The Gyeongnam Gimhae Gaya CC (Shineo/Nakdong course), where the Nexen/Saint Nine Masters tournament will be held on the 21st, is the longest among the courses held on the KLPGA tour this year. With a total length of 6818 yards, it is comparable to most men’s competitions. The tournament, which started in 2013, started at 6664 yards on the same course and increased to 6856 yards in 2016. This is because the players’ physique and equipment improved, and the distance increased.
Even on such a KLPGA tour, there is a prospect that the ‘7000 yard era’, which was considered only for male players, will soon open. Experts believe that players’ skills are rapidly growing, and that increasing the length of the course is an essential element to improve discrimination. Choi Jin-ha, former chairman of the KLPGA competition, said, “The course standard, which was set at 6400 yards (in the 2010s), has recently risen to about 6600 yards. told
The tournament that came closest to 7,000 yards was the 2020 Korea Women’s Open at Cheongna Golf Course. At the time, the length of the course reached 6929 yards. According to former chairman Choi, there was a time when the course was set at 7,000 yards or more and then closed. This was the case at the SK Shielders/SK Telecom Championship held at Ravier Bell Old Course in Chuncheon, Gangwon last year. According to the golf world, the organizers of the tournament at the time adjusted the teeing area and pin location to more than 7,000 yards, but had no choice but to shorten the battlefield due to strong winds that came at the last minute.
In fact, if you look at the average drive distance of players, the atmosphere is ‘retrograde’. The average distance (based on players who meet the number of competitions), which soared to 250.28 yards in 2013, stopped at 239.98 yards in 2018 and collapsed to the 240-yard line. After that, it went down to 235 yards and is only rebounding this year (238.92 yards).
However, the skill of the players is not proportional to the distance. In 2013, when the average distance reached 250 yards, the average number of strokes of KLPGA Tour players was 74.06, which was more than one stroke higher than last year’s 72.98. An official from a golf management company said, “The distance has decreased because there is no player who uses 100% of their strength to hit.” did. 토토사이트
A KLPGA competition committee member explained, “Until now, we have adjusted the level of difficulty by adjusting the width of the fairway and the length of the rough.
The US Women’s Professional Golf (LPGA) Tour, which is full of long hitters, has only held a tournament in a field over 7,000 yards, the 2011 US Women’s Open (7,026 yards). However, The Broadmoor Golf Course in Denver, USA, the site of the tournament, is over 1,600 meters above sea level. The organizers set it in consideration of about 10% more flying distance than at sea level. Coors Field, famous for having the most home runs in the major leagues, is also located in Denver. Except for The Broadmoor Golf Course, the longest course was Hazeltine Golf Course (6807 yards) in Minnesota, USA, where the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship was held.
However, in the LPGA Tour, there is a claim that the course length should be shortened. It is because of the long battlefield that female players cannot show a thrilling game as much as the male players. According to U.S. Golf Week, there have been six times so far where scores have been lower than 60 on the LPGA Tour. Among them, Annika Sorenstam’s 59 in 2001 remains the only ‘top 50’.