▲ Park Eun-shin hitting a tee shot
Park Eun-shin has taken sole possession of the lead in the first round of the KPGA Classic with I'm Vita, a Korea Professional Golfers' Association (KPGA) Tour event played under the Modified Stableford scoring system, as he seeks his first victory in three years and seven months.
In the first round held at the Cypress Golf & Resort North-West Course in Seogwipo, Jeju, Park recorded 19 points with 10 birdies and one bogey, finishing with a 9-under 63. He sits at the top of the leaderboard, three points ahead of second-place Jung Jae-hyun (16 points).
In this tournament, pars are worth 0 points, birdies 2 points, eagles 5 points, and albatrosses 8 points, while bogeys result in -1 point and double bogeys or worse result in -3 points.
As it is difficult to earn high scores through stable play focused on par, most players, including Park, adopted an aggressive approach.
Park started strong with consecutive birdies on the 10th (par 4) and 11th (par 4) holes. On the 14th hole (par 5), he landed his third bunker shot 4.4 meters from the hole and successfully converted the birdie putt to accumulate more points.
He then added back-to-back birdies on the 18th (par 5) and 1st (par 4) holes, followed by a streak of four consecutive birdies from the 3rd (par 3) to the 6th (par 4) holes through bold course management, pulling away from the chasing pack.
On the 3rd, 4th, and 6th holes, he successfully reduced his score by executing daring shots across water hazards.
After picking up another birdie on the 8th hole (par 5), Park recorded a bogey on the 9th (par 4), marking his only point deduction (-1 point) of the day.
Park, who joined the KPGA Tour in 2008, enjoyed his prime in 2022 with victories at the Descente Korea Munsingwear Matchplay in May and the Golfzon-Toray Open in November, but has struggled to secure another win since then.
He has yet to finish in the top 10 this season.
Jung Jae-hyun finished the day in second place, carding eight birdies without a single bogey.
Park Jung-hoon recorded 15 points, the most eagles among the field with two, placing him in a tie for third alongside Jang Yu-bin and Kim Chan-woo.
Jang Yu-bin, who played on the LIV Golf tour last season, is looking for his first win since returning to the KPGA Tour.
However, Jang slowed down after a strong start; he racked up 14 points with seven birdies on the front nine but added only one point on the back nine with one birdie and one bogey.
Bae Yong-jun, last year’s winner of this tournament and a two-time career winner in Modified Stableford events, finished in a tie for 76th with 2 points after recording three birdies and three bogeys.
Park Sang-hyun, who is aiming to become the first player on the tour to surpass 6 billion won in career prize money—currently standing at 5,911,796,335 won—fell outside the top 100 with -1 point after recording one birdie and three bogeys.
(Photo: Courtesy of KPGA Tour, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.