South Koreans rule golf roost

Editorial Comment
SOUTH KOREA had a good golfing weekend with two South Korean golfers winning on the world stage.

SOUTH KOREA had a good golfing weekend with two South Korean golfers winning on the world stage.

South Korea’s Noh Seung-yul recorded his first US PGA Tour victory with a two shot win over Andrew Svoboda and Robert Streb at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

The South Korean came into his final round with a two shot lead and was also looking to become the first player to record a bogey-free tournament since Charles Howell III at the Greenbrier Classic in 2010.

That dream was extinguished with a bogey on the first, but a final round of 71 was good enough to leave the former Malaysian Open winner on 19 under.

American Jeff Overton finished fourth, with Robert Garrigus fifth after a best-of-the-day 64. Swede Peter Hanson a shot further back.

On the women’s PGA tour South Korean born Lydia Ko had a pretty remarkable 17th birthday week at Lake Merced Golf Club.

The budding star overcame Stacy Lewis and Jenny Shin on Sunday to land her first LPGA Tour title as a professional in the inaugural Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic.

Ko who is a New Zealand citizen had a 72-hole total of 12-under 276, capped by final-round three-under 69. The tour rookie won $270 000 and prevailed by a shot over third-round leader Lewis and by two over Shin. But the golf was only part of Ko’s fun.

Fans sang “Happy Birthday” to her on Thursday, the day she was also featured on TIME magazine’s “100 most influential people list.”

Ko now has six wins on four pro tours, but four were as an amateur.

Interestingly, she’s won a Swinging Skirts Classic twice. Her first win as a pro came at the Swinging Skirts Taiwan LPGA event in December. Swinging Skirts is a non-profit organisation that promotes the growth of golf.

The upcoming US open has seen the United States Golf Association accepting a a record number of entries for the 2014 US Open Championship at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club.

The event will be held from June 12-15. The 10 127 entrants eclipses the 9 860 for last year’s championship. Local qualifying, which will be played over 18 holes at 111 sites in the United States, will take place between May 2-19.

Sectional qualifying played over 36 holes, will be conducted on Monday, May 26, in Japan and England. The 10 127 entries will be trying to qualify to play in the tournament which is limited to 120 players.

This is the sixth time the USPGA accepted more than 9 000 entries for the US Open. There were more than 9 000 entries in 2005, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013.