Shin Sang-hoon won the final event of the 2023 season on the Korea Professional Golf (KPGA) Korean Tour.
Shin shot a 4-under 69 with five birdies and three bogeys on the final day of the KPGA Korean Tour’s LG Signature Players Championship (total prize money of 1.3 billion won) at Seowon Valley Country Club (Par 71-7000 yards) in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, on Wednesday.
With a final total of 8-under par 276, Shin won the championship prize of 26,423,384 won after a playoff with Jeon Sung-hyun and Lee Jae-kyung.
Lee Jae-kyung was the first to be eliminated in the first playoff on the 18th hole (par-4), and Shin sank a 3-meter birdie putt in the third playoff to end the tournament.
It was Shin’s second career victory after winning the KPGA Championship in June last year.
Shin, born in 1998, was happy to win his last tournament before he enlisted in the Korean Army in early December.
“I confirmed my enlistment about a month ago, and I think I got a good result because I played with the idea that this is the beginning, not the end,” he said in a post-match TV interview, adding, “I will come back and show you a new face after I finish my military service.”
Jeon, who was trying to win his first career title, had to settle for second place after his 3.3-meter birdie putt on the third extension went wide right. He finished runner-up again at the Bizplay Electronics Newspaper Open in September last year.
With this tournament, Ham topped the Genesis Order of Merit points list for the 2023 season of the KPGA Korean Tour.
Finishing tied for fourth with a final total of 7-under-par 277, he received a bonus prize of $100 million, a Genesis car, five years of tour seeding, a direct entry into the final round of the PGA Tour Qualifying School, and a one-year DP World Tour seeding.
The top prize was won by Park Sang-hyun. Park collected 782.17 million won for the season, surpassing Han Seung-soo’s 745.9 million won.
However, he failed to surpass the KPGA Korean Tour season earnings record of 790.13 million won set by Kim Young-soo last year.
Park also won the Deokchun Award, which is given to the player with the best scoring average, for his 69.83 stroke average.
The Rookie of the Season award was already decided before the tournament.
Born in 1986, Park became the oldest rookie in KPGA Korean Tour history to win the award (37 years, 5 months). 슬롯사이트