Last season, only 14 long hitters exceeded the average driving distance of 270 yards on the LPGA tour. Among them, the only Korean player is Kim A-rim (28, Hanwha Q Cells, photo). He has already made a name for himself as a long hitter since the days of the Korean Women’s Professional Golf (KLPGA) tour. He won the KLPGA Tour Long Hitting King for two consecutive years in 2018 (259.17 yards) and 2019 (262.53 yards). Kim A-rim jumped into the LPGA tour in 2021 straight away, winning a’surprise victory’ at the US Women’s Open, the most prestigious major tournament where she participated as an invited player in December 2020 with such a long hitting power. However, unlike his high expectations, he did not show much activity after his debut. In the first year of his debut, he had only nine top 10 finishes, including two third-place finishes and two fifth-place finishes last year.
Kim A-lim showed off her presence after a long time by tying for 4th place at the Chevron Championship (total prize money of $5.1 million), the first major tournament of the LPGA tour season held at The Club Carlton Woods (par 72, 6824 yards) in Woodlands, Texas, USA on the 24th. A-lim Kim exchanged 3 birdies for 3 bogeys in the 4th round and wrote down an even par, recording a final total of 8 under par 280 strokes. A-lim Kim, who finished in a tie for 4th place, two strokes behind winner Lilia Bu (26, USA), showed her best performance after a tie for 5th at the Kroger Queen City Championship in September of last year. 스포츠토토
Kim A-lim, who finished the final round with a tie for 6th place by 2 strokes, made up for the bogie on hole 2 (par 4) with a birdie on hole 3 (par 3), then added birdies on holes 7 and 9 to compete for the championship. But it was lacking in hindsight. He committed two painful bogies on the 11th and 13th holes, forgot all the number of strokes, and could not reduce the number of strokes in the remaining 5 holes. Although he missed the championship, we are looking forward to his good performance this season as he showed his competitiveness for the first time in a major tournament. A-lim Kim ranked 5th in the long hit category in 2021 (276.76 yards) and 5th in 2022 (274.74 yards), and runs 18th (273.77 yards) this year. The average drive shot distance in this tournament was 272 yards. Yang Hee-young (34, Woori Financial Group) also tied for 4th place, and Ko Jin-young (28, Solaire), who is aiming to return to the top of the world rankings, continued his upward trend by recording a tie for 9th place (7 under par, 281 strokes).
Boo tied with Angelin (25, USA) and then made a birdie on the first hole of his extension to win his first major championship. He emerged as a new powerhouse this season by winning two tour careers following Honda Thailand in February of this year. The winning prize is $765,000 (approximately 1.01 billion won). Boo is a Vietnamese-American whose grandfather reportedly fled communist Vietnam on a boat in 1982 after the Vietnam War ended and settled in the United States.