Taeguk Nangja, Change the Flow

No Wins Yet in 4 Tournaments This Year
Two Players in Top 15 World Rankings: Ko Jin-young, Kim Hyo-joo
‘Asian Swing’ Blue Bay LPGA Victory Attempt

Change the early momentum.

Se-young Kim aims for victory at the Blue Bay LPGA.

This is the task assigned to the Taeguk Nangja. Korean female golfers, who once dominated the U.S. Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour, have yet to secure a victory. Although it is still early in the season, no wins have been reported. Four tournaments have been held so far on this year’s LPGA Tour, but Korean players have not won any. They are going through a challenging period due to strong performances from traditional powerhouse the United States and the rapid rise of emerging powers such as Thailand and China.

This year is the year of the Paris Olympics. Collecting championship trophies is essential to fielding many players on the Olympic stage. To send the maximum of four Korean players to the Olympics, four must be ranked within the top 15 of the world golf rankings as of June 24. At the beginning of this year, four players were within the top 15, but currently only two remain in the world rankings: Ko Jin-young at 6th and Kim Hyo-joo at 9th. Meanwhile, Yang Hee-young has slipped to 16th and Shin Ji-ae to 18th.

Korean players are heading to China this week. From the 7th for four days, they will compete at the Blue Bay LPGA (total prize money $2.2 million) held at the Jen Lake Blue Bay Golf Course (par 72, 6,675 yards) in Hainan, China. The tournament was held from 2014 to 2018 but was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, it returns as the third event of the ‘Asian Swing’ after six years.

A total of 11 Korean players have entered. Expectations are high for Kim Se-young, the 2015 champion of this tournament. She has finished within the top 20 in all three tournaments held this year. Last month at the Honda LPGA Thailand, she contended for the title and finished tied for 3rd. Rising stars include Choi Hye-jin, ranked 33rd in the world, and Lee Mi-hyang, who tied for 3rd last week at the HSBC Women’s World Championship. Joining them are Ji Eun-hee, Jeon In-ji, Shin Ji-eun, and Sung Yu-jin.

World No. 1 Lilia Vu (USA) and No. 3 C?line Boutier (France) will compete against Korean players for the championship. Lydia Ko (New Zealand), who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame with just one more win, is also dreaming of conquering the top spot. Other contenders include Lin Ying (China), Minjee Lee (Australia), and Ayaka Furue (Japan). The defending champion is Gaby Lopez (Mexico), who won in 2018.

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