Amateur Kim Dae-Seop Sensation

`A pro-buster amateur` Kim Dae-Seop (20, Sungkyunkwan Univ.) won the victory in the 44th Kolon Korea Open Championship (purse 400 million won) over the domestic and foreign professional veterans.

Kim recorded four birdies and one bogey in the final round at Hanyang country club (par 72), Koyang City, Kyonggi Province, and captured the victory trophy with a four-round 16-under-par 272, three strokes ahead of the second place Park Do-Kyu (Pajero). With this win, Kim established the tournament record in 72 holes, 4 strokes ahead of Han Jang-Sang`s 276 in 1972.

Kim Dae-Seop, who had won the same event when he was a junior in Serabeol High School (then 17 years old) in 1998, got the trophy back in three years, becoming the next generation star of the Korean men`s golf.

Kim won all domestic amateur titles last year with an accurate drive shot (280 yards), in spite of the relatively small physical condition of 1m 73 and 65 kg. Since his driving accuracy reaches over 80 percent, Kim has a high probability to win in this course that may cause a lot of out-of-bounds (OB).

Kim was a baseball player in the elementary school, and entered into golf in 1994. He decided to make a professional debut after this tournament, hoping to play in the PGA tours.

A Chungcheong Open champion Park Do-Kyu earned the win prize of 72 million won to maintain the first place (139,940,638 won) in the prize money ranking, because the title winner Kim Dae-Seop could not receive the prize as an amateur.

Another amateur sensation Kwon Ki-Taik (Fukushi Univ. in Japan) ranked third place with 11-under-par, shrinking professional veterans. A 1999 British Open champion Paul Lawrie (Scotland), who was invited at this tournament as a special guest, tied at 10th place with 8-under-par.

Kim Jong-Seok kjs0123@donga.com