Veteran golfers and Korea-Japan duos see top-10 at Dow Championship

Golf

Published: 01 Jul. 2024, 15:48 Updated: 01 Jul. 2024, 16:28

Veteran golfers and Korea-Japan duos see top-10 at Dow Championship

Korea's Kang Hae-ji and Kim In-kyung react on the fifth green during the final round of the Dow Championship at Midland Country Club on Sunday in Midland, Michigan. [AFP/YONHAP]

Five Korean golfers made the top 10 at the tag-team Dow Championship in Midland, Michigan on Sunday, with Kang Hae-ji and Kim In-kyung combining for a 19-under-par, 261, to end in tied third, each landing their best finish since 2018.

Seven-time LPGA champion Kim, 36, partnered up with Kang, 33, for the four-day tournament at Midland Country Club where the two shot up the table over the weekend. Neither had recorded a top-three finish since the 2018 LPGA season.

Kim In-kyung lines up a putt on the eighth green during the third round of the Dow Championship at Midland Country Club on Saturday in Midland, Michigan. [AFP/YONHAP]

Kang Hae-ji plays her shot from the sixth tee during the final round of the Dow Championship at Midland Country Club on Sunday in Midland, Michigan. [AFP/YONHAP]

Kim, who also goes by I.K., won the 2017 Women’s British Open to notch her first-ever major but has yet to see another title. Kang has never won an LPGA championship.

Korea’s Kim A-lim, Ko Jin-young and Sung Yu-jin all tied for eighth in separate teams, each competing with a partner representing a country other than Korea.

Kim A-lim teamed up with the United States’ Yealimi Noh, Ko played with Japan’s Nasa Hataoka and rookie Sung paired up with Japan’s Mao Saigo to shoot a 16-under-par, 264, in a nine-way tie.

Korea's Ko Jin-young and Japan's Nasa Hataoka embrace on the 18th green during the final round of the Dow Championship at Midland Country Club on Sunday in Midland, Michigan. [AFP/YONHAP]

Any instance of sporting camaraderie between Korean and Japanese athletes often becomes a local newsflash as Japan is considered Korea’s biggest international sporting rival — in terms of strength and given the historical context of Japanese occupation from 1910 to 1945.

Mao Saigo of Japan and Sung Yu-jin of Korea react on the sixth tee during the second round of the Dow Championship at Midland Country Club on Friday in Midland, Michigan. [AFP/YONHAP]

Lee Sang-hwa, of Korea, and Nao Kodaira, of Japan, became a symbol of friendship between the two countries across multiple Winter Olympics. Kodaira famously consoled Lee at PyeongChang, Lee's last Games before retirement, after narrowly edging her out of a third straight gold medal in the women’s 500-meter race.

Korean football star Lee Kang-in and Takefusa Kubo, who plays for Japan’s national football team, also found the spotlight after the two bonded as the only Asian players at Spanish club Mallorca.

China's Yin Ruoping and Thailand's Atthaya Thitikul took first at the Dow Championship with a 22-under-par, 258.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]