Kim Han-byul (25), who emerged as the’star’ of the 2020 Korea Professional Golf (KPGA) Korean Tour, rode a roller coaster at the first tournament in 2021.
This is the first round of the DB Insurance Promi Open before the opening of the KPGA Korean Tour held at Oak Valley Country Club (par 72) in Wonju, Gangwon-do on the 15th.
Kim Han-byul’s tee shot, hit at the first hole (par 4), hit the cart road and bounced largely and fell behind the out-of-bounds (OB) stake.
Kim Han-byul, who said, “It was very painful, but I couldn’t help it, so I accepted it,” ended the first hole with a double bogie.
However, a mistake also came out on the 2nd hole (par 5), so I wrote down the example.
Kim Han-byul said, “I struck with half abandonment.”
Fortunately, the 3rd hole (par 4) was well blocked with a par, and he got the first birdie in the 4th hole (par 5).
Kim Han-byul made an increasingly good score leading to Double Bogie-Bogie-Pa-Buddy, overcoming the mistake of the first hole tee shot.
Although I wrote down the examples on the 6th hole (par 4), Kim Han-byul decided to “Yeah, let’s try hard” while catching a birdie in the 9th hole (par 4), the last hole in the first half.
After that, there was no mistake for Kim Han-byul. Kim Han-byul, who caught a continuous birdie in the 10th hole (par 4), recorded an additional birdie in the 15th hole (par 5) and the 17th hole (par 3), and finished the first round with 71 strokes under par.
Kim Han-byul said, “I thought that I would try to hit the second under par by working hard on the 18th hole because a birdie came out again from the 17th hole, but it was not easy.”
But “I wasn’t lucky in the beginning, but unexpectedly, the opportunity came in the second half, and it worked out well. I ended up feeling better than the beginning.”
Kim Han-byul reached the 2021 season with great anticipation.
In the second year of his debut, he achieved his first win at the Hedges Golf KPGA Open last year, followed by a second win at the Shinhan Donghae Open, and emerged as’the trend’.
In the off-season, SK Telecom also gained a strong sponsor.
However, Kim Han-byul is always determined to keep the’original mind’.
“It wasn’t exactly the season I was hoping for,” he said. I always try to play while thinking the same as when I was a rookie.”
Kim Han-byul, who finished second in the grand prize and prize money last year, said, “This year’s goal is to win the championship, but if it’s a winner, I would definitely want to either the grand prize or the prize money winner.”