admin‘Iron Man’ is a symbol of persistence in the world of professional sports. In particular, in sports that are played every day, a record of consecutive appearances is considered a great honor. This is because participating in the game means not getting sick and maintaining your skills.
Golf also has an ‘iron man’ in this sense. I have competitions almost every week, and if you include practice rounds and pro-ams, I round more than 5 days a week. Since professional players do not ride carts, they move on foot, so even if the caddy carries a golf bag, it consumes a lot of physical strength.
The Korea Professional Golf Association (KPGA) Korean Tour, which used to hold an average of 15 tournaments per season, is scheduled to hold 23 to 25 tournaments this year. There are many views that the status of the Korean tour has risen. As the number of competitions increases, the ‘iron man’ also attracts attention. On the 1st, the Korean Tour picked ‘a player who is about to participate in 200 competitions in total’.
Among the players with Korean Tour seeds this year, there are eight players who have participated in more than 200 events. Hwang In-chun (49) participated in 274 competitions and holds the record for the most appearances. Hong Soon-sang (243), Kang Gyeong-nam (237), Joo Heung-cheol (236), Lee Tae-hee (228), Choi Ho-seong (221), Lee Geun-ho (206), Lee Dong-min (201), etc. 스포츠토토
Eight more players are likely to join the 200 club in the 2023 season. Choi Jin-ho (39) and Park Seong-guk (35) are the most likely candidates. Choi Jin-ho, who debuted on the Korean Tour in 2005, and Park Seong-guk, who entered the Korean Tour in 2007, recorded 199 appearances through the LG Signature Players Championship last year. If you participate in the opening game of the Korean Tour, you will join the 200 club.
Choi Jin-ho has won 8 wins on the KPGA Korean Tour so far, and received a total of 2,452,761,936 won in prize money. He passed the cut in 142 out of 199 competitions, and entered the top 10 49 times, raising expectations that he will easily join the 200 club this year. He said, “At the beginning of his debut, he was full of thoughts of only wanting to participate in competitions, but his 200 competitions are just around the corner. He is grateful and happy,” he said. “I lived a tour life without major injuries, and it seems that the ‘joys and sorrows’ of my golf life are contained in the tournaments I participated in. He wants to participate in more competitions in the future and wants to win.”
Park Seong-guk earned 1,418,916,990 won, including his first win in his career at the Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance Choi Kyung-ju Invitational in 2018, 11 years after his debut. He made the cut 135 times and made the top 10 in 25 contests. He said, “I can’t believe that I am already ahead of participating in 200 competitions. He couldn’t even think of it,” he said. “In recent years, I felt that his distance and stamina were lacking compared to his junior players. He is preparing for the season with an emphasis on supplementing this part. A second Korean Tour victory is my goal this year,” he emphasized.