The year of the Korean Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA), which completed the 2024 season, was more powerful than ever.
The KLPGA Tour ended its eight-month long journey on the 10th of last month with the last tour of the season, ‘SK Telecom · SK Shields Championship 2024.
A total of 31 competitions took place, and five players won more than three games. Lee Ye-won, Park Ji-young, Park Hyun-kyung, Bae So-hyun, and Madasom were the stars of the new record. It was the year of the king of multiple wins. It was an unprecedented case and evidence that the competition among the players was very hot.
On top of that, Yoon In-na, who became a hot topic of controversy, made a comeback to the tour in a year and a half after being given disciplinary action. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that the 2024 season is Yoon In-na’s year. After her return, Yoon immediately became an issue of golf, exploding her immense slugging and buzz that she had been pressing. Both positive and negative buzz followed Yoon. She was truly a “star of light and darkness.”
- “Oh-goo-Play” Yunna Returns
The 2022 KLPGA edition faced a big controversy. It was because of a certain “incident” with Yoon In-na, an outstanding rookie who was considered a promising player in the future. Yoon In-na played with a ball that was not hers at the “36th Korea Women’s Open Golf Championship” of the DB Group in 2022, and about a month later, she reported the violation of the rules to the Korea Golf Association (KGA).
The problem was that she didn’t straighten out the denial even though she knew the ball wasn’t hers. Yoon In-na, who remained silent, belatedly reported it while proceeding with the first round of the next competition, the Eber Collagen Queen’s Crown. The incident escalated completely.
As a result, KGA, the organizer of the tournament, first suspended the participation for three years, and KLPGA decided to take the same disciplinary action against the member who caused the controversy.
For a while, Yoon disappeared from the Korean professional stage and went into self-reflection. However, the KGA reported in September last year that the suspension period for Yoon would be reduced from three years to one and a half years. There were flurry of controversies. Fans welcomed Yoon’s early comeback, but most of the other professional players at the association expressed opposition on the grounds that it was not fair.
However, the board’s decision confirmed Yoon’s early return, and she finally returned to the front of fans in April this year using the Doosan E&C We’ve Championship, the Korean opener. Her first competition started in a tie for 34th place.
- Who holds the weight of more crowns?
After taking a break from the opening game, Yoon soon entered the fierce competition for the title. However, the sprints of the already established strong players were also tough. Madasom, Park Ji-young, Park Hyun-kyung, Lee Ye-won, and Bae So-hyun took turns to dominate the year.
Lee’s winning streak continued through the end of the year. Lee, 21, started with the Blue Canyon Ladies Championship title in March, followed by the NH Investment & Securities Ladies Championship in May and the MBN Women’s Open of SH Suhyup Bank in the same month.
Park Ji-young then dominated the Medi Hill Hankook Ilbo Championship in April, the 1991 Ladies Open in Kyochon in May, and the Hanwha Classic in August, making her the top contender for the title. Park Hyun-kyung won back-to-back events such as the Doosan Match Play in May and the BC Card Hankyung Ladies Cup in June, igniting the all-time competition for the crown.
Bae So-hyun brought three trophies from the KG Ladies Open in May and The Heaven Masters and E1 Charity Open in August, and Madasom ended the year splendidly by winning the title of the Hana Financial Group Championship in September, the S-OIL Championship in October, and the SK Telecom and SK Shields Championship 2024, the last competition of the season in November.
It is the first time in KLPGA history that five players won three games each in a single season and became the joint multi-win champion. The previous single season’s most multi-win year was the 2020 season in which Kim Hyo-joo, Annarin, and Park Hyun-kyung won two games each.
- On the other side of the game, I was so touched…
Some sluggers sweep away the championship title in one episode, while others enjoyed the joy of their first career victory. Bae So-hyun, who had three wins among them, won the KG Ladies Open in May, her first career championship. She also joined the ranks of multiple wins.
Noh Seung-hee, who also garnered two wins, was also thrilled to win the 38th Korea Women’s Open Golf Championship in June for the first time. Yoo won the trophy at the KB Financial Group Star Championship and won the title of “new champion” in major competitions for the first time in 11 years since her debut in 2013.
Kim Min-byul, the winner of the 2023 season’s Rookie of the Year award, tasted the joy of her first win at the 2024 Dongbu Construction Korea Land Trust Championship.
- Who is the queen of the ‘most title’ that laughed at the end?
Yoon Na-na won only once in the season, but she became the main character with a big smile at the last grand prize ceremony.
As soon as she returned, she played in 25 competitions and 76 rounds, swept one championship, two runner-up competitions, and three third-place competitions, and ranked within the top 10 for 14 times. Yuna, who started the competition with her bowing down at the field in April, started the competition for the title in earnest from August.
As a result, he beat runner-up Park Hyun-kyung by about W80 million with an overwhelming W1,211,415,715 in accumulated prize money, and he also topped the WeMade Awards with 535 points. No. 2 Park scored 503 points. He also topped the standings with a 70.0526, pushing back runner-up Park Ji-young (70.1772), to take the lead. In the slugging record, Bang Shin-sil had an average drive distance of 256.2344 yards, pushing Yun In-na (254.9820 yards) into second place.
On top of that, the KLPGA Tour announced on the 17th that Yoon Na-na recorded an average of 4.6818 in par-5 holes this season and was also crowned the “par-5 hole queen.”
Yun In-na, who swept three gold medals at the award ceremony, gave perfect scores to her own season 토토사이트. She also acquired the seed of the LPGA tour, signaling that she plans to move on to a bigger stage in Korea.
