Viktor Hovland (Norway) reached the top of the Tour Championship in the final match of the FedEx Cup Playoffs (PO), which ended on August 28, securing the 2022-2023 season of the American Professional Golf Association. (PGA) Tour has completed its 12-month journey. After completing the regular tour, the PGA Tour holds the FedEx Cup PO Series based on accumulated FedEx Cup points. The top 70 players in points participated in the first round of the PO FedEx St. Jude Championship, 50 people participated in the second round of the BMW Championship, and only 30 participated in the final third round of the Tour Championship.
Winner Hovlan receives $18 million
Viktor Hovland took the top spot at the Tour Championship, the final round of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, on August 28. [Newsis]
The Tour Championship is truly a ‘festival of stars’ where only the top players who shined on the tour during one season participate. The prize money is also huge. The total prize money was 75 million dollars (about 99.337 billion
won), and the winner, Hovlan, received 18 million dollars (about 23.841 billion won) in ‘champion bonus money’.
The PGA Tour, which has been running a two-year season since the 2013-2014 season, has reduced the number of PO players this season from 125 to 70 in the first round of last season and from 70 to 50 in the second round ahead of its return to the single-year format in 2024, and the Tour Championship. remained at 30 people. The PO entry barrier has been raised higher than last season. The 30 participants in the Tour Championship who finish one season automatically qualify for major and special tournaments, such as the Masters, the following year. Just participating is an honor.
This year, Korean men’s golf achieved the feat of having three players, including Lim Seong-jae (25), Kim Joo-hyung (21), and Kim Si-woo (28), participate in the Tour Championship with the largest number of players ever. Kim Joo-hyung and Kim Si-woo tied for 20th place and each received a bonus of $620,000 (approximately 820 million won), while Lim Seong-jae, who ranked 24th, received $565,000 (approximately 748 million won).
Since the introduction of the PO series to the PGA Tour in 2007, there have been two players, including Choi Kyeong-ju and Yang Yong-eun in 2011, and Im Seong-jae and Lee Kyung-hoon in the 2021-2022 season, but this is the first time that three Korean players have participated in the PO final match together. In the 2022-2023 season, Korean players combined for two wins. Kim Joo-hyung and Kim Si-woo were responsible for one win each. Although it was one win short of the 2021-2022 season (1 win each for Im Seong-jae, Kim Joo-hyung, and Lee Gyeong-hoon) in which he won 3 wins, the most in PGA Tour history, his substance was more substantial due to the largest number of appearances in Tour Championship history.안전놀이터
Looking at the nationalities of the 30 players participating in this Tour Championship, the United States had the overwhelming majority with 16, followed by Korea and England with 3 each. This shows that the international status of Korean men’s golf has increased.
The leader who is opening the golden era of Korean men’s golf is Seongjae Lim. Seongjae Lim, who debuted on the PGA Tour in 2018 and 2019 and became the first Asian to win the Rookie of the Year award, has been on the Tour Championship stage for five consecutive years since 2019, including a runner-up finish last year. He surpassed Choi Gyeong-ju (4 times) and set a new record for the most appearances by a Korean.
Seongjae Lim, who has two wins on the PGA Tour, participated in 30 tournaments this season and recorded nine top 10 finishes. Although he did not win, he won $7,052,421 (about 9.44 billion won) in prize money, the most among the three Korean musketeers.
There were hardships too. In May, he participated in the Korea Professional Golf Association (KPGA) Korean Tour Woori Finance Championship and achieved a wonderful come-from-behind victory in front of domestic fans, but suffered a slump for a while afterwards. Perhaps due to fatigue, he lost his swing balance and shot feel, and suffered the disappointment of missing the cut at the PGA Championship and the US Open in June. After tying for 6th place in the first round of PO and 7th place in the second round, it was somewhat disappointing to finish 24th in the final, but overall, he performed outstandingly.
‘Young Gun’ Kim Joo-hyung’s performance stands out
Kim Joo-hyung, who has established himself as a ‘young gun’ representing the PGA in his second year on the tour, also showed an impressive performance. Kim Joo-hyung, who won his first win in his debut at the Wyndham Championship in August of last year, added the championship trophy two months later at the Shriners Children’s Open in October last year, which was his first competition in the 2022-2023 season, and won his second win in 20 years and 3 months. did. He surpassed the record of the ‘golf emperor’ Tiger Woods (20 years and 9 months) and became the youngest person to win two games on the PGA Tour. Following a tie for 16th place at the Masters in April and a tie for 8th place at the US Open in June, he achieved a tie for second place at The Open in July, the last major tournament of the season. This season, he was ranked in the top 10 eight times, including one win, and even enjoyed the joy of participating in his first Tour Championship, winning a total of 6,882,918 dollars (about 9.11 billion won) in prize money.
It has been 7 years since Kim Si-woo participated in the Tour Championship. Kim Si-woo, who tied the knot with Oh Ji-hyun, the winner of a total of 7 wins on the Korea Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA) Tour, at the end of last year, achieved his 4th win on the PGA Tour at the Sony Open in January, his first appearance after marriage. He placed in the top 10 five times, including a tie for second place at AT&T Byron Nelson in May and fourth place at the Memorial Tournament in June, and earned $6.062 million (approximately 7.95 billion won) in prize money, the most since his tour debut in 2013.
In the season’s official prize money rankings, which excludes the tour championship bonus prize money and reflects the second round of the PO, Seongjae Lim ranked 19th, Joohyung Kim 22nd, and Siwoo Kim 30th.
Given that Kim Si-woo, the oldest, is still only in his late 20s, we are looking forward to how much more the golden age of Korean men’s golf will shine in the future as the three of them unfold. Lim Seong-jae and Kim Si-woo are scheduled to participate in the Hangzhou Asian Games in September wearing the Taegeuk symbol, and attention is being paid to whether their performance will lead to a gold medal on the PGA Tour.