A white ball flew endlessly in the clear Jeju sky without a single cloud. The place where the ball disappeared from sight stopped was the fairway where the green was right in front of me. The recorded distance is a whopping 377.9 yards.
‘Hulk’ Bryson DeChambeau (USA) The hero of this monstrous long hit is Choi Young-joon (21). Born in 2002, the same as the representative of the American Professional Golf (PGA) Tour, Kim Joo-hyung, he is a newcomer who debuted on the KPGA regular tour this year with a higher level of points on the Srixon Tour, the second stage of the Korea Professional Golf (KPGA) last year. In the opening game last week, the first tournament, he hit 75 and 73 and was eliminated from the cut, so his ‘last-class’ long hit did not attract much attention, but in the second competition, he reached the top of the first day and attracted attention. 스포츠토토
In the first round of the Golfzon Open in Jeju (total prize money of 700 million won) held at Jeju Golfzon County Ora (par 72) on the 20th, Choi shot 4 under par 68 with 7 birdies and 3 bogeys. He is tied for 5th place by 4 strokes with Park Eun-shin, who is the sole leader at 8 under par.
Choi Young-joon, who was going even par, easily caught a birdie by shooting a 377.9-yard cannon on the 9th hole (par 4). Although it was a downhill hole, it was a great distance. After the tee shot, the distance to the pin was only about 80 yards. Choi Yeongjun, who caught another birdie with a 334-yard driver shot in the 10th hole (par 4), completed three consecutive birdies in the 11th hole (par 5). He sent a 369.5-yard driver shot into the woods, but finished with an light two-putt after getting his second shot onto the green.
Choi Young-joon, who is 185 cm and 83 kg in height, emits long hits of a different dimension with a smooth swing that does not seem to be very difficult. He also seems to be influenced by playing baseball as a child. A former member of the national team, he went from being an amateur to a KPGA tour player in just five months by solving everything from acquiring associate and full member qualifications to securing a regular tour seed. He said, “If you want to get a lot of distance, you have to hit it in the middle of the head face, and to do that, you have to get the timing right,” he said. “I want to quickly adapt to the tour and become a recognized player.”
Park Eun-shin took the lead with two eagle putts. All of his two tour victories were recorded last year, and one of them was the Golfzon-Toray Open, another tournament hosted by Golfzon. Kang Gyeong-nam, who has 11 wins in his career, is 2nd with a 6-under par, and Shin Yong-gu and Han Seung-soo are tied for 3rd place with a 5-under par. Seo Yo-seop, who has 5 wins, tied for 5th with 4-under par with Choi Young-jun. Lee Won-jun (3 under par) sent his tee shot as far as 405 yards in the ninth hole. The ball hit the cart road and continued down, but the score was par.