The South Korean Hyo-Joo Kim (-4), number 12 in the Rolex Rankings, wants to be a prophet in her own land and has started by leading the Aramco Team Series that is being contested from this Friday in Seoul. The player from Wonju, 28 years old with six victories in the LPGA and 22 in the Korean LPGA, has handed in a card of 68 strokes with an eagle, three birdies and a bogey, to take the lead in the classification ahead of the Colombian Mariajo Uribe (-3), the Indian Pranavi Urs (-3) and the Swede Anna Magnussen (-2).
Kim, who was playing as a guest making her debut in a tournament of the Aramco Team Series, started her round with a birdie on hole 10 and closed it with an eagle on 8 and a birdie on 9. Good start and unbeatable finish before joking about the ambient volume at the tournament: “I wish they had turned the music up a bit louder”.
A birdie finish sends Hyo-Joo Kim to the top of the leaderboard on -4 🇰🇷#RaiseOurGame | #SEETheImpact pic.twitter.com/kmMec9NLk3
— Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) May 10, 2024
“It was a lot of fun. Also, it was the first time I played with four players in a match. I’m working on the things I wanted to improve this year and I feel that I’m doing better and better. In the United States I was not happy with my putt. I had to keep working on the alignment of the putt off the tee, where I spent most of the time”, revealed the tournament’s sole leader after the first 18 holes.
Unfortunately for the South Korean, the joy could not be complete this Friday at the New Korea Country Club because her team did not accompany her. She played with Sanna Nuutinen, Danielle du Toit and Ahn in a quartet that had to settle for 139 strokes and five under par in this first round (only the two best results of each hole among the four members of each team count) to be placed in the 22nd tied position, far from the team of Johanna Gustavsson, who together with Laura Beveridge, Gemma Clews and the amateur Jaeho Shin leads the general team classification with 131 strokes and 13 under par.
The team captained by the Frenchwoman Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, with the Swedes Anna Magnusson and Linnea Johansson and the amateur Park, and the team of the Swede Sara Kjellker with the Finns Elina Nummenpää and Ursula Wikström and the amateur Hwang, share the second place with 10 under par. The team of the Colombian Uribe and that of Nicole Broch Estrup and the team of Shannon Tan are tied in fourth place with nine under.
As for the Spaniards, good start to the tournament for Nuria Iturrioz (+1) which could have been even better. For much of her round she was at par, with two birdies and two bogeys, comfortably installed in the top 10 of the classification, but a last bogey made her fall to the 15th tied position. Marta Sanz (+2), Luna Sobrón (+3), María Hernández (+3) and Marta Martín (+4) are also among the players who would make the cut tomorrow Saturday.
Carmen Alonso (+5), Paz Marfá (+6) and Teresa Díez (+7) will have to make a comeback. By teams, the one captained by Iturrioz, with Marta Sanz, Katherine Muzi and the amateur Lee, with 136 strokes and eight under par, is perfectly placed in the classification, in the seventh tied position, with options to fight for everything tomorrow (the team competition is played over 36 holes). Almost impossible is the other team with a Spanish captain, Carmen Alonso, with one less, far from the lead.
