he power of Korean men’s golf began to be revealed from the first day. Yubin Jang (Korea National Sport University) took the lead in the first round of the men’s golf competition at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.
Yubin Jang hit 11 under par 61 with 12 birdies and 1 bogey in the first round on the first day of the tournament held on September 28 at the West Lake International Golf Course (par 72, 7,280 yards) in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Jang Yu-bin, ahead of Daichi Go (Hong Kong) by one stroke, is in first place.
Even before the opening of the tournament, Seongjae Lim and Siwoo Kim, who had PGA Tour wins, were designated as candidates for individual gold medals, but amateur players Yubin Jang and Wooyoung Jo appeared to be leading the early rise of the Korean national team. Korea, whose national team consists of amateur national team members Jang Yu-bin and Jo Woo-young (Korea National Sport University), and Lim Seong-jae and Kim Si-woo, who play on the PGA Tour, had two amateurs in the top ranks in the first round.
Wooyoung Jo also tied for 3rd place with 9 under par 63 strokes, while Seongjae Lim and Siwoo Kim are tied for 14th place with 66 strokes at 6 under par. Even in the team event, where the ranking is determined by adding up the scores of the top three out of four players, Korea took the lead with a combined score of 26 under par, beating out Singapore and Japan, who were both at 21 under par.
Jang Yu-bin showed good shooting sense on this day, making six consecutive birdies from the first to the sixth hole.
Along with Jo Woo-young, three others, including Cheon Gu-shin (China) and Sumiuchi Masato (Japan), were tied for third place. Three people, including Pachara Kongwatmai (Thailand), tied for 6th place with 8 under par 64 strokes, and Anirban Lahiri (India) and Siddiker Rahman (Bangladesh) tied for 9th place with 7 under par 65 strokes.
Seongjae Lim and Siwoo Kim are 5 strokes behind leader Yubin Jang, but are in a position to catch up in the remaining 2nd to 4th rounds. In Korea’s previous competition, the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games, Oh Seung-taek won a silver medal in the individual event and a bronze medal in the team event. At that time, Japan won both the individual and team events.
Although Jang Yu-bin is an amateur, she is a new generation golfer who won the last Gunsan Open by showing several miraculous shots. At the LX Championship (total prize money of 600 million won), she recorded no bogeys through 36 holes through the second round, almost making her the first amateur to win two weeks in a row.