After a seven-month absence from the top spot in the women’s golf world rankings, South Korea’s 28-year-old Jin-young Ko has returned to the top spot. In the latest World Golf Rankings released on Wednesday, Ko earned a score of 8.26, beating Nelly Coda (USA) by just 0.01 points.메이저놀이터

Unfortunately, golf fans won’t be able to watch her play this week after last week’s tournament. That’s because she won’t be competing in the U.S. Women’s Professional Golf (LPGA) Tour’s Bank of Hope Match Play ($1.5 million in prize money) at Shadow Creek Golf Club (par 72) in Las Vegas, Nevada, starting on Sept. 24 (local time).

In addition to Ko, the tournament will feature the top four ranked South Korean players in the world. In addition to Ko, World No. 10 Kim Hyo-ju, World No. 12 Jeon In-ji, and World No. 24 Choi Hye-jin will not compete this week. The event, which is the LPGA’s only match-play event, is not a big draw for the top players, with only two players ranked in the top 10.

Se Young Kim. <Photo AFP Yonhap
Kim Se-young, the highest-ranked South Korean player in the world, along with last year’s champion Ji-hee Ji, Shin Ji-eun, who reached the quarterfinals last year, Hae-ran Hae, the No. 1-ranked rookie, Kim Ah-rim, the country’s best long hitter, and Lee Jeong-six, Anna Lin and Hong Ye-eun are among the eight South Korean players in the field.

A total of 64 players will compete in 16 groups of four, with the winner of each group advancing to the round of 16, followed by a single-elimination match to determine the winner.

Without their four aces, the Korean women’s golfers are not in a favorable grouping. This is due to the large number of Korean players in the same group. Only one of them can reach the round of 16. In Group 7, Anna Rin and Ji-Eun Shin were drawn to face each other on the first day. Kim Ah-rim and Hae-ran Hae were also in Group 15, although they avoided facing each other on the first day. At least one of them will not advance to the Round of 16.

Lee Jung-six and Hong Ye-eun are also in the same group. In addition, the group includes world No. 8 Brooke Henderson (Canada).

Ji-hee Lee has no other Korean players in her group, but she will have to contend with world No. 22 Lynn Grant (SWE), last year’s European Ladies European Tour (LET) Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year.

The highest-ranked South Korean player, 33rd-ranked Kim Se-young, received an uneventful draw. No Korean player is in the same group as world No. 4 Lilia Boo (USA), who reached the final four last year and is the highest-ranked player in the field.

Hae Ran Lee. <Photo by AFP
Although the aces are missing and the grouping is not comfortable, the relative and volatile nature of match play means that previous results can be ignored. Rather, matchplay is a way to achieve unexpected results if you approach the tournament with a relaxed mindset.

In particular, we’re looking forward to seeing how Ji-hee Lee and Ji-eun Shin perform in match play. The defending champion reached the quarterfinals in 2021, while Shin reached the quarterfinals last year and reached the round of 16 in 2021.