Kim Se-young, a female golf star, called the'Mage of Red Pants', won the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, a major LPGA Tour tournament, and achieved her first major championship.

Kim Se-young, who has won 10 wins until last year since advancing to the LPGA Tour in 2015, marked her 11th victory in her career as her first major win.

I heard Kim Se-young's story.




“I've been winning the championship I've been dreaming for so long, but now I feel full? I have to win. I really have to do it. If I don't, something could be left as a trauma.' But I'm so happy to do this."




<Kim Se-young wins the LPGA Tour by year>



2015 3 wins


2016 2 wins


2017 1 wins


2018 1 wins


2019 3 wins


2020 (season ongoing) 1 win



Kim Se-young won the LPGA Tour rookie of the year, starting with 3 wins in 2015 He has won more than one every year and has earned 10 wins until last year, but there was no major win.

He played 28 times in the major tournaments and played eight times in the'Top 10', including two runners-ups, but after the 29th challenge, he finally stood tall as a'major queen'.




“Major tournaments have a different course feature than regular tour tournaments. There are things like difficult greens, narrow or long fairways, or extraordinarily long roughs. This time, it seems to have become the driving force to be able to win more simply, adapting to the course, and using the characteristics of the course."



Kim Se-young, who was pushed to the runner-up at the 2015 KPMG Women's PGA Championship, 5 years ago, defeated Park In-bi's fierce pursuit on the last day and won the championship.




"(Park) Inbi is a senior I really respect and a player I like, and it's an honor to have a confrontation structure like this. I know that my sister is a player who shines more and more in major competitions It's been a lot, but I thought it was more important to show the best performance for myself in that situation than to pay attention to competition. Thanks to Inbi, I think I was able to focus more on my play.”



With this major championship, Seyoung Kim raised the world ranking from 7th last week to 2nd place at once, breaking the personal best ranking.

Previously, 5th was the highest.

This season, we have been at the forefront in various personal awards.

In the average at-bats category, he is leading the way by one stroke, almost one stroke ahead of Hataoka Nasa (69.355 strokes), second with 68.391 strokes, and jumped to second place after Park In-bi in this year's player and prize money rankings.




There is another reason why this victory is valuable to Kim Se-young.

Seyoung Kim, who won her 11th LPGA Tour career as her first major championship, met one of the prerequisites for joining the LPGA'Hall of Fame' in the future.

It is'major championship'.



<Conditions for joining the LPGA Hall of Fame> (LPGA Official Website)



1. Active as a player for more than 10 years on the LPGA Tour


2. Won


at least one of the

major competitions, the Bear Trophy (Seasonal Lowest Batting Award), and Player of the Year

Award.


3. You must fill in 27 points in the Hall of Fame.


(1 point for general championship, 2 points for major championship, 1 point for bear trophy and player of the year)



Kim Se-young has won 12 points for Hall of Fame, including 10 points for 10 general championships and 2 points for one major championship. Stacked up.

This year marks the sixth year of LPGA tour activity.

It's not easy to stay on tour for more than 10 years and to earn general tournament wins. This is one big obstacle this time.

There are only 25 members of the LPGA Hall of Fame in 70 years of history, and Se-ri Park and In-bi Park were named as Korean players.

(Park Se-ri entered the Hall of Fame for the first time in 2007, and Park In-bi for the second time in 2016.)




“The LPGA Hall of Fame is a goal and a dream I have had for a long time. Of course, there is still a long way to go, but I don’t think it’s an impossible dream. If you take one step by step, look forward to seeing that it will come to me at some point. I have to work harder and harder."




In the record of the most wins in Korea's career, Se-young Kim also climbed to third place after Park Se-ri (25 wins) and Park In-bi (20 wins).

(11 wins, tied for 3rd place with Shin Ji-ae) Born in 1993, at 27 years old, I have a lot of time to be active on the tour in the future, and since my debut, I won more than 1 win every year for 6 years and won 3 wins twice a season (2015, As it has the explosive power of 2019), Seyoung Kim is expected to accumulate more multipliers in the future and come one step closer to the records of Se-ri Park and Inbi Park.




'Red pants wizard' Kim Se-young walking along the path of'Legendary' Park Se-ri and'Empressor' Park In-bi.

At the same time, we are creating the'Kim Se-young's Path' where our juniors dream of walking along.



(Photo = Yonhap News, Getty Image Korea)