Golfer Park Hyun-kyung shows improvement after a break

She looked like a whole new golfer in just 10 days. South Korean golfer Park Hyun-kyung showed poor performance over the first half of the season. Despite her outstanding skills, making the cut in 15 matches along with Lee Ga-young, Park has ranked among the top 10 only three times. Last year, she was in fourth place but dropped to the 20th in the first half of the season.

After taking a 10-day break after the last game in the first half, was just like she was in the past. Park, who made her debut in the 2019 KLPGA Tour and won the championship three times in total, ranked third in the Jeju Samdasoo Masters, the first game of the second half that ended on Aug 7. She won second place after playing a seesaw game in overtime in the Daeyu Winia MBN Women’s Open that was held until Aug. 14. Park carried a 71.2 stroke average over the 15 matches in the first half of the year, but she averaged 69.5 and 67.7 strokes in the Jeju Samdasoo Masters and the Daeyu Winia Women’s Open, respectively. In the second round, she even shot an eight-under-par 64, sharply bringing up her performance in just ten days.

“Nothing was going right for me at the time,” Park said, looking back on her performance in the first half. The break she took right after the first half has definitely marked a turning point. “I watched the video of my swings last year a hundred times while taking a rest.,” she said. “I practiced a lot to get the hang of it, reviewing my address position, backswing angles, and downswings.”

Even though she missed the championship of the two matches in the second half of this year, it meant a lot to her as she could restore confidence that she would get better going forward. “I felt reassured in the first match in the last half of 2022. I knew I was hitting the ball well,” the 22-year-old golfer said. “In the second match, I felt that I am getting better step by step. I’ll be confident going into the rest of the games.”

The up-and-coming golfer is determined to gain the championship trophy in front of the gallery in the second half of the season. Park Hyung-kyung won the title in the 2020 KLPGA Championship, 2020 IS Deongseo Busan Open, and 2021 Chris F&C KLPGA Championship. She held up the trophy in the tournaments without spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Among the remaining games this year, the main sponsor’s game ‘KOREIT Championship,’ which will be held from Oct. 13 to 16 in Iksan City, North Jeolla Province, my hometown. It is the one that I want to win first place,” Park said. “I want to raise the trophy and be congratulated in front of people in my hometown.”


hun@donga.com