Choi Hye-jin 9th... 'Korea's Only Top 10'

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Choi Hye-jin made it into the ‘Top 10’.

Choi Hye-jin

On the 10th, at the Zen Lake Blue Bay Golf Course (par 72, 6,675 yards) in Hainan, China, Choi Hye-jin finished 9th (10-under 278) with a 3-under 69 in the final round of the LPGA Tour’s ‘Asian Swing 3rd leg’ Blue Bay LPGA (total prize money $2.2 million). She was the highest-ranked Korean player. This is her second ‘Top 10’ finish of the season after tying for 3rd at last month’s Honda LPGA Thailand.

Starting tied for 9th, 5 strokes behind the leader, Choi recorded 5 birdies and 2 bogeys. She exchanged a birdie and a bogey over 13 holes without much progress in lowering her score, but showed resilience by making 4 consecutive birdies from holes 14 to 17. However, it was disappointing that she made a bogey on the final 18th hole (par 5). Her average driving distance was 247 yards with a fairway hit rate of 78.57%.

Bailey Tardy (USA) surged with a 7-under 65 to claim a commanding 4-stroke victory (19-under 269). This was her first win since debuting on the LPGA Tour last year. The winner’s prize money was $415,000 (approximately 550 million KRW). Sarah Schmelzel (USA) finished 2nd (15-under 273), Ayaka Furue (Japan) 3rd (14-under 274), and Minjee Lee (Australia) tied for 4th (13-under 275).

Lydia Ko (New Zealand), who needs one more win to enter the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame, was unable to lower her score and dropped from a co-lead the previous day to a tie for 4th. Korean players Kim Se-young finished tied for 15th (7-under 281), Sung Yu-jin and Lee Mi-hyang tied for 21st (6-under 282), and An Na-rin tied for 28th (5-under 283) to close out the tournament.

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