Ha Na Jang will not be returning to the LPGA Tour.
In October, Jang won the inaugural BMW Ladies Championship for her fifth victory on the LPGA Tour. With her victory, the Korean became eligible to take up Membership, but during a press conference in the Republic of Korea on Tuesday, she announced her decision not to return to the LPGA Tour.
Jang was previously a member of the Tour between Jan. 2015 and May 2017, but she rescinded her membership in order to return home to the Republic of Korea in order to be closer to her family. During her press conference she echoed those same sentiments. Jang intends to continue playing primarily on the Korea LPGA but will compete in any major tournaments for which she has qualified or other events in which she is invited to participate on the LPGA Tour.
Jang needed to make her decision on whether to take up Membership by Monday, Nov. 18, which is the same deadline for Hinako Shibuno to decide whether to join the LPGA Tour in 2020.
Shibuno, the only other non-member to win on the LPGA Tour in 2019, also earned the ability to join the Tour with her victory at the AIG Women’s British Open in August. Shibuno is a rookie on the Japan LPGA and in a recent interview told LPGA.com she does not plan to join the Tour in 2020 but was waiting to see how she performed in events over the last two weeks before officially making her decision. Shibuno was in the field at last week’s Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan and is in the field again this week in her home country for the TOTO Japan Classic
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