This week the KLPGA will start its 2024 season in Korea after having played two events outside of the country. So that means it’s time once again for our annual KLPGA Primer, where we look at the upcoming season and what to expect.
This year the story seems to be about youth and power. Three young players created one of the most scintillating rookie rivalries in ages last year, and they will be back to challenge for the league’s top spot. The player who dominated last year will be there to meet them. And we will see the return of one of the most powerful players in league history, at last freed from a crippling suspension due to a rules violation. And that’s on top of potential brilliance from a new crop of rookies and several amateur stars who threaten to win professional events in 2024.
Without further ado, let’s get started!
Those who have left:
This year, a larger than normal contingent of players left the KLPGA to challenge overseas. So Mi Lee, Yu Jin Sung and Jin Hee Im, all multiple winners on the KLPGA, are going to the LPGA, while Ga Eun Song and Shin Ae Ahn are trying their luck in Japan.
So Mi Lee
So Mi Lee is a five-time KLPGA winner who has played well in several events in the past on the LPGA. She finished second at LPGA Q-Series, further giving rise to hopes she can challenge for the Rookie of the Year. As of now, she is 66th in the world rankings. So far, her results on the LPGA in 2024 have been mixed. She finished 16th at the Drive On Championship, but finished way back at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship, missing the cut by a mile. And those are the only two LPGA events she has been able to play so far, although she also had a tie for 7th finish at an LET event in Saudi Arabia in February.
Yu Jin Sung
Yu Jin Sung finished tied for 7th at the 2023 Q-Series to earn her tour card. She has come the closest of the three rookies to winning on the LPGA, having lost in a playoff last year at the Lotte Championship in Hawaii. She had a good season on the KLPGA in 2023; she won the Doosan Match Play early in the year and the S-OIL late, ending up 10th on the money list. So far in 2024, she has played two LPGA events, finishing 21st and 35th, and also finished 35th in Saudi Arabia. Not a bad start to her LPGA career.
Jin Hee Im
Jin Hee Im was the biggest of the Korean stars who won a card in 2023. She finished second on the KLPGA money list last year, winning four times and earning over a billion won for the year. But she only barely earned a full tour card at Q-Series, finishing t-17th. She missed the cut in the Saudi Arabia LET event and at her first LPGA event, but did much better at the Seri Pak championship, finishing tied for 27th. She is currently 46 in the world rankings, the best of the three rookies.
It was surprising to see three stars join the LPGA, but the two who went to Japan were even more surprising. 2021 KLPGA Rookie of the Year Ga Eun Song was one of them. She won JLPGA Q-School to earn a card to play there but has said she intends to play both tours in 2024. So far, she has done better in Japan, notching her first top ten last week, while she has somewhat struggled in her first two events on the KLPGA this year. In 2023, she finished 50th on the money list with five top ten finishes.
Perhaps the most surprising player to move to Japan is Shin Ae Ahn. Ahn has been virtually retired the past four years, only rarely playing, but she decided to go to JLPGA Q-School last year and amazingly earned a card. Even more impressively, she has already achieved a top ten in 2024. It will be fun to see if she can keep playing well as the year progresses.
The Big Star: Yewon Lee
The player who dominated the KLPGA in 2023 was second-year player Yewon Lee. She had come into the season having won the KLPGA Rookie of the Year in 2022 but no events. She changed that quickly, capturing her first win in the very first event she played in Korea in 2023. She followed that up with two more wins including her first Major at the Hite Cup and earned close to 1.5 billion won for the year, one of the biggest season totals in history. She also won the Player of the Year and led the league in scoring.
There is no doubt that the 21-year-old Lee is the person to beat this year on tour, and as if to prove it, she won the KLPGA’s second event this year, the Blue Canyon Ladies Championship in Thailand, which is also the most recent official event played. She is also the highest ranked player on the KLPGA, 31st in the world, which makes her the fifth highest ranked Korean overall.
Lee can basically do it all. She has the best short game on tour, has a great mind, is an excellent putter, and is great tee-to-green. About the only thing she doesn’t have going for her is length off the tee; she’s a little over average in the league in that statistic. She has said she is very interested in playing Majors on the LPGA this year to test her game, so it’s possible that being distracted by that might make her easier to challenge for full-time KLPGAers. But without question, anyone challenging her for any top prizes will have to bring their A-Game.
The Powerpuff Girls: Min Byeol Kim, Youmin Hwang, Shin Sil Bang
Other than Lee, the most electrifying story on the KLPGA in 2023 was the emergence of three young, super talented, long hitting teens in the rookie class. Their names are Min Byeol Kim, Youmin Hwang and Shin Sil Bang. They duked it out for top honors all year, and all three promise to be among the best in the league in 2024.
Min Byeol Kim: Min Star, the cool collected athlete
After a ferocious battle for top Rookie honors, it was Min Byeol Kim who emerged as the Rookie of the Year. Interestingly, she was the only one of the three players who did not manage a win in 2023, so she will most definitely be looking to rectify that quickly in 2024. Kim, who turned 20 in January, is a long hitter with an excellent all-around game. But her biggest strength is between her ears; everyone is impressed by how she refuses to get ruffled no matter how much pressure she is under. She had three runner-up finishes in 2023, including at the Korea Women’s Open, but her most important one came at the hands of her arch-rival Hwang, who beat her in a playoff. Kim’s consistency earned her 745 million won in 2023, 6th on the money list, with 12 total top tens; both of those were the most of the three. She is currently 52nd in the world rankings.
She ended last year by teaming with Hwang at the Simone Cup, an event featuring teams of two players from the same country battling it out with teams from other countries. Kim and Hwang finished tied for 2nd in the team event, with Kim finishing solo third individually.
That was great, but so far in 2024 she has started slowly. She was tied for 27th and tied for 47th in her two starts, plus a tie for 23rd in Saudi Arabia. But with her talent and athletic prowess it should only be a matter of time before she gets back in the hunt for trophies again. Look for her to be one of the top players in 2024.
Youmin Hwang: The Assault Leader
Last year, Youmin Hwang was the second longest hitter on the KLPGA tour. She can flat out bomb it. This is all the more amazing in that she is a relatively slight player for a long hitter. Her aggressive play has earned her the nickname ‘Assault Leader’ and made her one of the most popular players on tour. In fact, she finished second in fan voting last year for the Most Popular award.
Hwang is slightly older than Kim and generally finished slightly behind Kim in most of the stats last year. For instance, she earned 655 million won last year and finished 11th on the money list, both behind Kim. But she also had the win over Kim in a playoff, which was her only win so far of her career. She finished second in the Rookie race and will doubtless be a star going forward.
We already mentioned her success at the Simone Cup with Kim; she also finished tied for 8th in the individual standings. But she has done better than Kim so far in 2024. She finished tied for 12th and tied for 4th in the two events she played. She also teamed with So Young Lee to win an unofficial team event last week while representing her sponsor Lotte. They had won this same event last year. So she is coming into the year on a high.
Hwang has said that she intends to go to LPGA Q-Series at the end of the year. She also hopes to play occasionally in Majors and other LPGA events when she can. She is currently ranked 62nd in the world, so if she can keep her ranking up, she should qualify to play a few big events later this year.
Shin Sil Bang: The Biggest Bomber of them All
The only player who was a longer hitter than Youmin Hwang last year was her fellow rookie Shin Sil Bang, who compiled one of the longest driving averages in tour history. Bang is younger than either Kim or Hwang and started 2023 without full status on tour, but she won in May to grab a full card and went on to have a sensational season. She garnered two wins, including one where she outlasted Hwang, and earned nine total top tens. She finished 9th on the money list, earning 694 million won.
Bang has already gotten out to a great start in 2024. She barely lost the Singapore Open by a shot, and led much of the week at the Blue Bay Championship before a couple of big mistakes caused her to slip to a tie for 4th. She is currently 3rd on the money list and has risen to 36th in the world rankings, higher than her two rivals.
Bang’s extraordinary length has made her a big fan favorite on the KLPGA. Like Hwang, she has talked about possibly going to LPGA Q-Series in the Fall. But given how well she has played already in 2024, she will probably be challenging for all the top prizes on the KLPGA first.
The Return of Ina Yoon
Adding a great element of intrigue this year is the return of a player who quite possibly is the only one who can outhit even the vaunted Bang. We say ‘possibly’, because they have not competed against one another on the KLPGA yet: Ina has not played on the KLPGA since July, 2022, before Bang was on tour.
Back then, Yoon was on her way to becoming a phenomenon, duking it out with Yewon Lee for the Rookie of the Year. She was so ridiculously long off the tee that she was frequently giving herself only the shortest of wedges in as second shots; and even when she hit a drive offline into the forest, she was able to carve her way out and get to the green. She had the best Greens in Regulation average that year, largely thanks to her length.
But in July, Ina revealed that she had cheated by playing a wrong ball at one tournament and not reporting in time, and the KLPGA responded by suspending her for three years. She was forced to go to America to hone her game by playing in a minor league MEN’S tour; and she often finished in the top five there.
Finally, after months of discussions with the tour, they agreed to reduce her sentence to 1 and a half years. Her penalty officially ended March 20th, too late to play in the previous KLPGA events, but just in time for the domestic opener this year. She has said she intends to play, and the hype machine is going into overdrive. How close to her best will she be? Will she require a lot of time to get back to form? How will the fans and other players treat her? And most of all, who is longer, Yoon or Bang?
We have a few indications of her current readiness. She played at the Vic Open in February, where she finished tied for 11th. A couple of weeks ago, she played in a special team event teaming pros who had attended the same college. Pairing with rookie Hyun Jo Yoo, she won the team prize and finished second in the individual standings. So she does seem to be at least somewhat ready to give us a thrill. If she can be anywhere close to where she was when she was banned in 2022, this most mysterious of X-Factors could set the tour on fire.
The Swing Girls: Hyun Kyung Park, Hee Jeong Lim, Ga Young Lee, Ayean Cho
The four remaining great stars from the rookie class of 2019 (So Mi Lee, the fifth, has moved on to the LPGA) are among the most popular and exciting players on tour. They were a little overshadowed last year by Yewon Lee and the Powerpuff Girls, but make no mistake, they will get among the biggest galleries in 2024, and several of them are capable of challenging for top prizes on tour.
Hyun Kyung Park: Cutieful Reigns
Hyun Kyung Park has the nickname Cutieful and is hands down the most popular player on tour; the fans made that official by choosing her Most Popular through fan voting last year. Park is also one of the two or three best putters on tour, which means she is always a threat to win. But she went a long time over the past few years without getting a win. Indeed, she had nine second place finishes before she finally got her latest win at last year’s penultimate event, the SK Networks Classic. Besides the win, she had three runner up finishes, a third and eleven total top tens. She was 5th on the money list with 860 million won earned. Simply put, Hyun Kyung contends a lot, and is always capable of rising to be the top star on tour.
Hee Jeong Lim: the Desert Fox on the Road to Recovery
Once upon a time, Hee Jeong Lim, whose nickname Fennec is a kind of desert fox, was the best of the Swing Girls. One of the most popular too: she actually beat Cutieful in the fan voting for Most Popular two years running before Hyun Kyung finally beat her last year. But a car accident in 2022 has affected her consistency, and she has slowly been trying to recover and get back to her best.
In 2023, she was only 28th on the money list, just 383 million won earned. She had 7 top tens but no wins and just one second. She has all the talent, but can she get back to the upper reaches of the tour? She hasn’t had a top 20 in her first two starts in 2024. It feels like this will be another tough year for her, but as she puts the accident further in the past, she should eventually get back to being a big star.
Ga Young Lee: Stableford Star
Ga Young Lee does not win very often (in fact just once, at an event featuring Stableford scoring), but she still usually finishes well on the money list and contends a lot. Last year, she had two runner-up finishes and a third, and made 443 million won, 20th on the money list. She will be on leaderboards again in 2024 to be sure, and perhaps will increase her win count.
Ayean Cho: Iron Cho
Ayean Cho has won multiple times over the years, but last year was a real struggle for her. She was suffering an unknown malady that sucked a lot of the strength out of her. As a result, her driving distance plunged to worst in the league, barely over 215 yards. She earned just 140 million won, 67th on the money list. There are some signs that she has gotten past this issue, however. Although she hasn’t had a great result yet in 2024, she has had some great rounds, and has already notched a top 20. Cho has a very funny and extroverted style of playing and has many fans. If she can return to her best, she could easily return to being among the top stars on tour.
Other top stars:
Min Ji Park
Before Yewon Lee, there was Min Ji Park. In 2021 and 2022, Park dominated the KLPGA, winning six times each year, setting the biggest money totals for a season both years and getting Player of the Year as well. She was a little off her game in 2023, however, although she still had a solid year. She won twice, earning 651 million won and finishing 12th on the money list.
Min Ji was thinking about going to LPGA Q-series at the end of 2023. Indeed, she played two Majors in 2023 and did well in both. She finished tied for 13th at the US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach, and tied for 20th at the Evian. She also managed a tie for 20th finish at the Salonpas Cup, one of the JLPGA’s Majors. But despite this, she felt that she was not playing at her best, and so decided to remain on the KLPGA for the time being until she is truly ready to go to the States at the top of her game. Will she be able to stem the tide of young talent and regain her supremacy? If anyone can do it, it’s probably her.
Da Yeon Lee
Da Yeon Lee is another star who had serious injury issues in 2022. In her case, she was forced to take half a year off to recover. She returned in 2023, and it didn’t take her long to make her presence known. She won the year’s first KLPGA Major at the KLPGA Championship. She also won the Hana Bank Championship in the Fall and had seven total top tens. She earned 729 million won, 8th on the money list.
She also played at the US Women’s Open at Pebble and finished tied for 53rd. At the end of the year, she teamed with So Young Lee at the Simone Cup event. They didn’t do that well, but Lee finished second in the individual standings, ahead of Min Byeol Kim and behind only world #9 Atthaya Thitikul.
Da Yeon is small in stature but big in heart and should continue to be a top star in 2024.
Su Ji Kim
Most of the KLPGA stars start playing great golf soon after they join the tour, but occasionally someone comes along who is a late bloomer. Su Ji Kim is such a player. She turned pro in 2014 but did not make it to the KLPGA until 2017. It wasn’t until 2021 that she had a truly great season. She followed that up with more fantastic play in 2022 and 2023. Last year, she had one win at the Hanwha Classic, one second, three thirds and 11 top tens. She earned 904 million won, fourth on the money list, and got as high as 39th in the world rankings.
She’s only played one event so far in 2024, finishing 35th, but there’s every reason to believe she will be one of the top players on the KLPGA again this season.
Ji Young Park
For a while, it looked like Ji Young Park might seriously threaten Yewon Lee for Player of the Year. She started 2023 well and ended the year with three wins, the same number as Yewon, including a win at the KB Star Championship, one of the KLPGA Majors. She also had two runner-up finishes and ten total top tens, earning just short of a billion won, 3rd on the money list.
Park might have fallen short of Lee last year, but she is still capable of challenging for all the hardware in 2024. So far it’s been a slow start, with a tie for 16th her best finish, but look for her to improve when she hits home soil.
First Time Winners
Jae Hee Kim
Jae Hee Kim is a popular player known for the wacky short videos and tik-toks she likes to make. She has been a strong golfer for several years, but wins have eluded her. But finally, at last year’s S-OIL, it looked like she would break through. She trailed by one behind Yu Jin Sung going into the final round, but on the rainy final day, she quickly caught Sung and took a strong lead. Alas, the weather got worse and eventually they canceled the final round, meaning Kim’s lead was canceled and Sung, the third round leader, got the trophy. It might have been the best thing for Kim, in that she got a huge outpouring of positive comments from old and new fans, trying to cheer her up for the bad break.
Apparently, she used the situation as fuel, for she won the first event of the 2024 KLPGA season, the Singapore Open, to finally break through. Afterwards, she expressed interest in challenging for Player of the Year in 2024. Admittedly, that would be an amazing feat given her past history, but she did play brilliantly in that win despite heavy challenges from the likes of Bang and a teenage star we will get to in a minute (not to mention Thai star Patty Tavatanakit). She finished 23rd on the money list in 2023, with two runner-up finishes, but perhaps it is now her time to shine?
Ju Young Park
The biggest surprise winner in 2023 was doubtless Ju Young Park. Park, the younger sister of LPGA star Hee Young Park, and herself a one time LPGA member, has recently gotten married and taken some time off to have her first child. She has played on the KLPGA since 2010, but in all that time had never won an event. But that all changed last year when she won the Daebo HausD Open. It had taken her 279 events before getting her win, the longest wait in the history of the KLPGA.
Rookies to watch
It will be tough to top the brilliant rookie class of 2023, but there are some promising new players to watch in 2024.
Hyun Jo Yoo
Hyun Jo Yoo is a long hitting teenager with an infectious smile and a killer game. She is the rookie who has received the most pre-season attention from the press. The rumor is that she hits it around as far as Ina Yoon and Shin Sil Bang, which could make for even more firepower from the tee this year. She also has some results to back up the hype. She was on the Korean team for the Asian Games, a quadrennial event much like the Olympics but featuring just Asian teams. Although most of the other top teams had pros and Korea just had amateur teens, they still won the silver medal for their team while Yoo won the bronze in the individual standings (she poses with her medals above!).
She also played on the 2023 Queen Sirikit Cup team for Korea. Korea won the gold medal for team and Yoo won silver in the individual competition.
Yoo turned pro and finished 5th at KLPGA Q-School to earn a full card for 2024. All eyes are on her to see if she becomes the latest long-hitting teen to make a splash on tour.
Ji Yu Lim
Ji Yu Lim was another teen who played on the medal winning Korean Asian Games team. She finished 10th at Q-School and is another national team member with a strong amateur record.
Dong Eun Lee
Dong Eun Lee has a unique pedigree: it is believed that she is the first KLPGA player where both of her parents are former professional golfers. Although her record has not been as impressive as Lim or Yoo, she is an aggressive player with a lot of star quality, and many predict she will soon be a star on the KLPGA as well.
Besides the Rookies, there are several even younger amateur players who have already contended on the KLPGA and might get a win before their 18th birthday.
Min Sol Kim
Min Sol Kim, 17, is yet another long hitter with one of the most impressive swings you will ever see. She has been making noise ever since joining the national team at the start of last year. She has almost too many impressive results to name, but among them are a second place at the 2023 Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific Championship. A few months later she nearly won the Korea Women’s Open, the most important pro event in Korea, finishing fourth. She had two other top tens on the KLPGA as well.
She was part of the winning team at the Queen Sirikit Cup and the silver medal team at the Asian Games (she finished 6th in the individual standings as well). She also led the Koreans to a win at the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship aka the Espirito Santo Trophy. As if that weren’t enough, she teamed with fellow amateur star Hyo Song Lee to finish tied for second in the team competition (and tied 4th in the individual competition) at the Simone Cup in December. Whew!
She’s been a bit quieter so far in 2024. She is currently ranked 3rd in the world in amateur golf, the highest ranked Asian at the moment. She finished 5th at this year’s Asia Pacific Championship but skipped the Queen Sirikit event. Expect to see her a lot in the coming months as she continues to excel and possibly win more amateur and pro events.
Soomin Oh
Soomin Oh, 15, has burst onto the scene in the past year and quickly established herself as another ultra long hitter with limitless prospects. Oh played at this year’s Singapore Open, frequently outdriving long hitting Thai Tavatanakit and even keeping up with Shin Sil Bang. After three rounds, she stunned the field by taking a three shot lead. Had she won, she would have been the fourth youngest winner in KLPGA history. Alas, she struggled on Sunday and fell to 3rd, but absolutely everyone was amazed by the phenomenal brilliance of her week.
Even last year she was making waves, starting with a 9th place finish at the KLPGA’s Kyochon 1991 Ladies Open, later adding two more top 20s in other KLPGA events. She added a third place at the World Junior Girls Championship.
A few weeks ago, she led the Koreans to a crushing come from behind win at the 2024 Queen Sirikit Cup. She shot a final round 65 to win the individual title as well.
Hyo Song Lee
Hyo Song Lee, 15, is yet another young player with a gaudy list of accomplishments. She is not a long hitter like the other two amateur stars we’ve mentioned, but she has an all around game that has her being compared to Inbee Park and Jin Young Ko. She has won the last two Korea Women’s Amateurs, the first as a 13-year-old. Last year’s win was a 9-shot victory after she shot a final round 62, the lowest score in the history of the event. Now on the national team, she has already represented the team several times, getting a third and a second in the past two Asia Pacific Championships, playing on the 2023 and 2024 Queen Sirikit Cup teams (both wins for Korea); the Asian Games (where Korea won a silver team medal); and the Espirito Santo Cup, which Korea also won.
She also joined with Min Sol Kim to finish second at the Simone Cup in December, facing mostly professionals. She managed a tie for 4th in the individual standings as well.
The fun starts on the KLPGA in Korea next week; it ought to be an amazing season!
SeoulSisters 
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