‘Golfing Woo’ Lee Seung-min aims to make the cut in his second start on his own
There is a player on the Korean Professional Golf Association (KPGA) Korean Tour who is known as “Golf Woo.
Lee Seung-min (26, Hana Financial Group) overcame autism to become a full member of the KPGA and play on the tour. Lee earned 83.75 ranking points in the first half of this season, ranking 39th in the rankings, and made his first career start at the Bizplay E-Newspaper Open last week.
He opened with a 4-under par score on the first day. However, as the tournament was disrupted by inclement weather, he was unable to adjust to the conditions and dropped two strokes in the second round, falling one stroke short of the cut.메이저사이트
He will be competing on his own for the second time in his career. It is the KPGA Korean Tour’s iMBank Open (total prize money of 500 million won), which will be held at the Pami Hills CC East Course (par 71-7194) in Chilgok-gun, Gyeongbuk, for four days from the 21st.
A total of 132 players, including Lee, are expected to compete in the tournament, which was previously known as the DGB Financial Group Open.
Lee has competed in 10 tournaments this season, making the cut at the Golf Zone Open in Jeju and the KB Financial Live Championship. At the KB Financial Livechampionship, he tied for 37th place, his best finish ever.
Lee’s coach and caddie, Yoon Seul-ki, said, “His driving distance has increased and is now around 300 yards. “One of the characteristics of ASD is weak small muscles, so his grip was weak, but he compensated for that with consistent exercise and increased his distance,” said Yoon.
“When I was playing in the invitational, I had a lot of pressure to play well, but since I’m competing on my own, I don’t have that pressure, so I can see that I’m enjoying my round,” he said. “Last week’s tournament, I missed the cut by one stroke because I lost a ball on the 13th hole that went well into the fairway and I couldn’t find it. I will do my best to make the cut this time,” said Lee.
Defending champion Moon Do-yup (32-DB Insurance) will be looking to win his second consecutive title, having defeated Kim Han-byul (27-SK Telecom) in last year’s tournament in a playoff.
Moon said, “I’m looking forward to the gallery’s support again this year. If a lot of fans come to the tournament, the athletes will show their best,” said Moon.
After finishing as runner-up for the second year in a row, Kim Han-byul is looking for a ‘second time around’. Kim finished runner-up to Park Sang-hyun (40, Dong-A Pharmaceuticals) in 2021 and Moon Do-yeop last year.
“This year, I will do my best until the end and try to shake off the disappointment of being runner-up twice,” Kim said.
This year’s competition is worth 100 million won, but like the regular competition, the winner receives 1,000 Genesis points and the runner-up receives 600 points.
As such, the Genesis rankings are expected to fluctuate depending on the outcome of the competition. The current leader is Go Gun-taek (24-Daebo Construction). With three wins in three seasons, Ko is attempting to become the first player in 31 years to win four in a season since “legend” Choi Sang-ho.
In second through fifth place in the Genesis points are Lee Jae-kyung (24-CJ), Lee Jung-hwan (32-Sokchoi), Kang Kyung-nam (40-Daesun Foundry), and Ham Jung-woo (28-Hana Financial Group). The difference in points between the first through fifth places is within 500 points, so the outcome of the competition will be closely watched.