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The ‘K Brothers’, who play on the US PGA Tour, have started to file for the ‘War of Money’, which has a prize money of more than 100 million dollars. Kim Si-woo (27) finished the first round of the FedEx Cup playoffs at TPC Southwind (par 70, 7243 yards) near Memphis, Tennessee, USA on the 12th (Korea time), tied for first place, and Lee Kyung-hoon (31, tied for fourth) and Kim Joo-hyung (20th, joint 18th) also started off fresh.
The golfer who wins all three weeks of this series will be rewarded with a ‘money thunderbolt’ (up to 23.4 million dollars, about 30.4 billion won), which is equivalent to the total prize money (30.5 billion won) of this year’s Korea Women’s Professional Golf (KLPGA) tour.
○A golf feast for 140 billion won
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The nickname of the FedEx Cup playoffs is ‘War of Money’. The prize money for the first round, the St. Jude Championship, and the second round, the BMW Championship, was $15 million each. Each increased by $5.5 million over the previous year. It is more than the total prize money of this year’s major tournament, The Open ($14 million). The highlight is the third round of the Tour Championship. The prize pool at stake is $75 million. In the end, it means a three-week bout over the $105 million prize money.
If they win both the first and second rounds and win the Tour Championship, the maximum prize a player can take is $23.4 million (about 30.4 billion won). If you only play in the playoffs, you will receive at least $120,000. Only the top 125 players in FedEx Cup points can participate in the first round, the top 70 players according to the combined ranking of the first round in the second round, and the top 30 players according to the combined rankings of the first and second rounds in the final match.
The most winners of the FedEx Cup playoffs are Tiger Woods (47, USA) and Rory McIlroy (33, Northern Ireland), who have won two times. In the FedEx Cup playoffs that started in 2007, Korean players were particularly weak. He never won a qualifier, let alone a Tour Championship. The best result was the runner-up record recorded by Kyung-Joo Choi (52) at the Barclays, the first game at the time in 2007. The best final score was 5th, recorded by Choi Kyung-ju that year. The record for the most appearances by a Korean player is held by Im Seong-jae (24), who appeared for four consecutive years this year, and Choi Gyeong-ju, who appeared in 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011.
○Siwoo Kim leads the 18th hole with ‘Shot Eagle’
Siwoo Kim flew on the first day. He drove 1 eagle and 7 birdies. He blocked one bogey and finished the match with JJ Spun (32, USA) tied for first place with a final 8-under 62. Both the driver and iron were good. The fairway landing rate was 92.86%, and the green hit rate was 83.3%. He cut six strokes to the 17th hole (par 4) and hit the ‘Hwa-ryong’ point on the last 18th hole (par 4). A shot hit with an 8-iron with 168 yards left to the hole went straight into the hole. Thanks to this article, I got to the top. Kim Si-woo laughed, saying, “I hit it confidently because I could do a full swing with an 8-iron.”
Kyung-Hoon Lee (31) finished tied for fourth with a 6-under 64. He finished the first half with a one-under par and then cut five more strokes in the second half with his best putting sense. The number of strokes he recorded that day was 4.24, which was second in overall. He said that he earned 4.24 more strokes from putting than the others. Kyung-Hoon Lee said, “If you maintain a good putt sense, you will be able to make more birdies.
Kim Joo-hyeong (20), the ‘scary youngest’ who took the last train after winning the Wyndham Championship last week, had a good start. He finished the game in a tie for 18th at a 4-under 66. Im Seong-jae, who is aiming to compete in the Tour Championship for four consecutive years, hit an even-par 70 and ranked 77th jointly with McIlroy. Scotty Schaeffler (26, USA), who entered this tournament with the title of No. 1 in the world ranking and No. 1 in the FedEx Cup rankings for the season, was sluggish with a tie for 86th with a 1-over par 71 stroke.
Reporter Hee-chan Cho [email protected]
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