KLPGA enters home stretch at S-Oil Championship

A field of 96 golfers have tee times in Jeju on Thursday as the KLPGA Tour’s S-Oil Championship kicks off the beginning of the season’s end.

Lee So-mi tees off during the final round of the 2022 S-Oil Championship. [NEWS1]

A field of 96 golfers have tee times in Jeju on Thursday as the KLPGA Tour’s S-Oil Championship kicks off the beginning of the season’s end.

This year’s S-Oil is the penultimate competition of the Korean women’s golf tour, which closes next weekend.

It's a busy time for women’s golf on this side of the world. The international LPGA Tour ends its fall Asian swing with the Toto Classic in Omitama, Japan, which also begins on Thursday. Nine Korean players are set to be there.

At the same time, players on the Korean Tour will tee off further south at Elysian Jeju Country Club where they’ll have a view of the mountains and, like anywhere in Jeju, be pretty close to the sea.

Just 60 professionals will play the full 72-hole tournament, with the cut coming after the second round on Friday. They’ll vie for the biggest piece of the 900 million won ($650,000) purse, up 100 million won from last year.

Defending champion Lee So-mi returns to the course after so far failing to notch a KLPGA Tour win this season. Lee came close to a title at the Dongbu Construction Koreit Championship in mid-October, finishing as runner-up, but most recently placed 62nd at the SK Networks Seoul Economics Ladies Classic after dealing with a stye and a cold last weekend.

“I want to finish this week with better performance than last week, and I will try to catch the title if I have a chance to defend myself," Lee said in an interview ahead of the tournament. "The course is not easy, but I think the weather will be the key because it is Jeju Island.”

Park Hyun-kyung, who won last week’s SK Networks Championship to claim her first Korean Tour title since 2021, is also set to compete in Jeju and agreed the biggest variable will be the weather. Park said in a pre-tournament interview she plans to adjust her play to the climate.

Apart from the first round on Thursday, which is expected to be warm and sunny with temperatures in the high 70s, conditions for the rest of the tournament could be bleak. Rain is predicted for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with thunderstorms expected on Saturday as of press time.

In 2019, the S-Oil was canceled after the first round due to bad weather.

This year marks the S-Oil tournament’s 17th anniversary. A number of the Korean tournament’s winners have since reached the global stage. LPGA’s No. 8 Chun In-gee and No. 19 Choi Hye-jin are among the list of previous champions.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]