Lee So-young and Hwang Yu-min, who worked together for three days, led the Lotte team to win the 'Mystical Animal World - DIO Ocean Cup Golf Team Championship' for the third consecutive year.
Lotte won with a final score of 19 under par 197 (70-68-59), achieving 13 birdies in the final third-round match held on the 23rd at DIOcean Country Club (par 72) in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province.
The 'Mystical Animal World - DIO Ocean Cup Golf Team Championship' is an event tournament held before the KLPGA tour season opens. In the inaugural tournament of 2022, Mediheal won, but Lotte has taken home the championship trophy for the last three years. The prize money for this year has increased by 20 million won to 50 million won.
The team competition used the foursome stroke play format for the first two rounds, where two players take turns hitting a single ball, and for the final round, a scramble format was used, where two players hit and select the better ball to play again.
The scramble format makes it much easier to create birdies since players select a ball in a good position to play again. The perfect player combination for this format was long hitter Hwang Yu-min and precise Lee So-young.
After securing the victory, Lee So-young said in an interview with the broadcast team, "We were able to play well thanks to (Hwang) Yu-min's long drives."
Second place went to the Samchuly team, which finished just one stroke behind Lotte. Their final score was 18 under par 198 (70-69-59). Comparing round scores with Lotte, the decisive point for the championship was being just one stroke behind in the second round.
Amano Korea, which held the lead until the second round, tied for third place with SBI Savings Bank at 16 under par.
This year's 'Mystical Animal World - DIO Ocean Cup Golf Team Championship' featured 10 teams.
[OSEN]