Korean stars put together dominant 2019 season in LPGA

Ko Jin-young of South Korea poses with the Rolex Annika Major Award, Vare Trophy and the Rolex Player of the Year trophy after the final round of the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Fla., Sunday. AFP-Yonhap

The 2019 LPGA Tour season ended the same way it started: with a South Korean golfer hoisting the champion's trophy.

And in between, players from the most dominant country in women's golf won a whole lot of other events too.

Kim Sei-young won the final tournament of the season, the CME Group Tour Championship, in Florida on Sunday (local time), a fitting finishing touch to a season that opened with a victory by countrywoman Ji Eun-hee at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in January.

All told, South Korean golfers combined for 15 wins out of 32 LPGA tournaments in 2019, tying the country's record for most victories in a season. The mark was set in 2015 and was matched in 2017.

Ko Jin-young, the world No. 1 and the LPGA Player of the Year, won a tour-best four titles, followed by Kim with three. Veteran Hur Mi-jung hadn't had a victory since 2014 before winning twice this year. Former world No. 1 Park Sung-hyun also had two victories, while Rookie of the Year Lee Jeong-eun, Ji Eun-hee, Amy Yang and Jang Ha-na each had a win.

Of the group, Jang, a former LPGA star now based in the South Korean tour, got her win as a nonmember in October at the inaugural BMW Ladies Championship in October in Busan, 450 kilometers south of Seoul.

South Koreans split the two highest individual honors, with Ko taking the Player of the Year award and Lee handily winning the race for the Rookie of the Year award.

Ko, who counted two majors among her four victories in 2019, spent the bulk of the season as the world No. 1. She clinched her Player of the Year award with three tournaments remaining in the season.

Ko joined the 2013 winner Park In-bee and 2017 co-winners Park Sung-hyun and Ryu So-yeon as the only South Korean players to be named LPGA Player of the Year.

Ko also became just the third LPGA golfer to grab the Rookie of the Year and the Player of the Year awards in consecutive seasons, after Annika Sorenstam (1994-1995) and Lydia Ko (2014-2015). Nancy Lopez in 1978 and Park Sung-hyun in 2017 won those two awards in the same season.

Lee, whose lone 2019 title came at the most prestigious major, the U.S. Women's Open, got hers even earlier. She secured the top rookie prize with five tournaments left in 2019, becoming the fifth straight South Korean to earn the best rookie award in the process.

Ko also captured her first Vare Trophy, awarded to the player with the lowest scoring average. Ko finished at 69.062 strokes per round, with another South Korean, Kim Hyo-joo, in second place at 69.408.

And by finishing tied for 11th at the CME Group Tour Championship, Ko added US$59,613 to capture the money title at $2,773,894.

Ko had earlier won the Annika Major Award, as the player with the best overall record at major tournaments this year. And she became only the second player, after Ariya Jutanugarn in 2018, to sweep the Player of the Year, Annika Major Award, scoring title and money title while being No. 1 in the world.

"I am honored to win (these) amazing awards," Ko said after the CME Group Tour Championship. "I feel relieved. But this is not the end, only the beginning. I will work even harder."

Ko sustained a left ankle injury during the Taiwan Swinging Skirts LPGA earlier this month and was forced to withdraw from that event during the third round.

She said her ankle was getting better, though she wasn't too pleased with her play at the season finale.

"I tried to do my best today, but putting was not good," she said. "I'll rest a few weeks and then I'll practice again."

Following Ji's victory in January, Yang, Park Sung-hyun and Ko won three consecutive tournaments from mid-February to mid-March.

With Ko winning the ANA Inspiration and the Evian Championship, and Lee taking home the U.S. Women's Open title, South Korea was home to three of the five major titles in 2019.

And South Korea had an LPGA winner in every month of the season. (Yonhap)