Three Men and Three Women to Represent Korea at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games
KGA Prioritizes Top 15 World-Ranked Players in Selection Criteria
Fierce Competition Expected Among Male Players for Military Service Exemption
The Year of the Fire Horse has dawned. The Korean golf community is facing a crucial tournament this year: the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, which will kick off this September.
The Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games will open on September 19 and close on October 4. This event holds particular significance for male golf players. Winning a gold medal in either the team or individual event grants them an exemption from mandatory military service, allowing them to continue their professional careers without interruption. The excitement is already building on the field. Both male and female Korean players are striving to secure their tickets to the Asian Games.
Kim Juhyung is focusing his efforts to compete in the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games scheduled for September. Photo by AFP Yonhap News
There are four gold medals at stake in the golf events at the Asian Games: men's and women's individual and team competitions. Each country can send three players per event. In the previous tournament, four men and three women represented their countries. Both professional and amateur players are eligible to compete this year. Korea has won a total of 14 gold medals in Asian Games golf history-six in men's events and eight in women's events.
At the previous event, the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, the Korean men's team clinched gold in the team event. Professional golfers Im Sungjae and Kim Siwoo, along with then-amateurs Jang Yubin and Cho Wooyoung, wore the national flag and claimed the gold medal. This marked Korea's first victory in the men's team event at the Asian Games in 13 years, since the 2010 Guangzhou Games. Im Sungjae also added a silver medal in the individual event.
At the Hangzhou Asian Games, professional female golfers declined to participate, so only amateur players competed: Yoo Hyeonjo, Kim Min-sol, and Lim Jiyu. The women's team secured a silver medal behind Thailand, and Yoo Hyeonjo won bronze in the individual event. Currently, the top three Korean women in the world rankings are Kim Hyojoo (8th), Kim Seiyoung (10th), and Yoo Haeran (13th). Given their schedules on the LPGA Tour and other commitments, it is expected to be difficult for these players to participate in the Asian Games this year as well.
The Korea Golf Association (KGA) held its second Performance Enhancement Committee meeting last July and established the selection criteria for the national team for the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. The top 15 Korean players in the men's and women's world rankings were designated as the primary candidate pool. The official world ranking cutoff date for candidate registration will be announced later this year.
Among the top 15 Korean players in the world rankings, the highest-ranked players will be given priority for Asian Games selection. Once three players are selected, those three will represent Korea as the national team. If fewer than three of the top 15 ranked Korean players choose to participate, the opportunity will be extended to the top players in the KGA rankings. This is based on results from this year's Song-Am Amateur Championship up to the Monday before the final roster submission for the Asian Games.
The main point of interest is the final men's roster. Since a gold medal comes with a military service exemption, there is a high likelihood that top-ranked professional male players will opt to participate in the Asian Games. As of now, the top three Korean players in the world rankings are Im Sungjae (41st), Kim Siwoo (47th), and An Byeonghun (98th), all of whom compete on the PGA Tour. However, they have already resolved their military obligations and may choose to forgo the Asian Games.
Kim Sunghyun is ranked 161st in the world, making him the fifth highest-ranked Korean player. Photo by AFP News Agency
The next highest-ranked player after these three is Kim Juhyung. Although he did not compete in the Hangzhou Asian Games, he represented Korea at the 2024 Paris Olympics, achieving the country's best-ever Olympic result in men's golf with a seventh-place finish. Last year, Kim Juhyung played in 26 PGA Tour events, with a tie for seventh at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am as his only top-10 finish. He was ranked 21st in the men's world golf rankings at the end of 2024 but has since dropped to 107th.
At age 20, in 2022, he won the Wyndham Championship on the PGA Tour as a special temporary member, becoming the youngest Korean winner in history (20 years, 1 month, 18 days). He has three career PGA Tour victories. If he performs well early in the season, he could earn a spot at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
This is a scene of South Korean male golf players cheering on the podium after winning the gold medal in the team event at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games. Photo by Yonhap News Agency
Next in line is Kim Sunghyun, who is ranked 161st in the world. He began his career in the United States on the 2022 PGA Korn Ferry (second division) Tour and debuted on the PGA Tour in 2023. In 2024, he dropped to 130th on the money list and temporarily lost his tour card, but he returned to the PGA Tour after finishing eighth in the points rankings on last year's Korn Ferry Tour. Now that he is back on the top stage, he has another opportunity to earn ranking points. Following Kim Sunghyun are Ok Taehun, ranked 177th, and Lee Junghwan, ranked 198th, both of whom compete on the Korea Professional Golfers' Association (KPGA) Tour.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
