It’s not easy to earn more than 1 billion won in a year on the Korean Ladies Professional Golf (KLPGA) Tour, and so far, only nine players have surpassed 1 billion won in season earnings, including Lee Ye-won this year.
From Kim Hyo-ju, who kicked off the “billion won era” in 2014 with 1.2897 billion won, to Park Sung-hyun (1.3309 billion won) and Ko Jin-young (1.2244 billion won) in 2016, to Lee Jeong-six (1.14905 billion won) in 2017, Choi Hye-jin (1.2716 billion won) and Jang Hana (1.0572 billion won) in 2019, Park Min-ji (1.5217 billion won) in 2021, Park Min-ji (1.4792 billion won) and Kim Soo-ji (1.08258 billion won) in 2022, and Lee Ye-won (1.2104 billion won) this year.
Of the nine, only Park Min-ji broke the 1 billion won mark twice.
Earning 1 billion won in a year is hard enough, but it’s even harder to surpass the ‘2 billion won in two years’ mark. First, you need to hit a steady shot without a slump for two years.
Especially since it has become customary for players to move to the LPGA Tour once they have stabilized the domestic stage, there have been no such players.
Kim Hyo-joo, who broke the 1 billion won mark for the first time in 2014, played only five domestic tournaments before joining the LPGA Tour in 2015, earning only 271.2 million won.
The first player to reach the ‘2 billion won’ mark on the KLPGA Tour was Park Sung-hyun, who now plays on the LPGA Tour.
Park made her KLPGA Tour debut in 2014, earning 736.69 million won (second on the money list) in 2015 and then 1.33 billion won (first on the money list) in 2016, totaling 2.069 billion won in two years.
The second player to earn over 2 billion won in two years is LPGA player Lee Jung-six.
After making her debut in 2016, Lee earned 1.149 billion won in 2017 and 957.64 million won in 2018, totaling 2.069 billion won over two years. Lee also moved to the LPGA Tour in 2019.
After Park and Lee, the next player to join the “Two-Year 2 Billion Won Club” is Choi Hye-jin.
After earning 822.9 million won (fourth on the money list) in her debut year in 2018, Choi followed that up with 1.276 billion won (first on the money list), bringing her two-year total to 2.295 billion won. 온라인카지노
When it comes to prize money, it’s Park Min-ji who continues to set new records on the KLPGA Tour.
In 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Park earned just $593.34 million (5th on the money list).
In 2021, however, she earned the KLPGA’s highest seasonal prize money ever: 1.521.37 million won (No. 1 on the money list).
Her prize money from 2020 and 2021 combined totaled 2.1471 billion won.
In 2022, Park earned 1.4779 billion won, and this year, she has earned 646.34 million won.
And this year, there’s one more person who won “2 Years, 2 Billion Won” besides Park Min-ji.
It’s Lee Ye-won, who is leading the prize money list.
With three wins this year and a total of 1.3214 billion won, Lee earned 849.78 million won (third place) last year without a win, bringing his two-year prize pool to 2.7082 billion won.
There is also a preliminary candidate for the two-year 2 billion won club.
Kim Soo-ji, who earned $1.082 billion last year and is second on the prize pool.
This year, she earned $887.19 million and is currently ranked fourth on the prize pool, leaving her just over 30 million won away from the 2-Year 2-Billion Club.
With three tournaments remaining, the 2023 KLPGA Tour continues with the SK networks – Seoul Economy Ladies Classic at Finks GC in Jeju, starting this week on the 26th.