Hyo Joo Kim began making big noise with her talent as a 14 year old amateur in 2009.

That year, she played brilliantly at two KLPGA Major championships. At the Hite Cup, she was one of the leaders after the first round, and was even fifth as late as the start of the fourth round. At that point she stumbled somewhat, but still compiled an impressive T-13th result. At the KB Star Tour Grand Final, she was again in the top five after the first round, but ended up tied for 34th.

In 2010, she led Korea to a victory at the Queen Sirikit Cup, an important team event. She also won individual honors thanks to a final round 65. She was 8 shots ahead of the next player in the field. Later in the year, she finished tied for third at the Rush & Cash Charity Classic on the KLPGA tour.

Despite her quality amateur results, she was not one of the three golfers chosen to represent Korea at the 2010 Asian Games. That squad won the team gold and individual gold without her, showing just how deep they are.

Hyo Joo continued to be a top junior golfer over the next two seasons. In July of 2010, she won the R&A Junior Open Girls golf title in Fife, Scotland, by three shots; Korean New Zealander Cecilia Cho was third.

In 2011, she was again on Korea's squad for the Queen Sirikit Cup. She finished second, one shot out of the gold medal spot, but Korea won the team gold by four shots. Later in the year, she achieved a major coup by claiming the Callaway Junior World Golf Championship, winning the 15-17 year old division by five shots. She was not able to qualify for the US Women's Amateur later that summer, however, only achieving alternate status.

She had some good results on the KLPGA tour in 2011. In June, she finished tied for 5th at the Woori Investment & Securities Ladies Championship. She led the Korean Women's Open after the first and second round, but a poor weekend reduced her to 15th. She also had a 9th at the Lotte Mart Women's Open and a tie for 20th at the Hite Cup, the year's third Major.

At the end of 2011, Kim triumphed at the Junior Orange Bowl in Florida, making a birdie on the last hole to secure the title.

Hyo Joo Kim had a mind blowing 2012 season that saw her win multiple professional events, become a pro herself, and threaten to become the next superstar in Korean golf. The fun started at the first KLPGA event contested in 2012, the Lotte Mart Women's Open. Kim got off to a blistering start, shooting a 66 to take a share of the first round lead. She shot the best round of the day on Friday as well, a 67, and had a 7 stroke lead by day's end. By the middle of Saturday, she had built her lead to 10, but then fell back to a 6 stroke lead by day's end. She finished the week with another 66, absolutely crushing a field of top KLPGA pros with ease. She had a nine shot win over second place Hyun Hee Moon, 13 strokes over KLPGA Player of the Year Ha Neul Kim, who finished third. Only Se Ri Pak had ever had a more dominating KLPGA win while still an amateur.

A few months later, she played her first JLPGA event, the Suntory Ladies Open. Trailing by four going into the final round, she produced a mind boggling final round 61, the lowest score ever shot on the Japanese tour, to claim a four shot win. She became the youngest winner, at 16, in JLPGA history, breaking the record once held by Japanese legend Ai Miyazato. Her brilliant wins in Korea and Japan started a bidding war among sponsors, all eager to become her main sponsor whenever she turned pro.

Kim had brilliant results on the LPGA in 2012 as well. The week after her win in Korea, she played Lotte's LPGA event, and finished 12th. She had top 25 finishes at two other LPGA events. But it was the remaining event she played that was truly special. Invited to the Evian Masters, one of the most important events on tour, Kim contended all week, and had a shot at winning even with just a few holes to go. She came up just short, finishing tied for 4th, but everyone who watched her was in awe of the precocious 17 year old. She would go on to win another pro event in Taiwan for her third professional win as an amateur in less than six months.

Kim was the medalist in stroke play at the 2012 US Women's Amateur, but lost in the second round of match play. Her final amateur event was the Women's World Amateur Team Championship, where she led Korea to a repeat of the team title and finished 4th in the individual rankings. Kim then turned pro in October and signed a deal with Lotte, the company whose event she had won back in April. The deal was reportedly the largest for a rookie since Se Ri Pak.

Kim did not take long to make good on the promise. She finished 13th at the Swinging Skirts event in December, a tournament including most of the top women pros in the world. The following week, she dueled with two-time champion Hye Youn Kim at the Hyundai China Ladies Open, capturing the title when Kim double bogied the final hole. It had taken Kim just two events as a KLPGA member (just two months after turning pro) to notch her first win, the fastest a player had ever gotten a KLPGA win after turning pro in the league's history.

As expected, Hyo Joo had a fantastic rookie year on the KLPGA tour. As it turned out, she had a massive battle for Rookie of the Year with another super talented teen, In Gee Chun, but in the end, Kim prevailed. She also won the title for lowest scoring average in 2013, while finishing fourth on the money list and second in the Player of the Year contest. She notched 14 top tens and an additional 6 top 20s while missing just one cut, and wound up making 464 million won. Besides her win, her best finishes were a tie for 2nd just a shot behind Mirim Lee at the KG Edaily Ladies Open, a runner-up to Bo Kyung Kim at the E1 Charity Open, a final round tussle with In Gee Chun (which Chun won) at the Korean Women's Open (Hyo Joo finished 6th), another runner-up to Ha Neul Kim at the MBN Kim Young Joo Golf Women's Open, a 4th at the year's second Major, the KLPGA Championship, and a 3rd at the year's 4th Major.

In addition to all of that, Kim also was tied for the Player of the Year award with one event to go, but finished just one shot behind Ha Na Jang in that final event to lose that award by the barest of margins.

Kim also played two LPGA events in 2013. The better result came at her sponsor's tournament, the Lotte Championship. Paired with fellow teen sensations Ariya Jutanugarn and Lydia Ko, Kim played really well. She climbed fairly high after three rounds before a disappointing final round left her tied with Ko in 9th place.

Kim started the 2014 season with a tie for 4th at the Swinging Skirts in December, and a 12th in defense of her China Open title. She was thus 4th on the 2014 KLPGA money list by New Year's Day 2014.

Hyo Joo Kim had a huge breakout season on the KLPGA tour in 2014. By the end of the year, she had risen all the way to 8th in the world rankings. Her year started well, with multiple top tens early on. But she really hit her stride at the Korean Women's Open. It was held that year the same week as the US Women's Open, so top KLPGA star Ha Na Jang went to play that event while Hyo Joo stayed behind. It was a good choice. Kim won the tournament for her first career Major and first win in more than a year.

After that, the floodgates opened. Kim won the next event on tour, then after a 6th place finish, won the Hanwha Classic for her third win in four starts. That win put her above Jiyai Shin's record for most money ever earned in a single season on the KLPGA, and there was still a lot of season left to play.

Kim went from strength to strength the rest of the year. She won two of the three remaining Majors on the KLPGA tour for a total of five wins in 2014. She was the first player to win that much in a year since Hee Kyung Seo in 2009, and the first since Seo to win three Majors in a season. Kim won all the major awards on tour. Her final money total of over 1.2 billion won made her the first player to ever get above the billion won mark in a season. She also beat the #2 player by about half a billion won. She also won the Player of the Year, Most Wins and Low Scoring Average awards.

Amazingly, all of that wasn't even the most impressive thing Kim did in 2014. She played four LPGA events and had top tens in all of them. She played the Evian Championship in September, her first career LPGA Major, and in her very first round at a Major, shot a 61, the lowest score anyone had EVER shot in any Major, man or woman. In her FIRST ROUND at her FIRST MAJOR. Kim would go on to beat Karrie Webb in a duel for the title by making a clutch birdie on the final hole to force a two shot swing over the Australian Hall of Famer. The win gave Kim an LPGA tour card for 2015.

Kim also was the MVP at the Korea-Japan Team Championship, leading South Korea to a crushing victory. Then, a week later, she played at the Hyundai China Ladies Open, the first event of the 2015 season on the KLPGA tour, and won there, outlasting a furious charge from friend and fellow Korean golf star In Gee Chun. So that made it a total of seven wins for Kim in the calendar year 2014. Unbelievable.

Hyo Joo's rookie year on the LPGA was a strong one, although in the end only good enough for second in the Rookie race to fellow KLPGA star Sei Young Kim. Still, it was a strong debut. She notched 9 top tens, and won the JTBC Founders Cup in March for her second LPGA win. She had two other fifth place finishes, but didn't contend as often as perhaps her 2014 record would have predicted. In part this was due to some medical issues she had in the latter half of the year, as well as trying to play in both Korea and the US.

She also had a win on the KLPGA, at the Kumho Tire event in China. That was her second official KLPGA win of 2015; her first win also came at a KLPGA event in China the previous December. And at the end of the year, she nearly defended at that event, finishing just behind KLPGA star Sung Hyun Park.

Kim wound up 13th on the money list with nearly $1 million in earnings. Her most impressive result was her scoring average, which, at 70.14, was 5th best in the league. She only missed one cut, and only two other times finished outside the top 25. And of course, she earned top status for 2016. She ended 2015 10th in the Rolex World Rankings.

Hyo Joo quickly established herself as a top contender to make the Korean Olympic team in 2016 when she won the first event of the LPGA season, the Pure Silk Bahamas. Alas, she was never able to live up to that level of play for the rest of the season. She did achieve five more top tens, but no more wins, and she failed to make the Olympic or International Crown teams.

She wound up with a scoring average around 8 tenths of a stroke worse than the one she had in 2015. She finished 20th on the money list with about $750K earned.

At the end of 2016, however, Hyo Joo returned to a place where she had had much success: the Hyundai China Ladies Open. She won it for the third time in a pitched battle with fellow Korean star Ha Na Jang.

2017 was not a great year for Hyo Joo, but her scoring average was almost as good as her best season. Despite that, she only managed 4 top tens and got no wins. Her best finishes were a pair of ties for 7th. She made a little less than $500,000 for the year, good for 38th on the money list.

Hyo Joo did not have a strong 2018 season, either. She had just one top ten all year, but it was a solo second, and it came at the biggest event of the season, the US Women's Open. In the final round, it looked like Ariya Jutanugarn was going to easily win; but on the back nine, she made numerous mistakes, while Hyo Joo made a great run. Kim forced a playoff, and in the two-hole aggregate playoff, she birdied the first hole to take the lead. Alas, she bogied the second hole, which allowed Jutanugarn to force a sudden death playoff, and the Thai star won the tournament two holes later.

Thanks largely to her payday at the Open, Kim earned about $753,000 for the year and finished 25th on the money list.

Hyo Joo bounced back in a Major way in 2019. In many ways, this was her best season to date; the only thing she was not able to do was win, although she came close. But she had 12 top tens, made over $1.2 million, and finished 10th on the money list, all career bests. Her scoring average of 69.41 crushed her previous best, and was the second best in the entire league, behind only Jin Young Ko. She led the league in putting average (27.59) and putts/green in regulation (1.72). She was second in rounds under par and sand saves and 7th in accuracy off the tee.

She had a lot of great weeks on the course. She finished second in Arkansas and Japan. But it was her other runner up finish that was the most painful. Kim had won the Evian Championship back in 2014, and after a 64 in round 2 and 65 in round 3, she looked like she was ready to win it again. But on the 14th hole of the final day, she plugged her tee shot in a bunker. She could not get her second shot out of the sand and, even worse, it rolled into a footprint. She ended up with a triple bogey, and Jin Young Ko wound up winning, with Kim finishing tied for second.

Kim also played for the losing LPGA team at the OrangeLife Champions Trophy. She lost when teamed with Eun Hee Ji 3 & 1 to Chae Yoon Park and Ha Na Jang, lost to Cecilia Cho/Ayean Cho when again teamed with Ji, and squared her singles match with Ye Rim Choi.

In 2020, the whole world was rocked by the Covid-19 pandemic. The LPGA and KLPGA tours canceled and postponed many tournaments. Hyo Joo ended up playing entirely in Korea, never playing even a single event on the LPGA. Right from the start of KLPGA action in May, Hyo Joo was a major player. She finished 4th at the KLPGA Championship, and just two events later, claimed her first win at the Lotte Cantata by shooting four rounds in the sixties; she beat Sei Young Kim in the playoff. Her biggest win came a few months later, when she exploded to a ten shot lead at the year's final Major, the KB Group Financial Star Championship, before ending up with an eight-shot margin of victory over World #1 Jin Young Ko.

Kim went on to win the money list by earning 797 million won in just 15 events played. Her scoring average of 69.56 was not only the best of the year, it was the lowest ever recorded for a season. She was second to Hye Jin Choi in Player of the Year. She even won the Most Popular award, as chosen by the fans. Besides her two wins, Kim had two seconds, two thirds and two fourths.

Hyo Joo also participated in the annual KLPGA-LPGA team event, the OrangeLife Champions. Playing for the LPGA, she teamed with Eun Hee Ji in the first round to grab the LPGA's only win that day, a 4 & 3 victory over Ji Hyun Kim and So Mi Lee. The second day was canceled by weather. In singles, Kim eked out a 1-up win over Min Ji Park. Kim was the only LPGA star to get two wins in this year's event, as the KLPGA beat the LPGA, 10.5 - 7.5. Kim was the MVP for the LPGA team.

Hyo Joo returned to the LPGA in 2021 and had a strong season. She finished 21st on the money list with around $855,000 earned. She also collected her first win since 2016 at the HSBC Women's World Championship, her 4th career win. Her overall results were good enough to earn her a place on the Korean Olympic team; she finished t-15th there. Besides her win, she had three other LPGA top tens, including a tie for third at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship.

Hyo Joo also had a great run on the KLPGA in 2021. She played just four events, winning two of them and getting a 6th in another. Her only dud was a 30th at the BMW Ladies Championship, the joint LPGA-KLPGA event.

Hyo Joo had another great season on the LPGA in 2022. She won her fifth career event at the Lotte Championship in Hawaii. She had seven total top tens, including the win, three thirds, and a tie for 5th. One of the thirds came at the Evian, where she was in the hunt on Sunday but came up short for her second win at that event. She also had a tie for 5th at the KPMG. Her money total broke $1.5 million, the most she had ever earned in a season and good for 11th on the money list, and she finished the year ranked 9th in the world.

Kim also played four times on the KLPGA in 2022, her best finish a 4th at the KLPGA Championship.

Hyo Joo Kim had another very strong season in 2023, culminating in a win at the Ascendant LPGA in early October. She also finished 2nd at the Scottish Open and the ShopRite Classic and had 9 total top tens. She had some strong Majors, too. She contended at the US Women's Open at Pebble Beach before fading to a tie for 6th, and also was in the hunt at the AIG British Open, finishing tied for 4th. She finished in the top 20 in all five Majors.

She was one of the four Koreans on the International Crown Team in May, but alas the team did not play well, getting swept by Australia and Thailand before sweeping Japan. They still were not able to get out of the preliminary rounds for the first time in history.

Hyo Joo finished the season with her career best money total, the first time she had broken $2 million in a season. Her total was ~$2,123,000, 7th on the money list. Even better, she led the league in scoring average much of the year, but alas Attaya Thitikul had a few great weeks late, including one week at a par 70 course that allowed her to make a huge gain on Hyo Joo's average (Hyo Joo skipped that week). Thitikul ended up catching Hyo Joo and denied her the Vare Trophy. Still, Hyo Joo finished the year 7th in the world ranking, second best among all the Koreans (behind only Jin Young Ko).