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Kim A-lim looks to continue hot streak at Blue Bay LPGA

Published: 05 Mar. 2025, 12:37

PAIK JI-HWAN
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Kim A-lim tees off during the final day of the Honda LPGA Thailand at the Siam Country Club in Pattaya, Thailand on Feb. 25. [AFP/YONHAP]

Kim A-lim will return to action for the final stop of the LPGA Asian swing at the Blue Bay LPGA teeing off at Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Course in China on Thursday on the back of three top-10 finishes from her first three tournaments in the 2025 campaign.

Kim joins the star-studded 108-field on an impressive run so far this season that saw her win the season opener Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions on Feb. 2 and record two top-10 finishes at the Honda LPGA Thailand and HSBC Women’s World Championship earlier this month.

A title at this week’s tournament would mark a second Korean win on the Tour this season.

This week’s field includes 12 other Korean competitors, including Im Jin-hee, who is looking for her first LPGA victory after tying for fourth at the HSBC Championship last week.

KLPGA star-turned-LPGA rookie Yoon Ina is also returning to the field for the second LPGA tournament of her career after failing to make the cut at her debut competition Founders Cup last month.

Yoon Ina competes at the Dukshin EPC-Seoul Economics Ladies Classic in Yongin, Gyeonggi on Oct. 27, 2024. [NEWS1]

That may have been an unimpressive result, but she did more than just proving her potential on the KLPGA Tour last season, where she led in prize money, held the lowest average strokes and accumulated the most Wemade points — awarded to golfers with top-10 finishes in KLPGA events — despite returning to the field after a lengthy ban that she had received for playing the wrong ball in 2022.

This week’s competition sets the stage for Yoon to shine in the absence of other strong Korean contenders such as world No. 8 Ko Jin-young and No. 13 Amy Yang, who are skipping the tournament. World No. 3 Lydia Ko of New Zealand, who won the HSBC Championship last week, is also not participating this week.

But the roster still includes two Korean major winners Lee Jeong-eun6 and Park Sung-hyun alongside a host of other LPGA veterans.

World No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul will be in the field as the highest ranked golfer in this week’s competition, with No. 4 Ruoning Yin also joining the competition.

The winner will walk away with $375,000 in prize money from a $2.5 million purse.

Other Korean golfers joining the field are Ji Eun-hee, Park Kum-kang, Lee Mi-hyang, Joo Soo-bin, Lee So-mi, Jang Hyo-joon and Jeon Ji-won.

No Korean golfer has won the Blue Bay since Kim Sei-young in 2015. There have not been many chances to lift the title since then, however, as the tournament was canceled three times due to Covid-19 in 2020, 2021 and 2023 and did not take place in 2019 and 2022.

This week’s Blue Bay LPGA is the last tournament of the 2025 LPGA season’s first Asian swing. The Tour will head back to the United States for an action-packed schedule that includes five majors throughout the season, before it begins its second Asian swing in October during which it will stop by China, Korea, Malaysia and Japan.

Korea will host the BMW Ladies Championship, in addition to the Hanwha LifePlus International Crown, in October.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [[email protected]]