Kim Jong-hak’s driver tee shot.
Kim Jong-hak, the ‘hidden long hitter’ of the Korea Professional Golf (KPGA) Tour, emerged as the leading figure of the sensation in the Descente Korea Match Play (total prize money of 800 million won).
Kim Jong-hak defeated Lee Jeong-hwan by 4 holes in the round of 16 of the tournament held at Kingsdale Golf Club (par 72) in Chungju-si, North Chungcheong Province on the 1st and advanced to the quarterfinals.
Kim Jong-hak participated in the preliminary round of this competition.
In the 14th Descente Korea Match Play this year, there are only two players who went through the preliminaries, including Lee Sang-yeop in 2016 and Lee Dong-min in 2021.
Kim Jong-hak, now in his 4th year, has never achieved any achievements worthy of becoming famous.
In 2019, when he was a rookie, he maintained his seed at 43rd in prize money, but lost his seed in 2020 at 101st in prize money, and last year, when he returned after three years, he lost his seed at 92nd in prize money.
This year, too, the highest ranking was a tie for 29th in the DB Insurance Promy Open, and the prize money ranking was pushed down to 87th. 파워볼사이트
However, Kim Jong-hak attracted attention by defeating the favorites one after another in the Descent Match Play.
He lost to Kim Min-hwi by 1 hole in the first match of the group stage, but defeated No. 1 seed Ham Jeong-woo by 5 holes in the second match.
Kim Jong-hak, who defeated Ha Chung-hoon by 2 holes in the third match of the group stage, defeated Ham Jeong-woo and Kim Min-hwi in the playoffs and advanced to the round of 16.
Min-Hwi Kim played on the PGA Tour and won the tournament in 2018. Ham Jeong-woo has three wins in total and is the winner of last year’s Genesis Grand Prize.
Lee Jung-hwan, who met in the round of 16, passed the group stage with 3 consecutive wins, ranked 1st in Genesis Grand Prize points, 2nd in prize money rankings, and 1st in average strokes.
Anyone could see that Lee Jeong-hwan would have the upper hand, but Kim Jong-hak pushed Lee Jeong-hwan from the beginning.
Kim Jong-hak, who narrowly won the 2nd and 3rd holes and then ran away with a 3-hole lead with a birdie on the 7th hole (par 4), lost the 11th (par 5) and 12th holes (par 4) and was chased by 1 hole, but lost 13. They decided the game early by winning three holes from the first to the 15th holes.
The driving force behind the gust of wind is slugging power.
Kim Jong-hak hits long balls enough to rank 16th in the long balls category (average 304.37 yards) on the KPGA Tour. He also ranks 9th in green hit rate (75.31%), led by long shots.
However, his putting skills were not up to par, so he was unable to produce any results.
He ranks 77th in putts when hitting the green (1.84) and ranks 61st in average strokes (72.17).
On this day, Kim Jong-hak hit the green with one driver tee shot in the 10th hole (par 4, 405 yards), but made par with 3 putts.
The 10th hole is downhill from the tee box, but the distance the ball flies must be over 300 yards to hit the green with a single tee shot.
Kim Jong-hak said, “I usually have a lot of distance. The average drive distance is about 320 yards. Last year’s performance was not good, so I increased my training a lot. I practiced to be able to use both draw and fade pitches, and it seems to be paying off.” said.
Kim Jong-hak said, “I was very nervous because Lee Jeong-hwan is very talented and is currently ranked first in Genesis points,” and added, “I thought there would definitely be an advantage since it is a match play tournament, not a stroke play format. We will play aggressively from the beginning. “The game went well, and there were some holes where I was lucky to win thanks to Lee Jeong-hwan’s mistake,” he explained.
Kim Jong-hak said, “Personally, I prefer match-play type competitions. I have an aggressive style, and I think aggressive players have an advantage in match-play type competitions.” He added, “The opponent player’s performance is important, but if I play well, I can be good enough to win. “I think I can aim for it, and I will prepare for the quarterfinals by eating well and resting well,” he said.
Kim Jong-hak competes with Park Jun-seop to advance to the semifinals.
Park Jun-seop beat ‘Yeongam Man’ Kim Chan-woo, who won the KPGA Classic, by two holes.
Last year’s Asian Games gold medalist Jo Woo-young defeated the veteran fighting spirit of Hwang In-chun, who turns 50 in four months, by 4 holes and advanced to the quarterfinals.
Choi Seung-bin, who is set to defend his title at the KPGA Championship next week, beat Song Min-hyuk by 2 holes and advanced to the quarterfinals.
Min-gyu Kim beat Go Gun-taek by 2 holes and advanced to the quarterfinals.
Jeon Ga-ram defeated Heo In-hoe and reached the quarterfinals.
Jaewoong Eom advanced to the quarterfinals after a close battle with Jinjae Byeon all the way to the 19th hole. 한국야동
