Min Ji also played in the year-ending KLPGA/LPGA
team championship, the OrangeLife Champions Trophy. She teamed with
A Lim Kim to trounce Jeongeun Lee6 and MJ Hur 4 & 3, and destroyed
Lydia Ko and Minjee Lee 5 & 4 when teamed with Hee Jeong Lim.
She beat Amy Yang in singles 1 up. The KLPGA won the event 15 to
9. Min Ji made a name for herself with her goofy dancing before
her tee times, winning the 'Best Performance' award as a result.
In 2020, the whole world was rocked by the Covid-19
pandemic. The LPGA and KLPGA tours canceled and postponed many tournaments.
Nonetheless, Min Ji had her best season yet. She earned nearly 600
million won for the year despite only playing 16 events. Once again,
she managed a single win, for the fourth straight year. This time
her victory came at the MBN Women's Open in August. She had nine
total top tens, including two seconds and two thirds. She finished
fifth on the money list.
Min Ji again played in the KLPGA/LPGA team championship,
the OrangeLife Champions Trophy. The KLPGA won again, this time
10.5 - 7.5. Min Ji teamed with Ji Yeong Kim to upset Inbee Park
and Min Young Lee 3 & 2. However, she lost a tight singles match
against Hyo Joo Kim 1 up
2021 turned out to be a career altering season for
Min Ji. From the start of the year until July, she went on one of
the greatest tears in tour history, accumulating six wins in just
13 starts. She slowed down after that, but in the end, she managed
to dominate, setting the all-time record for most money earned in
a single season with 1,521,374,313 won earned. She also won the
Player of the Year award, but only finished 4th in scoring average.
Min Ji did most of her damage in the first half
of the year. She won her second event, the Nexen Saint Nine Masters,
then won again a few weeks later. This is when she hit her stride,
collecting wins in 4 of 5 events. Her third win came at the Doosan
Match Play, typically one of the hardest events to win because it
requires so many rounds of golf. After an 8th in the next event,
she won again at the Celltrion Queens Masters, where she outlasted
fellow star Hyun Kyung Park.
She ran into Hyun Kyung again at their next event,
where they staged one of the greatest battles in many years. It
was the Korea Women's Open, and by the end of the second round,
they were tied for the lead. They would spend the rest of the event
in a massive battle, leaving all the rest of the field in the dust.
By the end of round 3, Min Ji had a one shot lead over Hyun Kyung,
who led the third place golfer by 6 shots. It all went down to the
final hole on Sunday, with both tied. Min Ji hit a perfect tee shot
and went on to make birdie, while Hyun Kyung hit a bad tee shot
and never recovered. The title went to Min Ji.
Min Ji won her 6th event a few weeks later, but
that was it for the wins. She had other great results, however,
including two thirds and two seconds. She had 14 total top tens
during the year.
Min Ji showed that 2021 was no fluke by virtually
duplicating her results in 2022. Once again she led the money list,
this time with the second highest money total ever achieved, 1,477,921,143
won (behind only her record shattering total of the previous year,
of course). Like in 2021, she won six times, becoming the first
player to achieve 12 or more wins in a two-year span since Jiyai
Shin in 2007-2008. But she did not win either Player of the Year
or the scoring title; both of those went to Su Ji Kim, who earned
over a billion won herself. Min Ji had 12 total top tens.
Besides her six wins, her most amazing stat was
her record in the KLPGA Majors. She won the KB Star Championship
and the Hite Cup, two of the five Majors, finished 2nd at the Hanwha,
third at the Korea Women's Open, and fourth at the KLPGA Championship,
her worst finish at a Major in 2022 (!). Simply put, when the stakes
were highest, Min Ji delivered.
Her first win of the season came at the NH Investments
& Securities Ladies Championship in May. A month later, she
got win #2 at the Celltrion, and win #3 at the BC Card two weeks
later. Then came the KB Star and the Hite Cup, and she ended the
year by winning the final event of the season, the SK Telecom Championship.
Min Ji participated in a special event which allowed
her to team with a legend of the game. The LG Se Ri Pak World Match
was a special event in September, pairing top KLPGA players with
Hall of Famers like Annika and Se Ri as well as Yani Tseng, Laura
Davies and others. Min Ji paired with Lorena and together they won.
She later said that she was inspired by this to try her luck on
the LPGA. She had played her first known LPGA Major at the Evian
a few months earlier, and finished just 37th, but she announced
she would play more on that tour in 2023 in the hopes of preparing
to join full time in 2024.
Min Ji played two LPGA Majors in 2023 and did well
in both. She finished t-20th at the Evian and tied for 13th at the
US Women's Open at Pebble Beach. She also had a tie for 20th finish
at the Salonpas Cup, one of the JLPGA's Majors. But on the KLPGA,
she had a weaker year than her recent efforts. She won twice - at
the Celltrion and the BC Card -- but that was still much less than
the 6 wins she had had each of the two previous years. She earned
651 million won, 12th on the money list. She had a total of 9 top
tens. Although this was still a decent year, she felt like she needed
to work harder to prepare before she tried to go to the LPGA. Therefore,
she stayed on the KLPGA for 2024.
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