Former world No. 1 Ko Jin-young will be among who's who in women's golf set to play at an upcoming LPGA Tour event in South Korea, the tournament organizers said Thursday.
The BMW Ladies Championship, scheduled to tee off next Thursday in Paju, northwest of Seoul, will feature 78 players, according to BMW Korea: 68 LPGA pros and 10 players, including amateurs, competing on a sponsor's invitation.
The list of 68 LPGA stars includes Ko, the 2021 BMW Ladies Championship winner and current world No. 3. Ko has won twice in LPGA so far this season, though she has recorded just one top-10 finish in seven tournaments since her second victory in May.
Four others players inside the top five in the world rankings have also committed to this tournament, the only LPGA event held in South Korea each fall: Lilia Vu of the United States, Yin Ruoning of China, Nelly Korda of the United States and Celine Boutier of France.
Lydia Ko, a Korean-born Kiwi, will try to become the first player to win back-to-back BMW titles since the tournament joined the LPGA schedule in 2019.
Other notable players are the South Korean winners of the two most recent LPGA tournaments: Ryu Hae-ran, who earned her maiden title in Arkansas two weeks ago to pad her lead in the Rookie of the Year standings, and Kim Hyo-joo, the current scoring average leader who picked up her sixth career title in Texas last week.
Among the invited players will be three-time LPGA winner Park Hee-young, returning to the tour after maternity leave of about a year. She will be playing alongside her younger sister Park Ju-young, who recently earned her first win on the South Korean tour in her 279th career start.
Seowon Hills at Seowon Valley Country Club in Paju will be the stage for the US$2.2 million, 72-hole tournament, with the winner's purse set at $330,000.
Source: Yonhap News Agency