‘K-Brothers’ performance’ Kim Seong-hyun, 2nd place by 2 strokes on the first day… Seong-Hoon Kang 3rd place, Sang-Moon Bae 9th place

The ‘K-Brothers’ including Kim Seong-hyun (25), Kang Seong-hun (36), and Bae Sang-moon (37) performed well on the first day of the PGA Tour Fall Series Fortinet Championship (total prize money of $8.4 million).

In the first round of the tournament held at the Silverado Resort (par 71) in Napa, California, USA on the 15th (Korean time), Kim Seong-hyun swept an eagle and five birdies without a bogey, recording a 7-under par 65 strokes and taking sole second place. Only 2 strokes behind Lucas Herbert (Australia), the sole leader.

Seong-Hyun Kim debuted as a PGA Tour rookie in the 2022-23 season, participated in 32 tournaments, and recorded one top 10 finish. He earned $1,531,178 (about 2.03 billion won) in prize money and ranked 83rd in the FedEx Cup rankings.

There is no problem in the FedEx Cup ranking to participate in most competitions in the 2024 season, which has changed to a single-year system, but in order to participate in the signature competition where only special players can participate, the ranking must be raised to 60th place in the FedEx Cup points in the fall series. The top 50 players in the 2022-23 FedEx Cup have already been guaranteed a spot in the signature competition. Players who enter the FedEx Cup rankings 51st to 60th in the fall series will be given the right to participate in the remaining signature competitions.

Seong-Hyun Kim also plans to compete in four competitions in the fall series with this plan. If Seong-Hyun Kim maintains second place until the final round, his FedEx Cup ranking, currently 83rd, will rise to 57th. If you win your first PGA Tour victory, your ranking will rise further.

The start is very good. In the 14th hole (par 4), Seong-Hyun Kim’s second shot, which he hit with a wedge with 106 yards left, fell behind the pin, went straight into the hole on the slope, and caught an eagle. Seong-Hyun Kim started the first round in sole second place. Hitting a drive tee shot approaching 320 yards, the accuracy was high at 64.29% (9/14, 27th overall), and the green hit rate was also high at 72.22% (13/18, 34th). The average number of putts was only 24, and above all, he recorded a 100% scrambling rate by saving all 5 critical situations with par or better.

Kim Seong-hyun, who was unable to hit the green with his second shot from the first hole (par 4) and faced a bogey, but saved well with a par and went with the flow, said, “The mid- to long-distance putt went well. “He is hitting driver shots well and has found a feel for his poor iron and putt game,” he said.스포츠토토

Kim Seong-hyun, who participated in the Shinhan Donghae Open, a Korea Professional Golf Association (KPGA) Korean Tour sponsored event held in Incheon last week, but was disappointed to miss the cut, said, “I regrouped and worked hard this week. He finished his first day in good spirits. “I hope he works hard the remaining days and plays as well as he did today,” he said.

Seong-Hoon Kang, who ranked 190th in the FedEx Cup last season, recorded six birdies and no bogeys to tie for third place. Korean players also performed well, including Bae Sang-moon, ranked 226th in the FedEx Cup, and tied for 9th place with only 5 birdies.

Seong-Hoon Kang, whose only PGA Tour victory was winning AT&T Byron Nelson in 2019, said, “I prepared for the tournament diligently over the past few weeks, and I was glad that it went as planned. He has slumped a lot over the past 2-3 years. “This time, I got good results from the first day, so it’s good to be able to start the game on a good note again,” he said.

Bae Sang-moon, who won his second career PGA Tour victory in this tournament (then the Price.com Open) in 2014, said, “I feel good because I came to a course with good memories and practiced well during the game. “It was a course he had good experience with, so his strategy was more advantageous,” he said.

Bae Sang-moon, who only participated in seven tournaments last season due to not having a full seed on the PGA Tour, played an actual tournament about two months after the Babasol Championship in July. Bae Sang-moon said, “I was depressed because I couldn’t participate in competitions for a while. Still, he continued to practice putting. He started the first round well, so I think he will get better if he focuses on putts and iron shots in the remaining three days. I feel good now. “I will do well in the remaining games,” he said.

If Kang Seong-hoon and Bae Sang-moon win this tournament, they will immediately receive two-year seeds until 2025.

Herbert, who took the lead, swept 10 birdies and avoided one bogey, recording a 9-under par score of 63, while Justin Thomas (USA), who was selected as the U.S. representative for the Ryder Cup, a men’s golf competition between the U.S. and Europe, tied for 20 with a 3-under par 69. ranked above.

Max Homa (USA, 7th), the only player among the top 10 players in the world rankings, tied for 35th with 2 under par 70 strokes. Homa is attempting to win a competition three times in a row, following Steve Stricker (USA), who achieved three consecutive wins in a single competition at the John Deere Classic from 2009 to 2011.