Kim Min-sun clinches 1st win by defeating defending champion

Kim Min-sun, who was able to develop patience by enjoying seawater fishing as hobby since last year, has secured her first title of the season by keeping at bay rival Park Sung-hyun, "the biggest fish on the field" who fiercely traced her.

Kim managed to reduce two strokes in the third round of the OK Savings Bank Park Se-ri Invitational of the Korea LPGA Tour held on Sunday, to finish the tournament 10-under 206 overall. After achieving her career third win in 17 months after the KG Edaily Ladies Open in May last year, she received 120 million won (109,000 U.S. dollars) in prize money on the day, successfully posting more than 400 million won (362,000 dollars) in total prize money in three consecutive seasons.

Making five birdies through Hole 15, Kim made a triple bogey at Hole 16 (par 4) to tie for first. But she placed her tee shot at Hole 17 (par 3) at just 2.5 meters off the cup, and added a birdie to secure the win.

“Since I had no win in this season, I tried not to be greedy," Kim said. "I would go seawater fishing whenever I had chance, and learned the wisdom that I have to wait until an opportunity knocks, which helped me a lot.”

Defending champion Park Sung-hyun, who sought the two targets of winning her eighth win in this season, ended the championship tied for second with Cho Yoon-ji, Lee Min-young, and Lim Eun-bin with one-stroke deficit.

김종석기자 kjs0123@donga.com