Jaemin Hwang leads the second day of the KPGA Tour Championship... First win at age 40 (overall)

(Seogwipo = Yonhap News) Reporter Choi Tae-yong = Hwang Jae-min maintained the lead for the second day in the KPGA Tour Championship (total prize money of 1.1 billion won), the final match of the Korea Professional Golf (KPGA) Tour season, and came close to winning his first regular tour victory.

Jaemin Hwang was unable to reduce the number of strokes by recording 3 birdies, 1 double bogey, and 1 bogey in the third round of the tournament held at Teddy Valley Golf & Resort Valley/Teddy Course (par 72) in Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do on the 7th.

However, in weather with strong winds blowing at 10 meters per second, even the top players were unable to reduce the number of strokes, so Hwang Jae-min maintained his lead after the second round with an intermediate total of 6 under par 210 strokes.

Jae-Hyeon Jeong, who finished runner-up in the Lexus Masters last week after overtime, saved one stroke and recorded a total of 211 strokes at 5 under par, chasing down Jae-Min Hwang from a tie with Seong-Hyun Jeon for second place.

Hwang Jae-min, who turns 40 on the 12th, is aiming for his first win in his 212nd appearance on the regular tour.

Jaemin Hwang faltered in the first half, losing 1 stroke with 2 birdies, 1 double bogey, and 1 bogey.

Hwang Jae-min, who continued his par streak in the second half, allowed himself a joint lead with Jeong Jae-hyun, but he hit his second shot 1.2m into the hole on the 18th hole (par 4) and made a birdie to rise to the sole lead.

Hwang Jae-min said, "In the past, I would have thought a lot because I wanted to win so much, but now that I'm older, I'm trying to let it go. Rather than being nervous about winning, I'll relax as much as possible and have fun playing."

Jae-Hyeon Jeong also recorded 3 birdies and 2 bogeys, but was unable to reduce the number of strokes further as his short birdie putt missed the hole.

Jeong Jae-hyun said, "Last week, we unfortunately finished second in overtime, but a good opportunity came right away. This year alone, we played in the champion group 3 or 4 times, and we have definitely gotten used to it better than before, so we will be able to do well."

Kim Min-gyu, who has three wins in total on the KPGA Tour, made four birdies without a bogey and entered the race for the championship by tying for third place with Jeong Han-mil with a total of 4 under par 212 strokes.

Shin Sang-hoon, who ranked first in target points, lost 5 strokes and fell to 40th place with an intermediate total of 6 over par 222 strokes.

Shin Sang-hoon, who seemed to be on the rise after making birdies in the 4th hole (par 5) and 6th hole (par 4), started making bogeys more frequently afterward.

He made up for it with a birdie on the 13th hole (par 5), but on the 15th hole (par 5), his tee shot deviated far to the left of the fairway and ended up being a lost ball, resulting in a quadruple bogey.

Jeong Chan-min, who played in the same group and ranked 3rd in target points, also lost 3 strokes and finished tied for 28th with an intermediate total of 4 over par 220 strokes.

As Jang Yu-bin, who ranked second in grand prize points, was disqualified in the second round, Shin Sang-hoon and Jeong Chan-min faced a fierce competition for the grand prize until the last day of the season's final match.