"Really Confusing"... KLPGA 'How to Distinguish Players with the Same Name'

Assigning KLPGA Tour Membership Order Numbers
Appending to Korean Tour Membership Numbers
Almost No Overseas Players with Same Stage Names

'Lee Ji-hyun 2, Lee Ji-hyun 3, Lee Ji-hyun 7.'

These are players who participated in the KB Financial Star Championship, the fourth major tournament of the Korean Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA) Tour season, held on the 10th at Blackstone Golf Club in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. There were as many as three players with the same name. There are many golfers with identical names in Korea. So how are the players distinguished?

The two namesakes, Kim Ji-hyun (left) and Kim Ji-hyun 2, had the same professional entry date, so their membership numbers were determined by calculating the average strokes on the Dream Tour.

On the KLPGA Tour, when players have the same name, numbers are usually assigned in the order of membership registration. Lee Ji-hyun 7 is the last player currently active on the regular tour. There are three more Lee Ji-hyuns who are associate members, not full members. In this case, uppercase letters are added: Lee Ji-hyun A, Lee Ji-hyun B, Lee Ji-hyun C. If a teaching pro has the same name, lowercase letters are used, for example, Lee Ji-hyuna, Lee Ji-hyunb, and so on.

The story behind the numbering of Kim Ji-hyun, who has five career wins on the KLPGA Tour, and Kim Ji-hyun 2, who retired in 2020 with four career wins, is interesting. Both players registered on the same day. Ultimately, their membership numbers were assigned based on their average scores on the Dream (2nd division) Tour. Many players have also changed their names to avoid confusion, such as Lee Su-ji 2 becoming Lee Sim-bi, and Kim Min-seon 5 becoming Kim Si-won.

Lee Jeong-eun 6, who plays on the U.S. Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour, has the number 6 appended to her name according to the order of membership registration. She actively embraced the number '6,' earning the nickname 'Hot Six.' When registering her name on the LPGA Tour, she specifically requested to include the '6.'

There are also many players with the same name on the Korean Professional Golfers' Association (KPGA) Korean Tour. The Korean Tour assigns membership numbers. Usually, this is not an issue, but when players compete on the same tour or in the same tournament, the membership number is added after the name to prevent confusion among players and fans. A representative example is Kim Do-hoon 752 and Kim Do-hoon 753, gold medalists at the 2006 Doha Asian Games in Qatar. Both registered as KPGA members on the same day, so their numbers are close.

For reference, the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), which manages world rankings, distinguishes players with the same name by adding their birth year and month. Foreign players on overseas tours rarely have identical names because they can use stage names instead of their real names. The 'Golf Emperor' Tiger Woods' real name is Eldrick Tont Woods, and long hitter Bubba Watson (both from the U.S.) is Gary Lester Watson Jr.

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