Chun In-gee scores her most memorable hole-in-one

Korean golfer Chun In-gee made her first LPGA Tour hole-in-one at the Chevron Championship, describing it as “the best moment” of her life. It was the first hole-in-one on the par 3 17th for which Chevron promised to donate one million dollars.

Chun recorded a hole-in-one on the 17th hole in the 3rd round of the Chevron Championship, the season's first major, at the Club at Carlton Woods Woodlands, Texas on Sunday. She hit a five-iron 164 yards away from the hole. After a tee shot, the ball dropped on the green and rolled more than four meters down to the hole. Right after noticing her ace at the hole, she rejoiced over it and gave high-fives to her playing partners and caddies. This hole-in-one is her first record in the LPGA Tour and sixth throughout her professional career. Chun, who debuted in the LPGA Tour in 2016, had scored two hole-in-ones in the KLPGA Tour.

Chevron, which started sponsoring the championship last year, promotes the Chevron Challenge to donate 10,000 dollars for every birdie and one million dollars for every hole-in-one on the 17th hole. The money Chun earned with her ace on Sunday will be donated to the LPGA Foundation and young female golfers in Houston. Last year, the first challenge event was carried out at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California to donate for hole-in-ones on the par 3 14th. However, it ended up with no hole-in-ones.

"Buying what she wants only makes her happy for a couple of days but the joy of helping others lasts more than a month or a year," she said. "As this hole-in-one allows me to help others, it makes me all the happier."

As a non-LPGA member, she won the 2015 U.S. Women's Open Champion and donated 10,000 dollars to the Lancaster Country Club in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where the competition was held. Afterwards, she created the Lancaster Country Club Educational Foundation. In recognition of her inspiring social contributions, she became the first winner of the Tour’s Velocity Global Impact Award this March.


Hong-Gu Kang windup@donga.com