The question of how many wins South Korean female golfers who showcase the strongest performance in the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour will earn this year in total is drawing attention, especially as they generally perform noticeably better in odd-numbered years.
South Korean female golfers known for their outstanding performance in the global stage have the records of the most wins per season at 15 wins each in 2015 and 2017 LPGA tours. This year, Hur Mi-jung brought the 11th win for South Korea with her win at the Scottish Open, the 23rd tournament of the season.
There are nine tournaments left at present. This week, the Canadian Women's Open with total prize money of 2.25 million U.S. dollars will be held on Thursday at the Magna Golf Club (par-71) in Aurora, Ontario, Canada. As South Korean female golfers have kept their win rate of the season close to 50 percent, it is raising expectations that a new record for the most wins per season may be set.
In particular, Park Sung-hyun, the winner of the 2017 Canadian Women's Open, is a defending champion of the Indy Women in Tech Championship in September and the Volunteers of America LPGA Texas Classic in October. Park will compete in the first round in a group that includes hard-hitter Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand and Lexi Thompson of the U.S. at the 2019 Canadian Women's Open.
World No. 1 Ko Jin-young, who is leading in the LPGA Tour prize money won, the player of the year, the average number of strokes, etc. will compete in the same group as Lydia Ko of New Zealand who won the Canadian Women's Open three times.
Meanwhile, Canadian Michelle Liu, who will compete at the Canadian Women's Open this year, is making waves as it is her debut at the age of only 12 years and nine months. The previous record holder of the youngest player to compete at the Canadian Women's Open was another Canadian golf player Brooke Henderson who competed in 2012 at the age of 14. Henderson was the last year’s winner of the tournament.
However, Liu is not the youngest player to have competed at the LPGA Tour. The record has been held by Beverly Klass of the U.S. who competed in the 1967 United States Women's Open Championship at the age of 10 years and seven months.
Liu became qualified to compete at the tournament by winning in the tied-12th place at the Canadian Women's Amateur Championship in July, which was the highest-ranking among Canadian players. If the young Canadian golfer makes the cut, she will break the record of the youngest player to make the cut at the Canadian Women's Open, which is currently held by Lydia Ko at the age of 15 years and three months.
ysahn@donga.com