Korean LPGA winless drought hits 14 tournaments, 2nd longest since 2000

Korean golfer An Narin poeses with a trophy in Jangheung, South Jeolla Province, Nov. 21, 2021. Korea Times file

Korean sophomore An Narin has collected her second top-10 finish of the 2024 LPGA season, coming up a handful of strokes shy of ending the country’s long title drought on the top women’s golf tour.

An was the top-performing South Korean player at ShopRite LPGA Classic in Galloway, New Jersey, on Sunday (local time), as she tied for sixth place at 10-under 203 in this 54-hole event.

An shot a two-under 69 in an up-and-down final round at Seaview Resort’s Bay Course that featured six birdies and four bogeys.

Linnea Strom of Sweden shot a tournament-record 60 in the final round to erase a seven-shot deficit to win the tournament at 14-under. Korea’s Jenny Shin, the overnight leader who began the final round at 10-under, finished tied for ninth at nine-under after submitting a 72 on Sunday.

This was the 14th tournament of the 2024 season, and Korea, once a dominant force in women’s golf, has yet to produce a winner. It is the second-longest winless drought to begin a season since 2000, when Grace Park won the 16th tournament of the campaign.

Strom’s 60, which featured nine birdies and an eagle, was 한국을 the lowest final-round score by a winner in LPGA history. The previous mark was a 61 by the Korean champion Park In-bee at the Manulife Financial LPGA Classic in 2014.

Shin, looking for her first win since 2016, birdied the third hole but then had a double bogey on the very next hole. She managed just one birdie against one bogey the rest of the way

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