Out of 200 wins, the total number of wins by non-member players is 18 wins.
The record for most wins on the LPGA Tour by a Korean player is Pak Se-ri’s 25 wins.
Jinyoung Ko celebrates her 200th LPGA career win by Korean player. /LPGA Facebook
[한스경제=박종민 기자] As Ko Jin-young (26) climbed to the top of the BMW Ladies Championship on the LPGA Tour, which ended on the 24th, the Korean players’ total wins on the tour became their 200th. The 200 LPGA victories of Korean players were achieved in about 33 years after the late Ok-hee Koo, former president of the Korea Women’s Professional Golf Association (KLPGA), won the Standard Register in March 1988.
South Korea is the only country to win 200 LPGA championships, except for the US, which is on its own tour. Outside of the US and South Korea, Sweden has 118 wins. Sweden’s ‘legend’ Anika Sorenstam (51), who was responsible for 72 victories alone, took the lead after the United States and Korea.
Korean women’s golf players have built amazing records beyond simply winning. If you look at the data released by the LPGA, the Taegeuknang players swept 15 wins each in 2015, 2017, and 2019.
Looking at the number of wins by age, the golden age of Korean women’s golf is the 2010s, when the ‘Pak Se-ri Kids’ reached their heyday. Korea Women’s Golf, which had only one win on the LPGA in the 1980s when the late former chairman Ok-hee Koo was active as a player, grew rapidly with 12 wins in the 1990s when Se-ri Pak (44) appeared. In the 2000s, when Se-ri Pak, Mi-hyeon Kim (44), and Ji-eun Park (42) were composed of ‘Troika’, they won 71 victories and developed into a central axis of women’s golf in the world.
Jinyoung Ko returns to No. 1 in the women’s golf world rankings. /LPGA Facebook
From 2010 to 2019, Park In-bi (33), Shin Ji-ae (33), Yu So-yeon (31), Choi Na-yeon (34), and the first generation of Se-ri Pak Kids reached their peak, putting Korean women’s golf at the top of the world. In the 2010s, Taegeuknangjae won 103 wins on the LPGA Tour. In particular, Park In-bee’s contribution was great. On the 2013 LPGA Tour, he recorded six wins, the most in a season for a Korean player. A golf official who worked for a management company at the time recently said, “Inbee Park had the best results in 2013, but I couldn’t find a sponsor until I signed a sponsorship contract with KB Financial Group. It was really contradictory,” he remembered.
Even into the 2020s, the momentum of the Taegeuknang players does not stop. The generation that grew up seeing Park In-bee’s success began to blossom. With Jinyoung Ko winning the BMW Ladies Championship, the Korean women’s golf team has already won their 13th win.
Of course, it is not only the players who have been active in the LPGA for a long time who have lifted the championship trophy. Surprising wins by non-members are also one of the secrets of Korea Women’s Golf’s 200 wins on the LPGA Tour. Of the 200 wins, the total number of wins achieved by non-member players is 18. The player with the most wins as a non-member was Shin Ji-ae. She competed in the 2008 LPGA as a non-member, winning the British Women’s Open, Mizuno Classic and ADT Championships. There are six Korean players who have won both LPGA non-member and member championships: Shin Ji-ae, Yoo So-yeon, Ko Jin-young, Jeon In-ji (27), Kim Hyo-joo (26), and Jang Han-a (29).
Meanwhile, the internal competition in Korean women’s golf is also exciting. Se-ri Pak holds the record for most wins on the LPGA Tour by a Korean player. He won 25 of his career (23rd all-time) on the LPGA Tour. Inbee Park is tied for 25th in LPGA history with 21 wins. Kim Se-young (12 wins, tied for 44th), Shin Ji-ae, and Ko Jin-young (11 wins, tied for 46th) follow behind.
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