Yoon Ina scores big with 3 prizes at KLPGA awards ceremony

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Yoon Ina scores big with 3 prizes at KLPGA awards ceremony

Published: 28 Nov. 2024, 13:04 Updated: 28 Nov. 2024, 16:22

PAIK JI-HWAN
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Yoon Ina speaks after accepting the Wemade award at the KLPGA awards at Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas in southern Seoul on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

Yoon Ina won the money leader, lowest stroke and Wemade awards at the KLPGA Awards on Wednesday, making her first season since her return from a lengthy ban a season to remember.

Yoon, 21, received the three awards at the ceremony at Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas in southern Seoul after her remarkable performance in the 2024 season during which she won a title and pulled off some impressive results across 25 KLPGA tournaments.

Alongside a victory at the Jeju Samdasoo Masters in August, she made 14 top-10 finishes and made the cut 21 times in 25 competitions, earning total prize money of 1.2 billion won ($860,000) to top the list.

Yoon Ina poses with the Jeju Samdasoo Masters trophy after winning the tournamnet in Jeju on Aug. 4. [NEWS1]

During her impressive run, she recorded an average of 70.0526 strokes, the lowest in the 2024 campaign.

Her stats also allowed her to accumulate the most Wemade points at 535, winning the Wemade award. The points are given to golfers with top-10 finishes in KLPGA tournaments.

“I want to give myself 100 points for my performance this season,” Yoon said Wednesday. “I don’t want to exclude even one point. A lot has happened, but I put up with it and overcame it. Adapting to the Tour was the biggest task, and doing so successfully helped me significantly. Good results followed also because I competed diligently.

“The lowest stroke award is my favorite, as it is a symbol of my consistently good performance. It is therefore meaningful. I want to compliment myself for overcoming tough moments. I could not have been able to play golf in 2024. Being able to stand here itself is already invaluably precious."

The three awards come in her first season since her return to the KLPGA from a reduced one-and-a-half-year ban from the Tour.

Yoon initially received a three-year suspension from the Korea Golf Association (KGA) and KLPGA in 2022 for playing the wrong golf ball during the first round of the DB Group Korea Women’s Open Golf Championship on June 16, 2022.

Playing the wrong ball means that after her tee shot, Yoon continued to play the hole with another ball — presumably one that fell in a more advantageous position than her own — to finish the hole.

The KGA reduced her suspension to one and a half years last September, but the KLPGA at the time upheld the initial punishment, making her ineligible to participate in KLPGA events until halfway through the 2025 season.

However, the KLPGA reversed that decision in January and reduced the ban to 18 months, making her eligible to compete in the 2024 KLPGA season.

Yoon is set to challenge for bigger success, as she will compete in the LPGA Qualifying Series next month.

“I am confident that I will qualify and do well on the LPGA Tour,” she said.

The 2024 season also saw huge success for five contenders — Ma Da-som, Park Ji-young, Park Hyun-kyung, Bae So-hyun and Lee Ye-won — who won the multi-winner award together Wednesday with three wins each from the Tour.

Ma saw a strong finish toward the end of the season, winning all three titles from September to November.

Starting with her first at the Hana Financial Group Championship, which she won after beating a field packed with top golfers from the KLPGA and around the world, she clinched back-to-back wins at the season’s final two tournaments, the S-Oil Championship and the SK Shieldus-SK Telecom Championship.

Park Ji-young, meanwhile, also won a major at the Hanwha Championship in August.

This season’s rookie award went to Yoo Hyun-jo.

Yoo Hyun-jo, right, poses for a photo with Yoon Ina at the KLPGA ceremony of awarding grand prize at Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas in southern Seoul on Wednesday. [NEWS1]

Yoo, 19, joined the Tour in November 2023 and clocked impressive results this year, winning her first title at the KB Financial Group Star Championship in September and making the cut 27 times in 28 events, during which she made nine top-10 finishes.

Five other contenders — Kim Min-byeol, Kim Jae-hee, Ro Seung-hui, Moon Jeong-min and Bae — also saw their first KLPGA victory this year, joining the winners club.

Kim Jae-hee was also the first golfer to win this season’s first tournament at the Hana Financial Group Singapore Women’s Open in March, while Bae went on to win two more titles after her first at the E1 open in May.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [[email protected]]