Lee, Park Min-ji, and Lim Jin-hee will battle for the lead at Haiwon CC (Par 72, 6753 yards), the highest golf course in Korea.
The Korea Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA) Tour’s Haiwon Resort Women’s Open ($800,000 prize fund) at Haiwon CC in Jeongseon, Gangwon-do, will be a three-way battle between Lee, Park, Min-ji Park and Jin-hee Lim, who each have two wins on the season. After spending the last two weeks in the heat of Jeju, the players will be looking to keep their shots cool at Haiwon Golf Course at an altitude of 1136 meters.
The hottest trend is that of Lee Ye-won, who came from three shots down to win the Doosan E&C Weave Championship in Jeju last week and moved into a tie for first place on the money list (725.92 million won). Lee (344 points), who trails Grand Prize leader Park Ji-young (370 points) by 26 points, who opted to take this week off, can clinch the Grand Prize with a top-10 finish this week. Grand Prize points are awarded only to the top 10 players in the tournament, which has a total prize pool of 800 million won, with the winner earning 60 points and the 10th place finisher 31 points.
Lee is synonymous with consistency, having earned 13 top-10 finishes last year to become the rookie of the year without a win. After her first victory at the Lotte Rent-a-Car Women’s Open (April), her first domestic event of the year, Lee is ranked second in scoring average (70.54 strokes), second in driving index (a combination of driving distance and fairway find rate), and first in overall ability index (a combination of tee shots, short game, and putts), and has posted seven top-10 finishes (tied for third) this season.
“It’s a course where shot accuracy is important, so I’ll try to make sure my tee shots land in the fairway,” said Lee. “I want to focus on my biggest goal of the year, the grand prize, and finish this tournament with a good performance.”
Park will be looking to make up for missing the cut at the Doosan E&C Weave Championship, her first start back on home soil in over a month after a trip to the Evian Championship on the Ladies Professional Golf (LPGA) Tour. She has two top-10 finishes in her last three starts, including a runner-up finish in 2021, so expectations are high.
Lim Jin-hee, who picked up her second win of the season at the Jeju Samdasu Masters, will be looking to build on her tie for fourth last week.
Defending champion Han Jin-sun, who enjoyed his first career victory in the 130th edition of the event last year, is looking to make it two in a row. “I’ve been dreaming of defending my title. I’m really looking forward to it,” he said, adding, “Hi-One CC has a lot of traps, so I’ll try to play smart.”
Park Hyun-kyung will be looking to make amends after missing out on her first title in more than three years last week, while second-ranked Kim Min-byul 토토사이트 will be hoping to take advantage of the absence of rivals Hwang Yoo-min and Bang Shin-sil to regain the rookie title lead.
LPGA Tour players Yoo So-yeon and Ji Eun-hee, as well as Korean-American Danielle Kang (USA), are among the recommended players. The event’s 2019 and 2021 winner, who has struggled this season, has decided to focus on next week’s major, the Hanwha Classic.