The birth of a new star was predicted from the first day of the opening of the ‘April Golf Festival’ Korea Women’s Professional Golf (KLPGA) Tour’s 2nd Mediheal · Hankook Ilbo Championship (total prize money of 1 billion won, winning prize of 180 million won). ‘Super Rookie’ Minbyeol Kim marked the opening of the tournament with a tying course record. Kim Min-byeol showed off a perfect play by sweeping 8 birdies without looking at the Ferrum Club, which is notorious for its difficult course.
Even though it was a weekday and the fine dust concentration was high, about 700 galleries gathered to see the players in person, applauding and exclaiming for each shot of the players. The players responded to the cheers of the fans by showing off the skills they had honed throughout the winter.바카라사이트
The spirit of fearless rookie Kim Min-byeol was scary from the beginning. In the first round of the tournament held at the Ferrum Club (par 72, 6,652 yards) in Yeoju-si, Gyeonggi-do on the 13th, Kim Min-byeol shot an 8-under-par 64, putting her name at the top of the leaderboard. He is three strokes behind Lee Joo-mi and Roh Seung-hee, who tied for second place.
The 8 under par 64 strokes is the same as the Ferrum Club course record achieved by Lee Min-young in the 2nd round of the 37th KLPGA Championship in 2015 at the Isu Group. At last year’s Mediheal · Hankook Ilbo Championship Invitational, Park Ji-young and Lee Da-yeon tied records on the first and second days, respectively.
Kim Min-byeol, who debuted as “Senior” before the regular tour seed rankings in 2023, firmly imprinted her presence on her fans by taking the sole lead on the first day of this tournament following her tie for 6th at the Jeju Lotte Rent-A-Car Women’s Open, her domestic opening match last week. Kim Min-byul is being pointed out as a super rookie troika with Hwang Yu-min and Kim Seo-yoon, who ate a pot of rice in the national team, and she started to get a step ahead of her rivals after only two tournaments.
Kim Min-byeol’s second-half drive was brilliant. Kim Min-byeol, who made a smooth round by catching a birdie in the 7th hole (par 4) following the 2nd hole (par 4) in the first half, took 6 birdies in the 9 holes in the second half. She caught birdies in a row on holes 10 and 11, followed by birdies on hole 13 (par 4), and then birdies on holes 15 and 17 for three consecutive holes.
Kim Min-byeol, who tied the course record with one hole left, aimed for a birdie on the last hole to break the record. In hole 18 (par 5), Kim Min-byeol took a second shot with a fairway wood and made a three-on, leaving a 6m birdie putt on the slice line. But the putt was overdone and she had to settle for a par save.
Kim Min-byeol explained, “In the second half, the iron shot was good, and the shot went well as I targeted, so it was a birdie chance for almost every hole.” Kim Min-byeol, who focused on her weak point during the winter training camp, said, “The putter and approach around the green were my weak points, so I greatly increased the amount of practice in this part during the training camp.”
Kim Min-byeol said, “I was conscious of the course record, so I wasn’t greedy to make a birdie on the last hole, but the caddy told me the record before putting, so I think I became conscious.” And I will do my best until the last day.”
Kim Min-byeol, who said that the 8 under par he recorded that day is the same as the lowest number of strokes he had recorded so far, said, “I thought that the score would be good if the putter was good because the shot feeling last week was not bad, but I did not expect the number of strokes to be this good.” It’s my first goal, and in the long run, I’m going to do well on the tour and go to the LPGA tour.”
Meanwhile, Park Hyeon-kyung shot a 4 under par 68 to rank 4th, and Park Min-ji, Lee Ga-young and Ha Min-song tied for 5th place with a 3-under 69. Lee Ye-won, who is trying to win the championship for two weeks in a row following last week’s Lotte Rent-A-Car Women’s Open, scored a 2 under par 70 to form a tie for 8th place with Ji Han-sol, Jo A-yeon, and Han Jin-sun.
Kim Se-young and Ryu So-yeon of Mediheal, who are playing on the LPGA tour, each hit 1 under par 71 strokes (tied for 17th place), and Anna Lin started with 1 over par 73 strokes (tied for 54th place). Park Ji-young, the first champion, tied for 37th with an even par, and Lin Grant (Sweden), who won the Grand Prize and Rookie of the Year at the LET last season, tied for 68th with a 2-over par.