Lee Ye-won earns 5.252 million won per tournament, will she surpass Park Min-ji’s record?
Average prize money per tournament: $52.52 million.
After nine weeks atop the money list, 23-year-old Ye Won Lee is closing in on the most money in a single season on the Korean Ladies Professional Golf (KLPGA) Tour.
Lee earned her third win of the season at the KLPGA Tour’s final major, the Hite Jinro Championship, which concluded on Monday, pushing her earnings past $1.2 billion. Lee, who missed the cut for the only time in 24 events this season at the Daebohausdee Open, booked her place on the money list with 1,260.54 million won. The gap between him and second-place Park Ji-young (957.06 million won) widened to more than 300 million won.
Lee, who has been at the top of the prize pool since the second week of August, is likely to win the crown unless something drastic happens. The focus is on breaking the single-season prize pool record.
There are five tournaments left. So far, the KLPGA Tour’s single-season prize money record is KRW 1,521.37 million, set by Park Min-ji in 2021.
If Lee can maintain her average performance this season, she could break the single-season record for earnings.
Lee has earned about $52.52 million in prize money per tournament this season. If he continues to perform well in the remaining five tournaments, he could earn around $262.61 million more. That would bring his total prize pool for the season to over $1.523 billion, breaking Park Min-ji’s single-season record.
It’s even more likely if we look at his second half performance. Since the start of the second half in August, he has recorded seven top-10 finishes in nine tournaments, including two wins, two runner-up finishes, and a seventh-place finish. His only missed cut at the Daebohausdee Open over the Chuseok holiday prevented him from adding to his prize fund, but he still earned an average of $83.4 million per tournament, which is higher than his season average.
Of the five remaining tournaments, the Korea Economic Daily TV Open has the largest prize pool at 1.2 billion won, while the Dongbu E&C Korea Land Trust Championship and SK Shields SK Telecom Open are each worth 1 billion won. The SK networks Seoul Economic Classic is worth 800 million won and the S-OIL Championship is worth 900 million won. Adding a win would help him surpass the 1.5 billion won mark, but a consistent top-five finish would be enough to break the single-season record.
Lee will look to make it four wins on the season with back-to-back titles when he competes in the Dongbu E&C Korea Land Trust Championship at Iksan Country Club in Iksan, Jeollabuk-do on December 12. The tournament is worth 180 million won 메이저사이트.