Kim Jae-hee joins stacked field at KLPGA Blue Canyon Ladies Championship

The first-ever Blue Canyon Championship will see a field of 72 golfers — consisting of 60 KLPGA golfers and 12 invitees — vie for the biggest slice of a total $650,000 purse.

Kim Jae-hee hits a shot during the Hana Financial Group Singapore Women’s at the Tanah Merah Country Club in Singapore on March 8. [YONHAP]

Kim Jae-hee will be back in action at the Blue Canyon Ladies Championship teeing off at Blue Canyon Country Club in Thailand on Friday after claiming her first-ever KLPGA title last week.

Kim, 23, became the first winner of the 2024 KLPGA season with a victory at the Hana Financial Group Singapore Women’s Open on March 10, which happened to be her birthday.

The first-ever Blue Canyon Championship will see a field of 72 golfers — consisting of 60 KLPGA golfers and 12 invitees — vie for a total prize of $650,000, with $117,000 for the winner on the line.

For the 54-hole stroke-play tournament, multiple strong competitors will be in the field alongside Kim, including Bang Shin-sil who is keen to maintain her momentum from the Hana Women’s Open last week where she finished as runner-up.

“As it was the first tournament [of the season], I tried not to be greedy and tried to focus on the overall process,” Bang said in a press release on Tuesday. “My winter training paid off, and I was satisfied with the result that was better than I expected. I want to play in a way that I find satisfying, and hopefully that leads to a good result as well.”

KLPGA's winningest golfer Park Min-ji with 18 titles, will be joining, too, after tying for 12th place at last week’s KLPGA tournament.

The Blue Canyon Ladies Championship will be broadcast through SBS Golf.

This week’s tournament wraps up the KLPGA schedule in Southeast Asia, with the Tour heading to Korea in April.

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