The Korean Professional Golf Association (KPGA) Korean Tour’s only match play, the Descente Korea Match Play (total prize pool of 800 million won – 160 million won for the winner), is about to get a lot more interesting.
This year’s tournament, which will be held over four days starting June 1 at Kingsdale GC Lake-Hill Course (Par 72-7323) in Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do, will feature a new format with the group winner advancing to the round of 16.
The previous format of 64-32 rounds, with 16 players playing 1-3 group matches, followed by a final ranking match based on best-of-three and hole-by-hole scoring, was criticized for not fully utilizing the characteristics of match play.
First, the 64 players will be organized into 16 groups of four players per group. The group stage will then be based on a point system. A win is worth two points, a draw is worth one, and the player with the most points wins the group and advances to the round of 16. In the event of a tie for first place, the teams will play a sudden death overtime.
From there, the round of 16 to the final is a one-on-one match-play tournament. Instead, players who are eliminated in the quarterfinals will play a ranked match for 5th through 8th place.
The 64 players were first assigned to five seeding groups. Group A is the 2022 KPGA Korean Tour winner (15 players), Group B is the 2023 KPGA Korean Tour winner (3 players), Group C is the 2022 Genesis Point leader (13 players), Group D is the recommended player (1 player), and Group E is the round of 64 qualifier (32 players).
The top seeds will be assigned in the order of Group A, B, C, D, and E. Seeds 1 through 15 are in the A-seeded group, 16 through 18 in the B-seeded group, 19 through 31 in the C-seeded group, 32 in the D-seeded group, and 33 through 64 in the E-seeded group.
Last year’s Genesis Point leader Kim Young-soo (34-Dongmun Construction) was seeded first in Group A, but withdrew, so last year’s Genesis Point runner-up Seo Yoseop (27-DB Insurance) was seeded first.
In the first round of qualifying, Seo will face the D-seeded Lee Jae-kyung (24-CJ), who was invited by the organizers to compete. Seo is the winner of the 2019 event, while Lee missed the cut in three events after the season opener, but has since posted back-to-back top-10 finishes in four events. 먹튀검증
Last year’s winner, Park Eun-shin (33, Hana Financial Group), will be looking for her first back-to-back titles. Lee Hyung-jun (31-Wellcome Savings Bank), the only two-time winner of the event (2015, 2019), will be looking for his first three victories.
Jo Woo-young (22-Woori Financial Group), who won the Golf Zone Open as an amateur, and Chung Chan-min (24-CJ), the GS Caltex Mae Kyung Open champion, are not participating. Genesis points leader Kim Dong-min (25-NH Nonghyup Bank) will be in the hunt for a second straight week after winning the KB Financial Livechampionship, which concluded on Monday.