Seo Gyo-rim and Kim Min-sol compete for two major gold medals at the Hite Jinro Championship

Seo Gyo-rim and Kim Min-sol will compete to win the 26th Hite Jinro Championship (total prize money of 1.5 billion won, winner's prize of 270 million won), the last major tournament of the season, held at Blue Heron Golf Club (par 72) in Yeoju-si, Gyeonggi-do from October 1 to 4.

Seo Gyo-rim and Kim Min-sol have won 4 and 3 wins, respectively, on the KLPGA tour this season, and are continuing to compete fiercely for the top spot in prize money and grand prize points.

When Kim Min-sol reached the top of the Korea Women's Open, the first major tournament of the season last June, Seo Kyo-rim won the second major tournament, the KLPGA Championship, last August, sharing the title of 'Major Queen'.

Park Bo-gyeom won the KB Financial Golden Life Championship, which was the third major tournament of the season, and there has yet to be a winner of multiple major tournaments this season.

Accordingly, the focus of the Hite Jinro Championship, the 25th KLPGA Tour tournament and the last major tournament of the season, is focused on the competition between Seo Kyo-rim and Kim Min-sol for 'multiple wins in major tournaments'.

Minji Park will be the last person to win two major tournaments in one season on the KLPGA stage in 2022.

Blue Heron Golf Club, where the tournament is held, is a difficult course with long rough, narrow fairways, and highly curved greens.

This year, the fairway width is set at 18~20m, which is a little narrower than last year, and the A rough is 35mm and the B rough is 100~120mm, so accurate and strategic tee shots are essential for players, so the 'accuracy competition' between Seo Gyo-rim and Kim Min-sol is expected to be fierce.

In this season's LPGA tour prize money rankings, Seo Gyo-rim (1,398,816,000 won) and Kim Min-sol (1,387,479,428 won) are competing for the top spot. If Kim Min-sol wins, the top prize money spot will change.

Also, if the winner emerges among the two, a new record will be created that will exceed the record for the most prize money in a season (1,521,374,313 won) set by Park Min-ji in 2021, and will exceed 1.6 billion won for the first time in history.

As many as 100 points are at stake for the winner, so if second place Kim Min-sol (436 points) reaches the top, the gap with leader Seo Gyo-rim (563 points) can be greatly reduced.

In particular, if Minsol Kim wins, he will set a new record for '4 wins in a rookie season' for the first time in KLPGA tour history.

Seo Kyo-rim, who is ahead of Kim Min-sol this season in the 'Rim Sol Daejeon', also cannot give up his 5 wins of the season and 2 major gold medals.

Seo Gyo-rim said, "I am in very good condition after resting well for a week and recharging my stamina a lot. My current shot feeling is not too bad, so if I keep maintaining it, I will be able to achieve good results. I will finish the game with no regrets."

Kim Min-sol also pledged, “As this is the last major tournament of the season, I want to show a good performance. I will play as aggressively as possible and do my best to lead to good results.” He added, “I have made up for my shortcomings during recent practice. I will pay attention to ensure that the parts I practiced come out well in the actual game.”

Meanwhile, the participation of Yoo Hae-ran, who won two major championships on the LPGA Tour this season, as an invited player for this tournament, also emerged as a variable in the direction of the championship.

It has been two years and two months since Yoo Hae-ran competed in the Jeju Samdasoo Masters in August 2024 when he competed in a KLPGA tour tournament.