“Secure 170 million won.”
The prize money to maintain the Korea Ladies Professional Golf (KLPGA) tour seeding is gradually increasing and is expected to surpass the 150 million won barrier for the first time this year.
The KLPGA Tour has nine tournaments remaining, including the OK Financial Group Shotman Open (total prize money of 800 million won), which opens at Incheon Club 72 Haneul Course on the 15th, and the SK Shielders and SK Telecom Open, which ends on November 12.
On the KLPGA Tour, which has reached the end of the season with 23 of 32 tournaments completed, the competition for the top prize money and 60th place to secure next year’s seed is fierce.
Chae-eun Lee, ranked 60th in prize money as of the 14th with 9 competitions remaining, earned 113,891,488 won. Li Shuying (China), ranked 61st, also won 108,496,212 won in prize money, and 68 people, including Jinyoung Hong (10589,878 won), ranked 68th, have earned more than 100 million won and are waging an invisible war for the 60th place winner. .
As of now, players predict that the Maginot line for maintaining seeding this year will exceed 150 million won for the first time in history and will be decided around 170 million won.
The condition for maintaining a seed on the KLPGA tour is 60th place in the prize money rankings. As the prize money grows every year, the prize money to maintain the seed also increases.
Before 2013 (13.15 billion won), when the total prize money was around 10 billion won, it was possible to maintain the seed by earning only 50 million won in prize money in one season. However, starting in the late 2010s, the situation changed little by little as the total prize money exceeded 20 billion won. Starting with 99,299,550 won in 2016, it remained in the upper 90 million won range at 98,494,762 won until 2018, and then in 2019, the prize money for maintaining the seed exceeded 100 million won for the first time. Lee Ki-bum, ranked 60th that year, earned 102,351,667 won and secured a seed for the next season.
Afterwards, the pace of increase in prize money rose even steeper. Excluding 2020, when the normal season schedule could not be played due to the spread of COVID-19, Ahn Song-i earned 125,389,143 won in 2021 and Ji-min Jeong earned 143,354,547 won in 2022, maintaining his seed with a pull-up in 60th place.
The KLPGA Tour is having an ‘all-time’ season again this year. The total prize money for 32 competitions is 31.8 billion won, the largest ever.
If you are not in the top 60 in the prize money rankings, you will have to be relegated to the seed ranking match, called ‘Hell’s Race’, to secure the seed for next year. Only by competing against players who have passed the Dream Tour and seeding preliminaries and ranking within the top 20 will they receive invitations, prize money from the previous year, and the right to participate in all competitions except for some competitions that grant entry based on various rankings.메이저놀이터
Athletes who are at the bottom of the prize money list are leading a double life by taking part in the Dream Tour during the season to avoid the hellish race.
Moon Jung-min, ranked 78th in the KLPGA regular tour money ranking, won the 13th game of the Dream Tour, which ended on the 13th, and rose to 5th place in the Dream Tour money ranking, making it easier to secure the right to participate in next year’s regular tour, which awards up to 20th place.
Jung-min Moon said, “My original goal was to win the Dream Tour and be in the top 20 in prize money rankings and advance directly to the regular tour.” He added, “Now that I have won this time, I want to go to the regular tour as the Dream Tour money winner.”
The last resort for lower-ranked players is to avoid seed matches. Yoo Hyo-joo, who attended the Seed Game for four consecutive years from 2018 to 2021, said at the sponsorship signing ceremony with Doosan Engineering & Construction earlier this year, “The Seed Game is a place that no one wants to go to. “The air there is gloomy and desolate,” he said, showing his fear.