Lydia Ko (26, New Zealand), the world’s No. 1 in women’s golf, challenges her to win her first match after her marriage.
Lydia Ko will participate in the four-day European Women’s Professional Golf Tour (LET) Aramco Saudi Ladies International (total prize of 5 million) held at the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club (par 72, 6295 yards) in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia on the 16th (Korean time). $, $750,000 in prize money).
Sponsored by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund (PIF), 60 players from the LET and 50 players from the top 300 in the world will participate. The total prize money for this year is $5 million (approximately KRW 6.4 billion), a five-fold increase from last year ($1 million). more than three times higher than
Lydia Ko, who married Jung Jun, son of Hyundai Card Vice Chairman Chung Tae-young in December last year, did not play for more than a month due to her honeymoon and winter training. Her most recent event was the CME Group Tour Championship, the final round of the LPGA Tour 2022 season.
In this competition that started in 2020, he won the championship in 2021, and at the time, he beat second place Ataya Titikun (Thailand) by 5 strokes with 23 under par and 265 strokes.
According to reports from the American media Golf Week, she has parted ways with her caddy Derek Kistler, whom she has been with since the second half of 2021, and from this tournament she is with her new caddy David Jones. Jones collaborated with Lydia Ko to win the LPGA Tour Lotte Championship in April 2021.
Until recently, he was caddy for Nick Taylor (Canada) on the PGA Tour, and he worked together in 2016 when Jeon In-ji won the Evian Championship and Park Seong-hyun won the 2017 US Women’s Open and 2018 Women’s PGA Championship. 안전놀이터
This tournament, the stage for Lydia Ko’s comeback, is expected to be a fierce match as many of the world’s best players are included in the roster. Korean players on the LPGA Tour include Jeon In-gee, who is ranked 8th in the world, Hyo-joo Kim, A-lim Kim (48th), Yoo Hae-ran (52nd), and Lee Jung-eun (38th) and Lee So-mi (43rd) on the Korea Women’s Professional Golf (KLPGA) Tour. ), Lim Hee-jung (57th), Hong Jung-min (76th), and Jeong Yoon-ji (77th) are also on the list.
Top rankers such as Lexi Thompson (USA), 7th in the world, Hataoka NASA (Japan), 14th, Lin Shiyu (China), 17th, Daniel Kang (USA), 17th, and Hannah Green (Australia), 19th, also compete.
Lydia Ko, who swept the LPGA Tour last season with three wins and won the Player of the Year Award, the lowest stroke award, and the prize money king, is drawing attention to whether she will continue her upward trend after her marriage.