7 strokes behind 15-year-old Lee Hyo-song becomes the youngest winner in JLPGA history

The first major competition of the season, the Salonpas Cup, hit a hard hit including an ‘eagle’ on the 18th hole of the 4th round. Last year’s KLPGA 3-gold winner Lee Ye-won ranked 3rd. “Amateur Lee Hyo-song defeats the Korean-Japanese queen.”

Amateur Lee Hyo-song (16, first year at Masan Jeil Girls' High School) became the youngest ever winner of the Japan Ladies Professional Golf (JLPGA) Tour.

Hyosong Lee reduced 5 strokes to 1 eagle, 5 birdies, and 2 bogeys in the final 4th round of the World Ladies Championship Salon Pass Cup, the first major tournament of the JLPGA Tour season held at Ibaraki Golf Club (par 72) in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan on the 5th, for a final total of 8. With 280 strokes under par, he beat 2nd place Shuri Sakuma (22) by one stroke. Because he is an amateur, he does not receive the winning prize of 24 million yen (about 213.3 million won).

Lee Hyo-song, who reached the top at the age of 15 years and 176 days, broke the record of the youngest winner on the JLPGA tour set by Minami Katsu (15 years and 293 days at the time) in the 2014 KKT Cup. Even on the Japan Professional Golf Tour (JGTO), the men's tour, he is the youngest. She is also the eighth amateur winner in JLPGA Tour history.

Lee Hyo-song, who entered the fourth round tied for 10th place, 7 strokes behind the leader (10 under par) Lee Ye-won (21) on this day, reduced 3 strokes until the 17th hole, and succeeded in two-on with aggressive play in the last 18th hole (par 5), and scored about 5m for eagle. After making the putt, he joined the lead with 8 under par. Lee Ye-won (6 under par, 3rd place) and Yamashita Miyu (23, 5 under par, tied 4th place), who were competing for the lead with 8 under par until the 15th hole (par 5) in the champion group on this day, lost a number of strokes at the last minute, and competed for the championship with them. Sakuma, who was playing, also went down to 7 under with a bogey on the 17th hole (par 3) and was unable to reduce the number of strokes on the 18th hole, so Lee Hyo-song, who finished the match first, was confirmed to win. Overturning the gap by 7 strokes in the final round is the largest margin of victory in the history of a JLPGA Tour major tournament.

Ye-won Lee is a player who won three gold medals (grand prize, highest prize money, and lowest number of strokes) on the Korean Ladies Professional Golf (KLPGA) tour last year, and Yamashita is a player on the JLPGA tour. Japan’s Nikkan Sports reported, “Amateur Lee Hyo-song defeated two queens from Korea and Japan.”

Lee Hyo-song, who started playing golf with his grandfather in the second grade of elementary school, showed his talent early on. When she was a student at Masan Jeil Girls' Middle School, in 2022 and 2023, she achieved two consecutive wins at the Kang Min-gu Cup Korea Women's Amateur Golf Championship, the most prestigious event in the country. Last year she shot 10 under par in the final round of the tournament. She represented her country and won the World Team Championships last year and the Queen Siri Cup this year.

Lee Hyo-song, who stood at the top wearing her national team uniform with the Taegeuk symbol on this day, said, “I don’t feel like I won yet. “It is an honor for her to win in Japan,” she said. “She wants to achieve more on the Japan tour and ultimately become world number one,” she continued.  온라인섯다