookie.
Lee is an easy going, borderline goofy personality who I think will be able to handle the transition well. Given her talent, achievements, and motivation I expect her to challenge for and possibly win the Rookie of the Year in 2024.
Other nominees: Hyun Jo Yoo
Among the rookies joining the KLPGA in 2024, one name seems to stand out: Hyun Jo Yoo. Note that this is not the same golfer as glamour girl Hyun Ju Yoo, who has a very similar name. Hyun Jo Yoo is a teenager who excelled in the amateur game and is notorious for extreme length off the tee. Apparently, she was one of the few to challenge Ina Yoon for driving distance when she played an event back when Yoon was still on tour. The media is writing a lot of articles about her in Korea and seem to have picked her as the rookie to watch in 2024. I’m still not sure exactly how good she is; she hasn’t had a lot of great performances on the KLPGA so far. But the potential is certainly there.
Jin Hee Im
Jin Hee Im has gotten better and better the last three years. In 2023, she won more events (four) than anyone else on the KLPGA tour, including Player of the Year Yewon Lee, who won three. She is decently long and explosive and seems to be peaking. My main doubts about her is that she still hasn’t played that many times overseas. Her lone international event this season was an LET event in Saudi Arabia, and she only finished tied for 53rd there. She also didn’t have a convincing Q-Series, finishing tied for 17th to gain one of the final full cards.
On the other hand, she has six career wins, one more than So Mi Lee, and is higher ranked in the world, currently 40th. And she has shown that she can win if she gets into position. So, I expect she will become a star, although perhaps not the top rookie star for the Sisters.
Yu Jin Sung
Yu Jin Sung has come the closest of the four KLPGA women at Q Series to winning an LPGA event. At this year’s Lotte Championship, she got into a playoff, but lost to Korean-Australian rookie Grace Kim. But she hasn’t had any other notable performances in her few overseas excursions, although she did outplay Im at the Saudi event, finishing tied for 35th.
Sung is surprisingly long off the tee and has three career wins on the KLPGA tour. She is perhaps the biggest question mark of the three top Korean rookies. She has the least overall KLPGA experience and least overseas experience. But she knows how to win – one of her victories came at the Match play event, a notoriously hard tournament to win. I expect her to have a good year in 2024.
It’s About Time Award
And the winner is: Amy Yang wins in the US
Amy Yang has been a top player on the LPGA most of her 16-year career. She had four career wins coming into 2023, and though, at 34, it looked like her best years were behind her, she had a surprisingly strong year, contending several times in 2023 without winning. But Amy had one unusual quirk about her record: all her LPGA wins had come in Asia. She won the LPGA’s Korean event once and their Thai event three times but had never won LPGA events in the US or Europe despite repeated close calls.
Amy put herself into contention at the year’s final event, the CME Tour Group Championship. On days two and three she went very low on this easy course and was tied for the lead entering the final day. She revealed to the press that she was coming back from a rock-climbing injury but felt like she was healthy enough to contend for the win. But Amy had had a notorious record of underperforming in final rounds and here she was not only looking for her first American win but also the largest first prize money ($2 million) in tour history.
It was a close battle with Japanese star Nasa Hataoka, who had also come close to winning this event in the past without getting the job done. Hataoka had a one-shot lead when Amy holed out for eagle on the 13th hole to leapfrog into the lead. On the 17th hole, she nearly holed out for eagle again. Meanwhile, Hataoka missed two nervous short putts. Suddenly the win was in Yang’s grasp, and she put it away with a brilliant approach on 18 and final birdie to card a 27 under total, the lowest in the history of the event. At last, after being on tour since 2008, Amy Yang had a win in the States!
It was a popular win. When she talked to Golf Channel that night, a group of about twenty fans stood behind the interview desk and cheered loudly and chanted her name while Amy spoke. I have never seen anything like it. And at 34 years old, she was not only the oldest winner on the LPGA in 2023, she also became the second oldest Korean to ever win, behind only Eun Hee Ji.
She has talked about winning a Major at last; no one has come closer more often without getting one. Who knows, with the way she’s playing, it might happen!
Other nominees: Yeon Jung Seo and Ju Young Park get first career wins
A weird coincidence happened on the KLPGA in 2023: two longtime players both got their first career wins after more than ten years on tour, both within a few weeks of each other, and both broke the all-time record for longest wait for the first win.
First came the KG Ladies Open at the beginning of September. Yeon Jung Seo, a journeyman player with ten+ years on tour, found herself with a tenuous lead after the second round. She played a strong final round and got into a playoff with another player looking for her first win, Seung Hui Ro. But Ro struggled in the playoff and Seo claimed the win with a par. She became the player who had the longest wait for her first win in league history: 259 events before the breakthrough. But she wouldn’t hold that record long.
At the end of the month came the Daebo HausD Open. Ju Young Park, the younger sister of LPGA player Hee Young Park, had been on the KLPGA on and off since 2008 but had never won. She got married and took time off to have her first child, and in 2023 was trying to get her game back on track. In the second round she grabbed a two-shot lead. But she had a surprisingly easy time in the final round, with no one really getting close, and claimed her maiden victory by four shots. She had to wait 279 events to get her first win, breaking Seo’s month-old record.
She had always said that she would retire after getting her first win, but needless to say, she intends to keep playing now that she has tasted victory. Her big sis couldn’t have been prouder and played a few KLPGA events with her after the win.
SeoulSisters 
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