Ko Jin-young leads strong Korean contingent at Founders Cup

Two-time champion Ko Jin-young and 16 other Korean golfers look to further extend the Korean dominance at the LPGA Cognizant Founders Cup that tees off at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, New Jersey on Thursday.

Ko Jin-young poses with the the Cognizant Founders Cup trophy after winning the event on Oct. 10, 2021 in West Caldwell, New Jersey. [AP/YONHAP]

Two-time champion Ko Jin-young and 16 other Korean golfers look to further extend the Korean dominance at the LPGA Cognizant Founders Cup that tees off at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, New Jersey, on Thursday.

First established in 2011, the Founders Cup has seen four Korean winners since Kim Hyo-joo became the first to win the title in 2015.

Kim Sei-young lifted the trophy the following year, before Park In-bee — a Hall of Famer with 21 LPGA wins — won it in 2018. Ko then continued the Korean run by winning it in 2019 and 2021.

Ko won the 2019 Founders Cup after managing the last two rounds bogey-free to outplay four other golfers including the current No. 1 Nelly Korda of the United States by one stroke.

Ko, currently ranked at No. 3 on the Rolex Women’s World Rankings, then defended the title in style in 2021 by routing the field for a wire-to-wire run.

The event did not take place in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ko, the only golfer to win the event twice, joins the field with one LPGA title this season — the HSBC Women’s World Championship in February.

Since then, her best finish was tied for fifth at the Drive On Championship in March.

Kim Sei-young, the 2016 champion and formerly one of the top-ranked Korean golfers in the world, is looking for her second Founders Cup win, while Kim Hyo-joo and Park are not competing this year.

Park has yet to make her return to the LPGA Tour since giving birth to her daughter last month.

Kim Sei-young has not managed a top-10 finish this season in five competitions so far. Her best finish was tied for 20th at the Honda LPGA Thailand.

Fifteen other Korean golfers will also be in the field: Jenny Shin, Kim In-kyung, Ryu So-yeon, Ji Eun-hee, Kim A-lim, Park Sung-hyun, Lee Jeong-eun6, Kang Hae-ji, Jang Hyo-joon, Choi Chella, An Na-rin, Ryu Hae-ran, Choi Hye-jin, Amy Yang and Park Kum-kang.

The former Korean champions will be competing against defending champion world No. 3 Minjee Lee of Australia and six other top-10 golfers — No. 1 Nelly Korda, No. 2 Lydia Ko, No. 4 Lilia Vu, No. 5 Atthaya Thitikul, No. 7 Lexi Thompson and No. 9 Georgia Hall.

Vu of the United States is the only multi-winner of the season so far, having won the Honda LPGA Thailand in February and Chevron Championship last month — this season’s first major.

Julieta Granada paired with Mina Harigae and Ryann O'Toole will be the first to tee off on the first hole at 7:15 a.m.

Ko Jin-young alongside Vu and Nasa Hataoka will then start at 1:10 p.m. on the 10th hole, followed by Kim Sei-young, Ariya Jutanugarn and Anna Nordqvist on the first hole at 1:21 p.m.

A victory by a Korean golfer at the Founders Cup would be the second LPGA win by a Korean this season, as Ko Jin-young still remains the only Korean golfer to win an LPGA event this year.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]