Lee Tae-hee (39-OK Financial Group) has four career wins on the KPGA Korean Tour. Excluding her first victory at the Nepps Heritage, three of her victories were at major-level events, including the Genesis Championship (2018) and the GS Caltex Mae Kyung Open (2019, 2020).
He is strong in big tournaments, but there is a major tournament where he is particularly weak. The KPGA Championship is one of the most historic and prestigious tournaments in the world, and he has played in it six times in his career, missing half of the cuts.
His best finish was a tie for 13th in 2016, his first appearance. The other two times he made the cut, he finished tied for 47th and tied for 45th.
This year, in her seventh career start, Lee has a chance to win. Lee shaved four strokes off her score in the second round of the 66th KPGA Championship with A-ONE CC (total prize money of 1.5 billion won) on Sept. 9 at A-ONE CC South and West Course (par 71-7138) in Yangsan, Gyeongnam.
With an 8-under-par 134, Lee returned home with a two-stroke lead over a group that included Heo In-ho (36, Geumgang Housing), 2017 tournament winner Hwang Jung-gon (31, Woori Financial Group), and Jung Chung-mil (32).
After the tournament, Lee said, “It was a good day. I’m satisfied because nothing went wrong. “I made a few mistakes on short putts, but luckily I saved them well. I felt good with my shots,” he said.
When asked why he didn’t perform well in this tournament, he said, “Strangely enough, I didn’t perform well at AONE CC (laughs). It’s the most prestigious tournament in Korea, so I always feel good when I compete in this tournament, but my performance didn’t follow suit.”
This year, however, he changed his mindset, and it was a different story. “This year, I’m playing with the mindset of ‘if I don’t make a birdie, I’ll just wait it out’ and ‘if I play patiently, good things will come,’ and I’m getting good results,” he said, explaining his rise to the top of the leaderboard.
Lee, whose goal was to make the cut, said, “I accomplished my first goal. I’m playing better than expected in both the first and second rounds, so I’m going to stay calm and focus on my game for the remaining rounds,” said Lee.
Defending champion Shin Sang-hoon (25-BC Card) dropped a shot on the day but made the cut with a 1-under par 141 total. The expected cut for the tournament is 1-over par 143.
After making the cut in last year’s tournament with a pull-up, Shin shaved 10 strokes off his score in the third round, and then added six more on the final day to take home the trophy. 먹튀검증
After the round, Shin seemed conscious of this, saying, “Last year, I only made the cut by nine shots from the leader. I am confident because I was in the lead in the third round last year,” he said, adding, “Tomorrow is a moving day and I have memories of being in the lead, so I think it’s not too early to give up. “
“I’m going to play aggressive tomorrow,” he said. “I’m going to be aggressive tomorrow and focus on my game rather than worrying about the leader’s score. If I focus on one hole at a time, I will have a good result,” he said of his strategy for the Moving Day.
Defending champion Jong-Deok Kim (62-Milan International) dropped one stroke on the day to sit in a tie for 44th place at even par 142. In doing so, Kim extended his record for the oldest player to make the cut, which he set at last year’s tournament at 61 years, 6 days, to 62 years, 5 days.
This is the second oldest cut in KPGA Korean Tour history. The oldest KPGA Korean Tour cut is 62 years, 4 months and 1 day, set by Choi Sang-ho (68) at the 2017 GS Caltex Mae Kyung Open.