Park Min-ji does it again at BC Card Hankyung Ladies Open

Park Min-ji won the BC Card Hankyung Ladies Cup 2022 at Fortune Hills in Pocheon, Gyeonggi on Sunday, marking her third win of the season and 13th of her career.

Park Min-ji reacts after birdying the fifth hole during the final round of the BC Card Hankyung Ladies Cup 2022 at Fortune Hills in Pocheon, Gyeonggi on Sunday. [KLPGA]

Park Min-ji won the BC Card Hankyung Ladies Cup 2022 at Fortune Hills in Pocheon, Gyeonggi on Sunday, marking her third win of the season and 13th of her career.

The BC Card Hankyung Ladies Cup, played for three days as a 54-hole stroke play event, was won only after a sudden death playoff against Park Ji-young.

Park Min-ji and Park Ji-young were tied at the end of the final round with 12-under-par, 204, and the match was pushed to a sudden-death playoff. Park Min-ji was able to birdie the hole while Park Ji-young parred, dropping her chance to win her second title of the season.

Park Min-ji picked up her first KLPGA Tour victory of the season on May 15 at the NH Investment & Securities Ladies Championship, carding an 11-under-par, 205, one stroke ahead of Hwang Jeong-mee, to defend her 2021 title.

Then on June 12, Park Min-ji became the first KLPGA golfer to defend her title twice, clinching a wire-to-wire victory at the Celltrion Queens Masters held at Seolhaeone country club in Yangyang, Gangwon.

Park Min-ji tees off on the first hole during the final round of the BC Card Hankyung Ladies Cup 2022 at Fortune Hills in Pocheon, Gyeonggi on Sunday. [KLPGA]

Park Min-ji's third title in just her ninth event of the season sets her up perfectly to repeat her explosive performance last year.

Last season, Park Min-ji picked up a total of six titles. By the last week of June last season, 10 KLPGA event had been played with Park Min-ji winning half of them. In that month alone, she won the Celltrion Queens Masters to win her fourth title and then the national title at the Korea Women's Open Golf Championship to win her fifth title on consecutive weekends.

Park Min-ji's first win last season was in April at the Nexen Saint Nine Masters 2021 and her second at the 2021 NH Investment & Securities Ladies Championship. Park Min-ji's third win came a week after her second, at the Doosan Match Play Championship. Her fourth win came at the Celltrion Queens Masters Open, after she sat out the Lotte Open to recharge. Park Min-ji picked up her fifth win at the DB Group Korea Women's Open in June, then won her sixth title at the Daebo hausD Open.

Park Min-ji was named the KLPGA Player of the Year after winning six titles last season. The most titles won on the KLPGA Tour in a single season is nine, a record held by Shin Ji-yai.

The KLPGA Tour continues on Thursday with the McCol Mona Park Open with SBS Golf at Birch Hill Golf Club in Pyeongchang, Gangwon.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]