When I gave up my desire for distance, I regained my long hit… Go Jinyoung is back
Until last year, Ko Jin-young (28) suffered from a wrist injury. One of the reasons for her wrist problems was her desire for distance. A person close to him said, “It seems that he is obsessed with sending his ball far, thinking that he should widen the gap with his competitors even though he has top-notch skills.”
As his wrist injury worsened, Ko Jin-young changed his pitch. He boldly threw a winning number to get out of the ‘distance trap’. He changed his swing to a fade pitch rather than a draw pitch that could carry more distance. The result was successful. According to the theory, the distance that should be reduced is rather increased.
Ko Jin-young smiles brightly while holding the Cognizant Founders Cup trophy. AFP Yonhap News
Koh Jin-young recorded an average drive distance of 281 yards in the first round of the Cognizant Founders Cup on the LPGA Tour. In the second round, she slapped 278 yards. Her two-day average of 279.5 yards was more than the 275 yards of Mannand Roy (31, Belgium), the current leader in long drives on the tour, in terms of distance in the first and second rounds alone.
Ko Jin-young’s teacher, coach Lee Si-woo, said, “Compared to the previous swing, the distance seems to have increased by about 15 yards.” “When I tried to increase the flight distance with the draw ball in the past, there was a feeling of starting the backswing with the arm,” he said. said This means that the swing speed has increased as the arm is less involved and the swing is made with power using the twist of the body.
Equipped with accuracy and flying distance, Ko Jin-young is announcing the ‘second heyday’. In the final round of the tournament held on the 15th (Korean time) at Upper Montclair CC (par 72, 6536 yards) in Clifton, New Jersey, USA, he hit a total of 13 under par 275 strokes, and then hit a par in the extension with Australian compatriot Lee Min-jee (27). recorded and won. The winning prize is 450,000 dollars (approximately 600 million won). It is the 15th championship trophy lifted on the tour. After adding a win in about two months after the HSBC Women’s World Championship in March, she became the first player with multiple wins this season. He also won the third championship in this tournament alone following 2019 and 2021, becoming the “record holder for the most wins” in the tournament.
Ko Jin-young said, “I was inspired to see Seong-jae Lim overcome a 5-stroke win (at the Woori Financial Championship on the 14th) and win.” .
Ko Jin-young was tied for 4th place, 4 strokes behind leader Lee Min-ji, until the 3rd round, so it didn’t seem easy to win the come-from-behind victory. While Lee Min-ji lost one stroke in the first half and stagnated, Ko Jin-young cut 3 strokes to join the championship competition, but Min-ji Lee added 3 birdies to the 15th hole (par 3) in the second half, and the game seemed to end as it was.
However, Ko Jin-young moved the pendulum of the game significantly in the last three holes. It was decisive to catch another birdie in the 18th hole (par 4), where all birdies were recorded from the 1st to 3rd rounds. When Lee Min-ji committed a bogey on the 16th hole (par 4) and lost one stroke, Ko Jin-young succeeded in a tricky downhill putt about 5m away from this hole, making a tie and dragging the game into overtime.스포츠토토
Jin-Young Ko, who gained momentum, kept par on the first hole of the extension on the 18th hole, and Min-Ji Lee, who left a birdie putt at a much more advantageous point, failed even with a par putt, and Jin-Young Ko’s victory was confirmed. Ko Jin-young said, “It’s not easy to win twice in one competition, but I was lucky to win the third championship.”