[Golf Topic] 'Olympic Members' Im Sung-jae and Kim Si-woo "Withdraw from The Open"

Sungjae Im (left) and Siwoo Kim gave up participating in The Open to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics.

[Asia Economy Reporter No Woo-rae] ○…Im Sung-jae (23) and Kim Si-woo (26, both CJ Logistics) will not participate in this year's final major, The Open Championship (total prize money $11.5 million).

The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A), which hosts the tournament, announced on the 3rd (Korean time), "Both players have informed us of their intention to skip this year's tournament to fully focus on preparing for the Tokyo Olympics." Military service benefits are granted if a player finishes in the top three at the Olympics. Emiliano Grillo (Argentina) and Keegan Bradley (USA) will replace Im Sung-jae and Kim Si-woo. The men's golf event at the Tokyo Olympics will take place from the 29th at Kasumigaseki Country Club in Saitama, Japan.

If they were to participate in The Open, they would have less than ten days to prepare for the Olympics after the tournament ends on the 18th. They have chosen the Olympics over the major. The oldest major, The Open, will be held on the 15th at Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, England. The winner's prize money is $2.07 million (approximately 2.35 billion KRW). South Korea will be represented by Lee Kyung-hoon (30), the AT&T Byron Nelson champion, along with An Byeong-hun (30) and Kim Joo-hyung (19, both CJ Logistics).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.