LPGA Tour returns to Korea for BMW Ladies Championship

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LPGA Tour returns to Korea for BMW Ladies Championship

Published: 16 Oct. 2024, 15:54

PAIK JI-HWAN
paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr

Minjee Lee plays her shot from the second tee during the second round of the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G 2024 at TPC River's Bend on Sept. 20 in Maineville, Ohio. [AFP/YONHAP]

Defending champion Minjee Lee is returning to the BMW Ladies Championship teeing off on Thursday at Seowon Valley Country Club in Paju, Gyeonggi, leading a strong-78 field for the Tour's only annual stop on Korean soil.

Since the tournament became an LPGA event in 2019, the BMW Ladies Championship has seen two Korean winners: Jang Ha-na in 2019 and Ko Jin-young in 2021. Lydia Ko cut the Korean winning streak in 2022, before Minjee Lee took the title last year after a playoff against Alison Lee.

Although Lydia Ko is from New Zealand and Minjee Lee from Australia, both have Korean parents, keeping the tournament, to some extent, a Korean-ish affair.

The tournament did not take place in 2020 due to Covid-19. This year’s edition takes place at Seowon Valley Country for a second straight year and includes two defending champions Lee and Lydia Ko.

For Lee, winning this year’s BMW Championship would mark returning to the tournament where she won her last LPGA title. The victory would also make her the first golfer to defend the title.

Lee set three tournament records at Seowon Valley Country Club last year, with an 11-under-par, 133, over 36 holes, 204 over 54 holes and 272 over 72 holes.

The Australian golfer has seen good results so far this season with four top-10 finishes. A joint fourth place finish at the Blue Bay LPGA is her best result so far on the Tour this year.

She most recently finished in eighth place at the Buick LGPA Shanghai on Oct. 13.

Fellow BMW Championship winner Ko has also spent a successful season both on and off the Tour, having already claimed three LPGA wins and won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics in August.

The upcoming tournament marks her return to the Tour after winning the Kroger Queen City Championship last month.

A victory at this year’s BMW Championship would not only mark her second tournament win but also another impressive finish at the tournament. She made a sole third finish last year and tied for third in 2021.

To make the tournament competitive for the past winners, 17 champions with wins on the Tour this season are joining the field, including two Korean winners Amy Yang and Ryu Hae-ran.

Amy Yang plays her shot from the 16th tee during the second round of the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G 2024 at Pinnacle Country Club on Sept. 28 in Rogers, Arkansas. [AFP/YONHAP]

The duo are the only Koreans to have won an LPGA title this year. Yang joins the field on the back of a win at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship — one of the five LPGA majors — and Ryu heads to the tournament with the FM Championship title that she secured after an all-Korean playoff against Ko Jin-young last month.

Countrywoman Kim Hyo-joo also joins on the back of one win this season at the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour in Korea in May, where she claimed an individual title with a wire-to-wire run.

The LPGA veteran has also seen success on the Tour this year, making 11 cuts out of 13 Tour competitions and two top-10 finishes. Her last LPGA win comes from the Volunteers of America Classic in October last year.

Her road to victory will see other strong contenders such as eight of the top-10 golfers in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings: No. 2 Lilia Vu, No. 3 Lydia Ko, No. 4 Yin Ruoning, No. 6 Ayaka Furue, No. 7 Yang, No. 8 Hannah Green, No. 9 Ryu and No. 10 Celine Boutier.

One notable absense from that list is No. 1 Nelly Korda, who has dominated the 2024 LPGA season by winning six titles. Korda is skipping this week’s event due to injury.

Her absence offers No. 2 Vu a chance to close the Rolex Rankings point gap with her. Korda sits at the top with 446.3, with Vu at 309.34 as of Wednesday. Lydia Ko is third at 306.69.

No. 5 Ko Jin-young, the only Korean on the top-10 list, is also skipping this week’s competition

No. 4 Yin joins the tournament after winning the most recent LPGA tournament Buick LPGA Shanghai in China on Oct. 13.

Kim Sei-young, one of the most successful Korean golfers on the Tour with 12 titles, also heads to Paju after a runner-up finish at the Buick LPGA Shanghai.

Kim Sei-young hits a tee shot during the third round of the Buick LGPA Shanghai in Shanghai, China on Saturday. [AFP/YONHAP]

The BMW Championship is a chance for Kim to win her first LPGA title in nearly four years, with her last victory coming from the Pelican Women’s Championship in November 2020.

The 78-strong field includes 68 LPGA golfers in total, in addition to eight tournament sponsor invitees and two Korean amateurs: Yang Hyo-jin and Oh Soo-min.

Yang finished fifth in her most recent event, the KB Financial Group Cup, while Oh won the World Junior Girls Championship.

Sponsor invitee Shin Ji-yai, who tied for fifth at the BMW Championship last year, will be back in the field. Shin, 36, has 11 LPGA titles, but gave up her Tour membership in 2014 to be closer to her family in Korea.

Fellow invitee Jung Ji-hyo, who competes on the KLPGA, joins the field after finishing in 21st place at the DB Group the 38th Korea Women’s Open Golf Championship.

Thursday is expected to be sunny all day, with showers predicted on Friday and Saturday. The weather should clear up on Sunday.

The BMW Championship is the second stop of the LPGA Asian swing that next heads to Malaysia and Japan, before returning to the United States for the final phase of the season that runs through the end of November.

The CME Group Tour Championship will be the last tournament of the campaign.

Jennifer Kupcho, Megan Khang and Albane Valenzuela will be the first to tee off on the first hole at 8:10 a.m., the same time Liu Ruixin, Yuka Saso and Ashleigh Buhai start on the 10th hole.

The two defending champions Lee and Ko will tee off together on the first hole at 10:22 a.m.

The winner will earn $330,000 prize money from a total purse of $2.2 million.

Korean fans can catch all the action on JTBC Golf.

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