Twelve South Korean male golfers, ranging from Choi Kyung-joo (53) to Kim Sung-hyun (25), have surpassed the $1 million mark on the U.S. Professional Golf (PGA) Tour.
On the PGA Tour’s career money list, which was compiled after the most recent major PGA Championship, Choi Kyung-joo, the eldest of the South Korean men, ranks 35th on the list with $32.8 million (43.53 billion won) in career earnings. Choi, who is playing primarily on the Champions Tour this year, has been a fixture on the PGA Tour, which has attracted the world’s best players for 24 years, since 2000.
Last week, Choi competed in the Korean Professional Golf (KPGA) Tour’s SK Telecom Open in South Korea as a co-executive chairman and player, making his 20th cut and finishing tied for 19th, earning $14.87 million. In his 26-year professional career since 1997, his prize money totaled $1.970 billion. He has earned 22 times as much in the United States as he has in Korea.메이저사이트
Lim Sung-jae 73rd in career winnings
Moving up to 73rd on the list with career earnings of $21.59 million (28.65 billion won), Im Sung-jae (25) is the second-highest earner among South Korean players. He made his PGA Tour debut in 2018, his first PGA Tour victory in six years, and has the stamina to play more than 30 tournaments a year.
Kim, 28, recorded his fourth career PGA Tour victory at the Sony Open in January and is ranked 81st on the money list with $20.563 million ($2.789 billion). He missed the cut at the most recent PGA Championship, but jumped four spots to finish second at the AT&T Byron Nelson. Three South Koreans have made it to the top 100 on the PGA Tour’s career money list.
Tiger Woods, the PGA Tour’s career money leader, has amassed $120.95 million (16.05 billion won) in 82 PGA victories. Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) is second with $72.1 million ($95.6 billion) in career earnings. At this time last year, Phil Mickelson was second on the PGA Tour’s career money list and Dustin Johnson third, but the move to LIV Golf saw dozens of the top players disappear.
World No. 1 Jon Rahm (Spain), who has broken the record for most money in a season with five victories this year, is 11th on the career money list with $49.52 million ($65.7 billion). Among Asian players, Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, who won the 2021 Masters, is 19th on the list with $42.76 million ($5.67 billion).
Korea’s Byung-hoon Ahn, 32, who made a comeback on the Secondary Tour after an eight-year absence in 2016, earned $11.305 million (15 billion won) to move into 180th place on the career money list. Lee, 32, who lost his second straight AT&T Byron Nelson and finished tied for 29th at the PGA Championship, climbed five spots to 195th on the money list with $10.68 million (14.1 billion won).
Kang Sung-hoon (36), who has one win on the PGA Tour, is 202nd, Wee Chang-soo (51), who recently finished second in a playoff at the Champions Tour, is 207th, Yang Yong-eun (51), who became the first Asian to win a major when he beat Tiger Woods at the 2009 PGA Championship, is 235th, and Noh Seung-yeol (32), who won the 2014 Zurich Classic, is 257th on the list.
Bae Sang-moon (37), a two-time PGA Tour winner, is ranked 279th, while Kim Joo-hyung (21), the youngest player on the tour with less than a year under his belt, is quickly climbing the rankings at 284th. Kim Sung-hyun (25), a rookie this season who made his way to the U.S. from Korea and Japan and played on the Confederation Tour, is 496th on the money list with $1.39 million ($1.8 billion).
Among Asian players on the PGA Tour, South Korea has the largest and strongest representation, with three players ranked in the top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR). Japan has no PGA Tour players outside of Matsuyama.