Yoo Ji-na (21, Taewang Honours) won the sixth leg of the KLPGA 2023 MC Square-Gunsan CC Dream Tour (total prize money: KRW 100 million, winner’s share: KRW 15 million) at the Buan (OUT) and Namwon (IN) courses of Gunsan Country Club (par 72/6,400 yards) in Gunsan, Jeollabuk-do.
After carding seven birdies and no bogeys in the first round to finish in a tie for second place with a 7-under-par 65, Yoo reeled off five birdies and an eagle in the second round to drop six strokes and take the lead heading into the final round with a 13-under-par 131 total.토토사이트
Yoo also carded three birdies in the final round to finish at 16-under-par 200 (65-66-69), but the match went into overtime as Lee, 23, On-Off Golf, matched Yoo’s scorecard after a 10-under-par first round.
The tie for the title was broken on the 18th hole in the fourth overtime, when Lee missed a seven-metre birdie putt while Yoo sank a 1.5-metre birdie putt to end the match and record her first professional victory.
Yoo said, “I’m very happy for my first win as a professional. I didn’t even think about winning, but I think I played calmly and without pressure, and it paid off,” she said, adding, “I’m very grateful to my parents for always supporting me, to Taewang Honours Chairman Noh Ki-won and Director Noh Kyung-won, and Daegu Country Club President Woo Ki-jeong, and to the sponsors and the association for holding the tournament for the players.”
“It was really hard for me because I didn’t play well until the third round. After the third round, my mum told me, ‘You’re still young, so do whatever you want to do’. After hearing her words, I felt much more relaxed, and unexpectedly, my results started to come from the fourth round. I think this win is all thanks to my mum,” he said, revealing the driving force behind his victory.
Yoo, who has always loved sports, especially playing with a ball, and was a footballer up until the lower grades of primary school, first picked up a golf club in the fourth grade at the urging of her father. In 2017, at the age of 15, she won the 12th Jeollanam-do Governor’s Cup Girls’ Middle School Tournament and was ranked No. 1 in the girls’ middle school rankings that year.
The pressure to continue her success in junior high school led her to suffer from driver’s mouth, which she overcame with practice. Yoo joined the KLPGA as an associate member in April 2021, and her consistent performance on the Jump Tour earned her a promotion to full member in August that year. She then competed in the KLPGA 2022 Regular Tour Seeding Tournament in November that year, shooting 16-under-par 272 (68-69-69-66) over four days to earn the second spot in the seeding order and make her debut on the regular tour.
But the bar was high on the Regular Tour. With just seven missed cuts in 28 events and a ranking of 98th on the money list, he failed to qualify and was once again faced with a “race from hell” seeding. After failing to qualify for the main draw due to shaky shots and putts, she spent the winter working hard to return to the regular tour.
“I travelled to Thailand for 50 days of training, playing rounds six days a week to get a feel for the game and working on my short game in the afternoons, especially my putts. I think I worked really hard on my putt because it was my biggest weakness that I identified through the regular tour last year,” she recalled of her winter training.
When asked about her goals for this season, Yoo said, “Before the season started, I wanted to win one Dream Tour event and return to the regular tour, but with today’s victory, I have achieved one of my goals.” She added, “I will try to improve my technique a little more and win one more event in the second half of the season, and then I will try to win the Dream Tour money list.”