Before the Tournament of Champions opens tomorrow, In-ji, Yang Hee-young, and Yoo Hae-ran are highly motivated.
The 2024 season of the LPGA Tour opens. This season’s LPGA Tour begins its long journey starting with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, which will be held for four days from the 18th at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club (par 72) in Orlando, Florida.
This competition, which has been held as the season opener since 2019, is open to only players who have won tours in the past two years. In Korea, three players will participate, including Jeon In-ji, winner of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, a major tournament in 2022, Yang Hee-young, who won last season’s final event, the CME Group Tour Championship, and Yoo Hae-ran, who won the Rookie of the Year award based on her victory at last year’s NW Arkansas Championship. Ko Jin-young, Kim Hyo-joo, and Ji Eun-hee are also eligible to participate, but have decided to skip this competition. 안전 토토사이트
Among the 36 participants in this competition, the player who is considered the strongest candidate for the championship is Lilia Bu (USA). Current world number one Lilia Bu was voted ‘Player of the Year’ after winning a total of four games, including her two major wins, last season. Ranking 2nd place Yin Luoning (China) and 5th place Nelly Korda (USA) also submitted votes. ‘Defending champion’ Brooke Henderson (Canada, 13th) is attempting to win two consecutive titles for the first time in this competition. Korean players including 2022 champion Daniel Kang (USA), Grace Kim (Australia), and Lydia Go (New Zealand) will also participate.
Since the Paris Olympics will be held in July this year, the competition among athletes for rankings is expected to be fierce from the beginning of the season. In the women’s division, the top two ranked players per country based on the world rankings as of June 24th will receive tickets to the Olympics. However, up to four players per country within the top 15 in the world rankings can participate in the Olympics. The current world rankings of Korean players are as follows: Ko Jin-young, 6th, Kim Hyo-joo, 7th, Shin Ji-ae, 15th, and Yang Hee-young, 16th.
This season, the LPGA Tour will hold a total of 35 tournaments, including the Solheim Cup and Grant Thornton Invitational, which are event tournaments. The LPGA Tour Secretariat said, “This season, a total of $118 million (approximately 157.2 billion won) in prize money is at stake, the largest ever. “This is an increase of approximately 69% from the 2021 season (approximately 70 million dollars).” 슬롯사이트