‘Beautiful Golfer’ Park Gyeol 4 Under Par: "Victory GO After 5 Years"

Hi One Resort Women's Open 1R: 1-Stroke Lead
Lee Jae-young and Choi Eun-woo Tied 2nd, Yoo So-yeon 8th
Park Min-ji, Lee Ye-won, and Lim Jin-hee Tied 19th

‘Beauty Golfer’ Park Gyeol is on a winning streak.

On the 17th, she dominated the top of the leaderboard with a 4-under-par 68 in the first round of the KLPGA Tour’s High1 Resort Ladies Open (total prize money 800 million won) held at High1 Country Club (par 72, 6,573 yards) in Jeongseon-gun, Gangwon-do. Park Gyeol started off strong with three consecutive birdies from holes 1 to 3, and secured the lead with ‘stepping stone birdies’ on holes 10 and 12 (both par 4). The only blemish was missing a 1.2m par putt on the 17th hole (par 4).

Park Gyeol is making an iron shot on the 3rd hole during the first round of the High1 Resort Women's Open.
[Photo by KLPGA]

Park Gyeol is the player who won a gold medal at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. She recorded her first victory at the 2018 Seoul Economic Ladies Classic but did not achieve the expected results. In 2021, she fell outside the top 60 in the money rankings and had to go through the qualifying tournament again. However, Park Gyeol has fully revived this year. She finished as runner-up at the major KLPGA Championship in April. Since then, she has shown remarkable performances with 5th place at the Celltrion Queens Masters in June and 3rd place at the Evercollagen·The Siena Queens Crown in July. She currently ranks 18th in the money rankings with 285.3 million won.

Park Gyeol explained, "My iron shots, which troubled me until last year, have improved this year, leading to better results. My iron shots were good today as well. Most of my birdies were made by placing the ball close to the hole." She also expressed her expectations for her second career win in five years. Park Gyeol said, "I always have expectations for winning. I’m happy because my results are good and my shots have improved. The fairways are narrow for the remaining three days, so I will focus on hitting good tee shots and getting the ball on the greens as much as possible."

Lee Jeyoung and Choi Eunwoo are tied for 2nd place (3-under-par 69). Defending champion Han Jinseon showed resilience by making three birdies without a single bogey up to the 15th hole (par 5). LPGA member Yoo Soyoung started smoothly, tied for 8th place (2-under-par 70). Park Minji and Lim Jinhee are tied for 19th place (1-under-par 71). Lee Yewon, aiming for her second consecutive win and third victory of the season, reduced one stroke up to the 15th hole. Overseas player Danielle Kang (USA) struggled, tied for 96th place (3-over-par 75). Due to fog, the start of the round was delayed by three hours, and 48 players were unable to complete the first round. The remaining first-round matches will resume from 6:50 a.m. on the 18th.

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