[Jeong Ui-cheol's Golf Trivia Dictionary] "How to Distinguish Players with the Same Name?"

'Namesakes' Kim Do-hoon 752 (left) and Kim Do-hoon 753 are distinguished by numbers added after their names.

'Dongmyeingin (同名異人)'.

It means same name, different person. There are also players with the same name in the Korean Professional Golfers' Association (KPGA) Korean Tour. When there are players with the same name, KPGA distinguishes them by adding a membership number after their names. If you see numbers attached to players' names, it means those are membership numbers to differentiate same-name players. Kim Dohoon752 (31) and Kim Dohoon753 (31) are representative examples. Moreover, both players were members of the 2006 Doha Asian Games in Qatar.

They participated together in the golf team event with Kim Kyungtae (34) and Kang Seonghun (33), winning gold medals side by side before joining KPGA. Kim Dohoon752 and Kim Dohoon753 registered as KPGA members on the same day, so their numbers are not very different. It is interesting that among the 6,553 KPGA members (2,017 tour pros, 4,536 pros), there are as many as seven players named Kim Dohoon. For reference, the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), which manages world rankings, distinguishes same-name players by adding their birth year and month.

The most common names in KPGA are Kim Donghyun and Kim Minsu, with as many as 14 players each. Usually, it is fine, but when playing on the same tour or participating in the same tournament, membership numbers are added after names to prevent confusion among players and fans. The method to distinguish same-name players in the Korean Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA) is slightly different. Associate members are distinguished by adding alphabets after their names, and full members are numbered in the order of joining using Arabic numerals.

Lee Jeongeun6 (24) has the number 6 attached after her name according to the order of joining. She actively uses '6' and earned the nickname 'Hot Six,' and requested to always include '6' when registering her name on the LPGA Tour in the United States. Foreign players on overseas tours rarely have same-name issues because they can use stage names instead of their real names. Tiger Woods' real name is Eldrick Tont Woods, and Bubba Watson (both from the U.S.) is Gary Lester Watson Jr.

KPGA Media Team Leader zec9@kpga.co.kr