Jinyoung Ko when she won the Founders Cup last year
Ko Jin-young aims to defend her title and win her first win of the season at the LPGA Tour Cognizant Founders Cup (total prize money of $3 million).
Jin-young Ko will participate in the Cognizant Founders Cup, which will be held for four days starting on the 9th (local time) at the Upper Montclair Country Club (par 71, 6,656 yards) in Clifton, New Jersey.
The Founders Cup is a competition with a special connection to Jinyoung Ko, having won it three times, including last year.
After reaching the top in 2019, the tournament was not held in 2020 due to the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), and then won again in 2021, achieving a second consecutive victory.
Then, last year, she defeated Lee Min-ji (Australia), who was the defending champion at the time, in overtime, and lifted her 15th trophy on the LPGA Tour.
Since then, Ko Jin-young has been showing ups and downs due to injuries and other factors, and has been unable to add wins.
He participated in only four competitions this season and finished in the top 10 twice, but missed the cut at the Chevron Championship last month.
Still, it is encouraging that in the previous tournament, the JM Eagle LA Championship two weeks ago, he finished tied for 4th place (5 under par, 279 strokes) by making 4 birdies on the last day without a bogey, thereby replenishing his confidence ahead of his challenge for his second consecutive win at the Founders Cup.
Attention is focused on whether there will be the first winner of the season in this tournament, where Korean players have shown a strong performance on the LPGA tour without any news of winning this year.
In this tournament, which has been held since 2011 to honor the achievements of those who founded the LPGA Tour, other than Jin-young Ko, Hyo-joo Kim in 2015, Se-young Kim in 2016, and Inbee Park in 2018 have won.
This year’s competition includes Ko Jin-young, Yoo Hae-ran, Yang Hee-young, Kim A-rim, Shin Ji-eun, Choi Hye-jin, Kim Se-young, Ji Eun-hee, Lee Mi-hyang, Anna-rin, Jeon In-ji, and Lim Jin-hee.
In front of the Korean players, a huge wall named world number one Nellie Korda (USA) returns.
Korda, who swept a whopping 5 wins out of 10 LPGA Tour tournaments held earlier this season, will begin competition three weeks after the Chevron Championship.
Korda is currently on a winning streak of five consecutive tournaments based on the tournaments she has participated in, and if she wins this tournament, she will achieve the LPGA Tour’s first ‘six consecutive wins’.
Along with Korda, Nancy Lopez (USA) in 1978 and Annika Sorenstam (Sweden) in 2005 have won five consecutive competitions. If Korda wins this week, she will set a new record.
A number of top players are on the roster, including Lee Min-ji, who lost to Ko Jin-young in overtime last year and missed her second consecutive loss, as well as Celine Boutier (France), Yin Luoning (China), Ataya Titikkun (Thailand), and Brooke Henderson (Canada). Raised it.
Hannah Green (Australia), who reached the top in the previous LA Championship, is aiming for a second consecutive win, and the challenge of world number 10 Lydia Go (New Zealand), who is trying to get one last win to enter the Hall of Fame, continues. 섯다