Two Korean teams head to Indonesia for inaugural Simone Asia Pacific Cup

Golf

Published: 17 Aug. 2022, 17:05

Two Korean teams head to Indonesia for inaugural Simone Asia Pacific Cup

Kim Hyo-joo follows her ball after playing on the 2nd hole during the Evian Championship women's golf tournament in Evian, eastern France on July 23. [AP/YONHAP]

Ryu So-yeon tees off on the fourth hole during the second round of the Women's PGA Championship golf tournament at Congressional Country Club on June 24 in Bethesda, Maryland. [AP/YONHAP]

Four Korean golfers — Kim Hyo-joo, Hwang Yoo-min, Lee Bo-mee and Ryu So-yeon — will compete in the inaugural Simone Asia Pacific Cup in Indonesia over the next few days as the LPGA breaks for the week.

Hosted by the Asia Golf Leaders Forum (AGLF), the inaugural Simone Asia Pacific Cup will be held from Thursday to Saturday at Pondok Indah golf course in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The event is part of the new Ladies Asian Tour (LAT) Series, which kicked off in June with the DB Group 36th Korea Women's Open. KLPGA favorite Lim Hee-jeong won that event with a bang, carding a 19-under-par, six strokes ahead of runner up Kwon Seo-yeon and seven strokes ahead of defending champion Park Min-ji who was looking to defend her title for the second week in a row.

The Ladies Asian Tour Series is set to stage seven tournaments across the Asia Pacific region in 2023 and aims to expand to 10 events in 2024.

The Simone Asia Pacific Cup will be played as a three-day stroke play tournament starting Thursday.

There will be two trophies available on Saturday. The individual winner will be determined with the number of strokes played in three rounds and a team trophy will be given to the team with the lowest total score of the two golfers.

The total purse is $750,000, with the individual winner taking $500,000 and the winning team taking $250,000.

Twenty teams from 16 different Asia Pacific countries have thrown their hats into the ring for the inaugural title, including two Korean teams.

Hwang Yoo-min [KLPGA]

LPGA golfer Kim paired up with KLPGA third-tier golfer Hwang, while LPGA golfer Ryu paired up with JLPGA golfer Lee.

Kim is the world No. 8 golfer, while Hwang is a rookie player on the third-tier KLPGA Tour, the Jump Tour. But this August, the 19-year-old earned her spot on the second-tier KLPGA Dream Tour with two wins and two runner-up finishes on the Jump Tour.

Hwang has experience competing in the top tier tour, having finished at a tied 29th place in the DB Group 36th Korea Women's Open in August, carding a 285, 16 strokes behind winner Lim.

Lee Bo-mee [KLPGA]

Ryu and Lee will tee off at 7:45 a.m. alongside Aunchisa Utama and Jaravee Boonchant of Thailand, while Kim and Hwang will tee off at 8:15 a.m. alongside Lydia Ko and Momok Kobori of New Zealand.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]