The return of the ‘monster’.
Kim Gyeong-tae (37, Shinhan Financial Group), who has won 20 professional wins, will return to the Korean Professional Golf (KPGA) stage this season. The permanent seeding qualification set by the KPGA was changed this year, and it was crucial that Kim Kyung-tae met the conditions.
The KPGA has changed the permanent seed qualification from ‘a person with a career of 25 wins or more’ to ‘a person with a career of 20 or more wins and a winner of 4 major tournaments’. Kim Kyung-tae recorded 6 victories in Korea and 14 victories in Japan, completing his total of 20 victories. With this, he became the sixth permanent seed after Choi Sang-ho (68), Choi Gyeong-ju (53. SK Telecom), Han Jang-sang (83), Park Nam-shin (64), and Yang Yong-eun (51).
Kim Kyung-tae has built a brilliant resume since his amateur days. From 2003 to 2006, he wore the Taegeuk mark, and in 2005 and 2006, he won the ‘Japan Amateur Championship’ consecutively. He also reached the top at the ‘Pocari Energen Open’ and ‘Samsung Benest Open’, which he entered as an amateur in 2006. In December of the same year, he won gold medals in both the individual and team events at the ’15th Asian Games in Doha’, reaching the peak of his career. It was the prelude to the birth of a monster.
Kim Kyung-tae, who debuted on the tour in 2007, won the ‘Tomato Savings Bank Open’, which was his debut stage, and wrote the great task of winning the KPGA’s first and still unique debut match. Following this momentum, he won three seasons in the first year of his debut and swept the ‘Daesang’, ‘Prize King’, ‘Deokchun Award’, and ‘Myeongchun Award (Rookie Award)’ at the year-end awards ceremony.
Since 2008, Kim Kyung-tae has moved his main stage to Japan. In 2010, he won 3 victories on the Japanese tour and became the first Korean to become the prize money champion on the Japanese tour, steadily accumulating victories. In 2015, he succeeded in winning 5 times and became the Japan Tour grand prize and prize winner, and in 2016 he added 3 wins.
There was a slump after that. Since 2017 he hasn’t added a win in 2 years. Kim Kyung-tae said, “It really didn’t work out. He even wanted to give up golf,” he recalled. However, he overcame it and won his 14th win at the Casio World Open in 2019. This is why he, who has been named the most winner of the Japanese tour among Korean players, describes it as a “significant victory.”
It was Kim Gyeong-tae who worked steadily in Korea and Japan, but he could not be seen in Korea last year. He lost his seed in 2021 when he competed in 5 KPGA Korean Tour tournaments and passed only 1 tournament. He again devoted himself to the Japanese tour, but only passed 7 tournaments, including “The Crowns”, where he tied for 29th out of 17 tournaments he participated in. It was clearly not like Kim Kyung-tae. 온라인카지노
Under such circumstances, a permanent seed was given to him, and a new opportunity arose. Kim Kyung-tae said, “I suffered a lot over the past two years because of my bad back. He is currently recovering well. This year, I will definitely have a healthy season,” he said. “The 2023 season plans to focus on the KPGA Korean Tour. “It’s the first time in 16 years since 2007 that I only work in Korea,” he said.
“There has been no domestic championship since 2011. In the meantime, I had many opportunities to win, but my greed was too much. It is because of the desire and impatience to win in Korea,” he said. “My goal is to win the KPGA Korean Tour before I retire. If I win, I hope it will be the ‘Shinhan Donghae Open’. Through this opportunity, I would like to express my gratitude to the executives and staff of Shinhan Financial Group who have been providing great help in various fields since his debut season. I will repay you by winning the ‘Shinhan Donghae Open’ as soon as possible.”
Kim Kyung-tae, who started field training in Thailand on the 25th of last month, plans to return to Korea at the end of this month or early next month.