After the corona crisis, Korean women’s golf, which seems to have fallen into collective lethargy, is trying to turn around in the national competition.
The stage is the Hanwha Life Plus International Crown (total prize money of 2 million dollars), a women’s national golf competition held at TPC Harding Park (par 72) in San Francisco, California, for four days from the 5th. This tournament will be held in five years in the aftermath of the corona crisis since the 2018 Incheon Games, which Korea won. Korea, with a team composed of the top four players in the world rankings, Ko Jin-young (28, world No. 3), Kim Hyo-joo (28, 9th place), Jeon In-ji (29, 12th place) and Choi Hye-jin (24, 25th place), was the first team in history to win two consecutive championships. Challenge.
Spain won the first competition in 2014, and the United States won the second competition in 2016. Korea took 3rd place in the first competition, runner-up in the 2nd competition, and rose to the top in the 3rd competition.
Korean women’s golf was undeniably the world’s strongest, winning 15 tournaments, nearly half of the 2019 LPGA Tour tournaments before the corona.
However, after winning 7 times in 2020 and 2021 side by side, last year it was reduced to only 4 championships. In the previous eight tournaments this year, players from the United States and Australia won twice, and Korea only won once.
In this tournament, 8 countries are divided into these two groups, and after a group stage, the top 2 countries advance to the semifinals and determine the winner through a tournament. The United States, Sweden, England, and China are in Group A, and Korea, Japan, Thailand, and Australia are in Group B.
In the group stage, two players play with their own balls, and the winner is determined by the four-ball method, in which the better score for each hole is calculated as the team performance. In the group stage, two four-ball matches are played, with 1 point awarded for a win, 0.5 points for a draw and 0 points for a loss. From the semi-final tournament, there will be one foursome match and two single match play matches in which two players from the same team alternately hit the same ball. In the tournament, the first team to score 2 points wins. Locals predict that Korea and the United States will compete for the championship. The United States is world number 1 Nellie Korda (25), Lilia Bu (26, world number 4), Lexi Thompson (28, 7th), Daniel Kang (31, 31 16) formed a team.
In Korea, it is encouraging that ace Ko Jin-young recovered from a wrist injury and showed a clear recovery, winning the HSBC Women’s World Championship last March. Ko Jin-young finished in the top 10 four times in the six competitions she participated in this year, including a tie for sixth at the Chevron Championship. As it is a team competition, it is important that the players perform evenly.스포츠토토
The role of her eldest sister Jeon In-ji, who is representing Korea for the third time in a row, is also noteworthy. Five years ago, In-Kyung Jeon was the youngest member of the team, along with In-Kyung Kim (35), So-Yeon Yoo (33), and Seong-Hyeon Park (30), and won all four matches, leading Korea to its first victory. At that time, Jeon In-bi failed to make it into the top 4 players and fell behind Choi Hye-jin and Ko Jin-young in the second ranking, but Park In-bi (35), Choi Hye-jin, and Ko Jin-young refused to participate and were qualified to participate.
In the beginning of this season, Jeon In-gee suffered from back pain, but she is so motivated that she decided to participate in the tournament early. If Korea succeeds in winning the tournament for the first time in two consecutive years, it will be named as the first player to win two consecutive championships in the history of the all-inclusive competition. Korea will play its first game against Australia on the 4th, Thailand on the 5th, and Japan on the 6th.
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