Lee Ye-won and Yoon won two games in the season

Lee Ye-won, the winner of the 2023 Korea Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA), beat Yoon Na's fierce pursuit to win her second win of the season.

At the final round of the KLPGA Tour's NH Investment & Securities Ladies Championship (total prize money of 800 million won) held at Suwon CC (par 72, 6,586 yards) in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province on the 12th, Lee Ye-won made four birdies without a bogey and shot a 4-under 68 to score a total of 13-under 203, beating runner-up Yoon Na-na by three strokes. Lee won the title by wire-to-wire for three consecutive days from the first day.

Lee Ye-won, who won two games in the season in two months following the Blue Canyon Ladies Championship in Thailand in March, won 144 million won in prize money and jumped to third place (361.13 million won) in the prize money rankings. Lee Ye-won, who won the Rookie of the Year title in the first year of her debut in 2022, won the grand prize and the prize money title with three wins last year, and this year, she raced toward the top player with two wins (five wins in total) in her eighth competition.

Lee Ye-won, who started with a three-shot lead, made birdies at the 3rd and 5th holes (par 3) and 7th holes (par 4) and pushed the 2nd place by five shots, seeming to win the cup without a crisis.

However, Yoon's pursuit of Lee was fierce. She was given a three-year ban on playing in the Korean Women's Open in 2022 when she belatedly reported it after playing five balls and reported it belatedly. She has been participating since the opening matches in Korea in April. She added two consecutive birdies at holes 8 and 9 and 12 and succeeded in a 15-meter-long birdie putt at the 14th (par 4) to pressure Lee by two strokes.

As if shaken by Yuna's fierce pursuit, Lee failed to make on-green for the first time on the day at the 16th (par 3) and made a mistake of hitting her second shot short, but made a 6-meter par putt to overcome a critical crisis. After making a tee shot mistake at the 18th (par 4), Yuna made a bogey, and withdrew by a gap of three pars.

Lee Ye-won, who targeted the multi-win king this year, said in an interview after the game, "I feel good that my two wins in the season came out earlier than expected, and it's even more meaningful because it's my first wire-to-wire win," adding, "My goal is to win the multi-win king, but it's still early in the season, so I'll have good results if I play calmly without being too obsessed with winning."

Yoon In-na, who started in third place by four strokes with the lead, failed to turn the tables, but surpassed the 46th KLPGA Championship (9th) in the season's first major tournament, Chris F&C, and achieved her best performance since returning.

Hwang Yoo-min and Han Jin-sun tied for third (7-under 209), while veteran Ahn Sun-joo and rookie Lee Dong-eun tied for fifth (6-under 210).

Park Ji-young, who was the first to win two games in the season at the 1991 Ladies Open in Kyochon last week, lost two shots on the day and tied for 18th (even par 216) but firmly maintained her lead in the grand prize and prize money (432.76 million won) this season.

BY: 스포츠토토핫