The Appearance of a Golf Genius Lee Hyo-song, 16, the youngest rookie award in JLPGA Tour history, won
Dec 18, 2024
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Lee Hyo-song (Hana Financial Group), who became the youngest rookie in the history of the Japan Ladies Professional Golf Association (JLPGA) Tour at 16, is the main character.
Lee Hyo-song won the Rookie of the Year trophy as the best rookie of the season at the 2024 JLPGA Tour Awards held at the Palace Hotel in Tokyo on the afternoon of the 17th. Lee Hyo-song, who turned 16 last month and was born on Nov. 11, 2008, rewrote Japanese golf history as the youngest rookie of the year ever.
Lee Hyo-song won the title at the World Ladies Championship Salonpas Cup (winner's prize money is 24 million yen, about 224 million won) in May and became eligible to join the JLPGA. At that time, Lee Hyo-song won the trophy at the age of just 15 years and 176 days, breaking the record of being the youngest ever to win the JLPGA Tour, which was established in 1968. Lee Hyo-song, who started the final round tied for 10th, seven shots behind the lone leader Lee Ye-won, performed a thrilling reversal drama. In particular, the last 18th hole (par 5) article was praised for being as good as 'Great Scene of the Year'. The 7-shot upset victory in the final round was the reversal of the most pars in major JLPGA Tour tournaments.
"I deeply appreciate Hana Financial Group for trusting me and giving me generous support and support since I was an amateur," Lee said. With a special opportunity, I played professionally on the JLPGA stage first, not on the KLPGA (Korean Women's Professional Golf), but I am honored to receive the Rookie of the Year award, which is only once in a lifetime. I bow my head to everyone who has always supported and supported me. I'm realizing the high wall of the professional stage, and I'll focus on winter training and show better performance in the new year."
It is the first time in 15 years that a Korean player has won the JLPGA Tour Rookie of the Year award since Song Bo-bae in 2009. Starting with Ko Woo-soon in 1994, he was named the seventh Korean Rookie of the Year winner after Han Hee-won in 1998, Lee Ji-hee in 2001, Jeon Mi-jung in 2006, Song Bo-bae in 2009, and Ahn Sun-joo in 2010.
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Unlike the Korean and U.S. LPGA tours, which determine the winner of the Rookie of the Year award based on points based on season performance, Japan awards Rookie of the Year award to Rookie, who performed the most brilliantly that year.
Last year, Lee Hyo-song won Korea's most prestigious women's amateur golf championship for two consecutive years. This year, he led Korea to victory with Oh Soo-min and others at the 44th Queen Sirikit Cup Asia-Pacific Women's Amateur Golf Team Championship.
Lee Hyo-song, who accidentally followed her grandfather to the golf practice range at the age of nine and connected with golf, emerged as the strongest in elementary school and has been on an elite course by being selected for the national team in 2024, following the junior national standing army of the Korea Golf Association in 2020 and the national standing army in 2022.
hschung@sportschosun.com
