LPGA's Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship tees off Thursday

Golf

Published: 20 Mar. 2024, 13:23 Updated: 21 Mar. 2024, 17:28

LPGA's Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship tees off Thursday

Pak Se-ri hits a shot during the Maum Seri Pak World Match, a charity match play event, at Stonegate Country Club in Busan on Oct. 7, 2023. [YONHAP]

The Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship tees off Thursday at the Palos Verdes Golf Cup in California under the name of Korean golf legend and LPGA Hall of Famer Pak Se-ri.

First started as the Hugel-JTBC LA Open in 2018 and later changed to the Hugel-Air Premia LA Open and DIO Implant LA Open, this year marks the first time the LPGA event uses the Hall of Famer’s name. It is also the first LPGA event under a Korean golfer’s name.

Pak, 46, competed on the LPGA Tour from 1998 to 2016 during which she won 25 titles — including five majors — and made it into the LPGA Hall of Fame in 2005 and World Golf Hall of Fame in 2007.

She will be at the golf course during the tournament to watch the action.

“This is my first time under my name at an LPGA tournament, so it's really a dream come true.” Pak said during a press conference on Tuesday. “Many years I was playing the LPGA Tour, I was actually one of the playing dreams about it, if any chance one day, if possible, to have a tournament on my name on the Tour, to be really grateful and an honor.”

The 72-hole stroke play event will see a total of 144 golfers vie for a total prize of $2 million and $300,000 for the winner on the line.

“Most exciting is I'm seeing a lot of players, and at the same time, a lot of Tour players passed, but my tournament is giving players great opportunities,” Pak said. “What's most exciting is it's another dream, giving to the players or hope to be creating many opportunities for players or many different countries' players that dreamed about playing the LPGA.”

Two past champions are joining the tournament: Defending champion Ruoning Yin and 2022 winner Marina Alex. Neither have won a title so far this season.

Ruoning Yin plays her shot from the second tee during the final round of the DIO Implant LA Open at Palos Verdes Golf Club on April 2, 2023 in Palos Verdes Estates, California. [AFP/YONHAP]

Yin has had a relatively unimpressive start to the 2024 campaign, having yet to manage a top-10 finish in the past five tournaments. This weekend marks a return to the tournament where she secured her first-ever LPGA title and rose to prominence.

Last year was her best season on the Tour since joining in 2022, having also won the Women’s PGA Championship — one of the five majors — in June.

Four out of five champions this season — Hannah Green, Nelly Korda, Bailey Tardy and Patty Tavatanakit — will also be joining. Lydia Ko is skipping the tournament.

For Korda, ranked at No. 2 on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, it will be her first time competing on the Tour since January as she skipped the Asian swing that ended with the Blue Bay LPGA in China on March 10.

To make the competition more competitive, world No. 1 Lilia Vu will be in the field alongside No. 7 Charley Hull and No. 10 Xiyu Lin.

Vu, who won four titles on the Tour last year, was not in her best form during the Asian swing as she withdrew from the HSBC Women’s World Championship last month due to illness and exited from the Blue Bay LPGA earlier this month due to injury.

No. 3 Celine Boutier, who also claimed four LPGA titles last year, is skipping the event alongside No. 6 Ko Jin-young, the highest ranked Korean golfer.

Ko was the best performing Korean golfer on the Tour last year, ending the season as the only multi-Korean winner with two titles.

Countrywoman No. 9 Kim Hyo-joo, meanwhile, will be in action after competing at two LPGA events this season, tying for fifth at the Honda LPGA Thailand and tying for 41st at the HSBC Championship last month.

Kim Hyo-joo drives a shot on the fairway after the 15th tee during the first round of the HSBC Women's Wold Championship at the Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore on Feb. 29. [AP/YONHAP]

A victory at the Seri Pak Championship will make Kim the first Korean to win the tournament as well as the first Korean golfer to secure a title on the Tour this season.

She was one of four Korean winners on the Tour last season, winning the Volunteers of America Classic in October last year.

Ryu Hae-ran — winner at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship last year — will join Kim in the field after managing a joint 22nd finish at the HSBC Championship.

“It’s been 27 years, 1998 is first my winning,” Pak said about Korean golfers’ success on the Tour. “Since then actually for my country many players come to the LPGA and play the Tour. But every single year actually the players get to more, more players come from my country, and they play really well. They’re really successful on the Tour.”

Alongside Kim Hyo-joo and Ryu, 18 other countrywomen will be in the field: Shin Ji-yai, Kim A-lim, Jenny Shin, Choi Hye-jin, Ji Eun-hee, Lee Mi-hyang, An Na-rin, Chun In-gee, Park Young-hee and Lee Jeong-eun6, Jeon Ji-won, Kang Min-ji, Kang Hae-ji, Lee So-mi, Jang Hyo-joon, Sung Yu-jin, Im Jin-hee and Lee Jeong-eun5.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]