Lee Kyung-hoon 'Only Finalist'... Kim Sung-hyun and An Byeong-hoon 'Cut Off'

Lee Kyung-hoon Tied 42nd at 3 Under Par on Second Day of WWT Championship
Henry Leads, Gordon and Ryder Tied for 2nd, Hoblan Tied 14th
Kim Seong-hyun Tied 69th, An Byeong-hoon Tied 105th 'Struggling'

[Asia Economy Reporter No Woo-rae] Lee Kyung-hoon (31·photo) is the only Korean player to advance to the main round.

On the 4th (local time), Lee Kyung-hoon scored 3 under par on the second day of the PGA Tour World Wide Technology (WWT) Championship at Mayakoba (total prize money $8.2 million) held at El Camaleon Golf Course at Riviera Maya, Mexico (par 71, 7017 yards), rising to a tie for 42nd place (5 under par 137). Russell Henley leads (16 under par 126), with Will Gordon and Sam Ryder (both from the U.S.) tied for 2nd place (13 under par 129).

Starting from a tie for 65th place, 7 strokes behind, Lee Kyung-hoon combined 6 birdies and 3 bogeys. He exchanged 3 birdies and 3 bogeys over 12 holes, struggling to reduce his score. He entered under par with a birdie on the 4th hole (par 3), but needed more birdies to advance to the main round. Fortunately, consecutive birdies on the 8th and 9th holes helped him finish the round and enter the third round. He relied on a fairway hit rate of 85.71% and an average of 1.615 putts per hole.

Lee Kyung-hoon joined the PGA Tour in 2019 and became the first Korean player to achieve back-to-back wins at the AT&T Byron Nelson in 2021 and last May. In the 2022-2023 season, he participated in three tournaments, with his best result being 3rd place at The CJ Cup last month. Although he is 11 strokes behind the leader in this tournament, making a win difficult, he is only 4 strokes behind the group tied for 9th place. This situation allows for the expectation of entering the ‘Top 10’.

Henley dominated the leaderboard by sweeping 8 birdies without any bogeys, including two sets of three consecutive birdies. He is a player with three PGA Tour wins in total. Gordon, who was the leader the previous day, performed well by reducing 4 strokes but was overshadowed by Henley’s momentum. Defending champion Viktor Hovland (Norway) is tied for 14th place (8 under par 134), and ‘Number 2’ Scottie Scheffler (U.S.) is tied for 29th place (6 under par 136). For Korea, Kim Sung-hyun (24) tied for 69th place (3 under par 139) and An Byeong-hoon (31) tied for 105th place (1 over par 143) were cut off.