Throughout the season, the LPGA Tour travels around the world and back again, only making one stop in the Republic of Korea each year for the BMW Ladies Championship. Unveiled in 2019, the event is one of the most highly anticipated events of the year for a myriad of players with Korean roots. With just one opportunity to compete on home soil, major champions like Jin Young Ko, In Gee Chun and Hyo Joo Kim are sure to put on a show in front of friends and family in this year’s playing of the BMW Ladies Championship.
A Field of Champions
There will be just 78 players – 68 LPGA Tour members, eight sponsor invites and two Korean Golf Association amateurs – teeing it up at Seowon Valley Country Club and vying for a $2.2 million purse this week. With the lure of guaranteed money, limited-field events always attract a strong field, but this week, in particular, is a doozy. Of the 22 winners on Tour this season, 19 are in the field this week, headlined by Celine Boutier, Lilia Vu, Ruoning Yin and Jin Young Ko, the only players with multiple wins this season. This year’s BMW Ladies Championship field also includes eight of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings Top 10: No. 1 Vu, No. 2 Yin, No. 3 Jin Young Ko and No. 5 Boutier will be joined by No. 4 Nelly Korda, No. 6 Hyo Joo Kim, No. 7 Minjee Lee and No. 9 Allisen Corpuz. Jin Young Ko is also a former champion, having won the 2021 edition of the event. With so many proven winners in the field, the competition will be stiffer than ever, and it’s anyone’s guess as to who will hoist the trophy in 2023.
Korean Connections
Of the 74 professionals playing this week, a whopping 17 of them will compete under the flag of the Republic of Korea. The crew includes a few long-standing veteran names – former world No. 1s So Yeon Ryu and Sung Hyun Park are set to play – alongside rising talent like Hae Ran Ryu and Hye-Jin Choi, highlighted by a generational talent in Jin Young Ko. Everyone representing the Republic of Korea will be worth watching when competing in front of a home crowd, but two names certainly stand out above the rest. Hae Ran Ryu and Hyo Joo Kim are both coming off impressive wire-to-wire victories at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G and The Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America, respectively and are both currently in the lead for an end-of-season award, giving them plenty of momentum coming into this week. Hae Ran Ryu is running away with the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year Award, leading her closest competitor, Grace Kim, by 244 points. Hyo Joo Kim is currently leading the Tour in scoring average, making her the top candidate for the Vare Trophy with just a few events left on the 2023 schedule. The 28-year-old is 0.35 strokes ahead of Atthaya Thitikul, who is ranked second with a scoring average of 70.017.
A Historic First-Time Winner
With a win last week at the Buick LPGA Shanghai, Angel Yin became the 12th Rolex First-Time Winner of the season, setting a new record for most first-time winners in a single season. And, of course, Yin won’t pass up the chance to take some of that momentum to the Republic of Korea as she searches for back-to-back victories. In case you missed it, Yin’s win was more than just historic; it was a heartwarming redemption arc in Yin’s seven-year-long quest for that maiden win. The 25-year-old started the week slowly before lighting up Qizhong Garden Country Club with a 7-under 65 on Saturday to earn a share of the 54-hole lead at 12-under. But Vu, who has been solid as a rock since her second major victory at the AIG Women’s Open, continued her winning ways and played her way to the top of the leaderboard on Sunday. Luckily, Yin did just enough to keep pace with Vu and force her second playoff with the world No. 1. Way back in April, Yin faced Vu in a playoff at The Chevron Championship, and despite Yin’s valiant effort, it was Vu who ultimately jumped into the pond at The Club at Carlton Woods. Last week saw an alternate ending to the same story, and this time, it was Yin who walked away from sudden death victorious. It took 159 starts, but Yin finally got that maiden win in storybook fashion, beating the best player in the world and making history along the way.
Struggling Defender
With all the talent in this week’s field vying for trophies, awards and winner’s checks, more than a few players are battling to keep their cards or punch their ticket to the CME Group Tour Championship. One of those players is defending champion Lydia Ko. After an awe-inspiring 2022 season, which included three wins, Vare Trophy honors and the Rolex Player of the Year award, Ko enters this week needing to find a top 10. She’s made 13 cuts in 17 starts and – besides a T6 in her first event of the year at the Honda LPGA Thailand – hasn’t finished inside the top 30 once this season. Though she won the 2022 BMW Ladies Championship, Ko only earned her spot in this week’s field through a sponsor invite. This may also be the Kiwi’s last chance to defend a title in 2023. Currently ranked No. 101 in the Race to CME Globe, Ko won’t be able to defend her title at the CME Group Tour Championship, which only admits the top 60 on the season-long points list, without some major last-minute work that will have to start this week. Though defending her title may be a tall order, a top 10 should be within reach for the 19-time LPGA Tour winner.
On the CME Bubble
But Lydia Ko is certainly not the only person looking to muscle their way into the CME Group Tour Championship with just four events left before the season-ending event. Players ranked 61st through 70th, like No. 61 Ryann O’Toole and No. 64 Narin An, are looking to muscle their way into the season finale, while others just inside the top 60, like No. 60 Patty Tavatanakit and No. 59 Eun Hee Ji, are working to maintain their position. Currently sitting at No. 69 in the rankings after taking a week off, Gemma Dryburgh is another player who once again finds herself on the outside looking in. After struggling to maintain her Tour card for much of her career, Dryburgh found her first win just under the wire at the 2022 TOTO Japan Classic, a victory that helped her to make her CME Group Tour Championship debut a few weeks later. But Dryburgh hasn’t carried that momentum into this season, and it’s been a fairly lackluster year for the Scot, who has just one top 10 to her name this year – a solo eighth that came at The Amundi Evian Championship. But the 30-year-old was in nearly the same position last year and still found herself at Tiburon Golf Club. So, by her own precedent, it appears that Dryburgh still has plenty of time to make something happen, but a good week at Seowon Valley Country Club would certainly be a nice start.
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