First Top-10 Finish in Six Years at the Portland Classic
Thitikul, Korda, and Lydia Ko Hold Top Three
Kim Hyojoo 8th, Yoo Haeran 9th, Ko Jin-young 16th
Park Sunghyun, known for being "different," has soared to 423rd place in the world rankings.
In the women's golf weekly world rankings announced on the 18th (local time), she earned 0.24 points, jumping 156 spots from last week's 579th place. She accumulated these points by finishing tied for 7th at the LPGA Tour's Standard Portland Classic (total prize money of $2 million), which concluded the previous day in Portland, Oregon, USA. This marks her first top-10 finish in an LPGA Tour event in six years, since placing 8th at the major AIG Women’s Open in August 2019.
Park Sunghyun swept the LPGA Tour Player of the Year, Money Leader, and Rookie of the Year awards in 2017, rising to world No. 1. However, her performance began to decline starting in 2020. In particular, this year she struggled, making the cut only twice in 11 tournaments prior to the Portland Classic. Earlier this month, she showed signs of improvement by tying for 11th at the KLPGA Tour Jeju Samdasoo Masters, and her top-10 finish at the Portland Classic signals a potential comeback.
Atthaya Thitikul (Thailand), Nelly Korda (USA), and Lydia Ko (New Zealand) maintained their positions in the top three. Among Korean players, Kim Hyojoo ranked 8th, Yoo Hae-ran 9th, Ko Jin-young 16th, and Choi Hye-jin 23rd. Portland Classic champion Akie Iwai (Japan) rose from 29th to 24th place. Meanwhile, Hong Jungmin, who won the KLPGA Tour Mediheal·Hankook Ilbo Championship on the 17th, jumped from 72nd to 53rd place.
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