Korean Open Has Changed Course, 'Triple High School' Has Emerged as a Winning Variable
Korean Open Has Changed Course, 'Triple High School' Has Emerged as a Winning Variable
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It is a "triple high school" that must be overcome for Kolon's 67th Korean Open (total prize money of 1.4 billion won), which will be held for the right to participate in the major tournament's D-Open with 500 million won in prize money.
Wang ranked at the top with 3-under 68 on the first day of the competition, which took place at Ravie Bell Dunes Course (par 71) in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province on Tuesday. However, he shook his head after the competition. "The fairway was made narrow like an ant-waist, so I had to pay close attention to the tee shot," Wang said. "If I hit the ball on the rough, it would be difficult to control the distance because it creates a flyer, and the location of the pin was often in tricky places as if I was playing the third or fourth round." A flyer in golf refers to a phenomenon in which foreign substances such as grass are caught between balls and balls, reducing the amount of backspins and causing runs, which makes the ball go farther than expected.스포츠토토
The Korean Open under the national title traditionally features a tricky course. Up until last year, the event was held at Ujeong Hills Country Club in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province. The fairway was narrow and the green was hard and fast, so it was difficult for the team to win the double-digit under par. Ujeong Hills Country Club, which has been open for 32 years, has changed its venue to Rabiebel Dunes Course due to renovation of the green this year. As the course changed, the difficulty was expected to decrease, but he was hampered by an unexpected triple whammy.
The course is 6,792 meters wide (7426 yards) and par 71. The course will consist of three par-5 holes, 11 par-4 holes, and four par-3 holes. The longest at No. 5 is 555 meters long (607 yards), and the total number of par-4 holes is seven. The number 9 is 471 yards, the longest among the par-4 holes. Three of the four par-3 holes are over 200 yards. The average width of the fairway is 15-20 meters, which is closer to half of the normal operation, while the rough maintained the distance of 35 millimeters near the fairway and 50 millimeters deep or more. The average green speed was 3.8 meters fast on average.
Jeong Chan-min, who has two wins overall in the KPGA tour including the victory at the GS Caltex Maekyung Open in 2023, also struggled due to triple whammy. On the day, he garnered one and recorded four bogeys to post a three-over 74.
"The course was tricky overall, but it was more difficult because the flyer came out of the rough often," Jung Chan-min said. "Even though I tried to play it short in anticipation of the flyer, I struggled because I went farther than I expected. Moreover, it was not easy to reduce the number of pars because the pin position was tricky at the par-3 hole. There were not many holes to reduce the number of pars," he said.
In the first day's game, which took place on an unexpected difficult course, many were unknown and amateurish. In the third year of the tour, Jeong Yu-joon made six birdies without any bogey in the first round and placed himself on the top of the leaderboard. Although he had never been in the top 10 in 25 competitions, he set a new personal minimum number of pars on the first day of the tour. His accurate tee shot became the stepping stone to end with "no bogey."
"Everything was satisfactory in today's game. I only had two or three tee shots off the fairway, and I also had a good birdie putt," Jung said. "When I drop my tee shot well on the fairway for the remaining three days, and hit the green with my second shot, I should find the side that is easier to putt on the green."
17-year-old amateur national team member Kim Min-soo (Honwon High School) also participated in the sensation by writing 3-under 69.
A preliminary winner has never won a title at the Korean Open. If Chung wins, he will be the first player to win a title as a preliminary winner. Kim won the title twice, in 1998 and 2001. Kim Dae-seop first won the title in his second year of high school, and participated again as a college student three years later, winning the title for the second time.