Seo Gyo-rim greets the gallery after making a birdie on the 12th hole.
Seo Gyo-rim greets the gallery after making a birdie on the 12th hole.

Seo Gyo-rim, chasing the season's most-wins title, finished tied for second, one stroke behind the leader, after the first round of the KB Financial Group Golden Life Championship, the third major on the KLPGA Tour this season.

Seo carded a 3-under-par 69 in the opening round Thursday at Blackstone Icheon Golf Club, a par-72 course in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. She joined Lee Da-yeon, Choi Ga-bin, Lee Ji-hyun3 and Sung Yu-jin in a tie for second. That left her two strokes behind leader Hong Jin-young2, who shot a bogey-free 5-under 67 with five birdies.

Seo, who skipped last week's OK Savings Bank Eutman Open and returned to the tour after a two-week break, played with a precision that belied the layoff. She bogeyed the second hole, a par-4, after missing a 2.4-meter par putt. She bounced back on the par-5 fifth by knocking her third shot to within 3 meters of the pin for her first birdie. She added three more birdies on the back nine — from 2 meters on the par-4 10th, 1.3 meters on the par-4 12th and 7.4 meters on the par-5 15th.

After the round, Seo said, "Taking a good rest last week actually seemed to sharpen my shot-making. I could not practice much during the break, so I was worried heading into Thursday's round, but I found my rhythm faster than I expected and finished the first round in good spirits."

She added, "I expect the winning score to be around 8 to 9 under par. Over the remaining three days, rather than pushing too hard, I plan to play calmly and make sure to protect strokes on the holes where I need to."

Seo has already won four times this season. She captured the Celltrion Queens Masters in May, the Inka Finance The Heaven Masters in June and the Mediheal-Hankook Ilbo Championship in August. She added a fourth win at the BC Card-Hankyung 48th KLPGA Championship, the season's second major.

A victory this week would set off a string of records for Seo. It would give her five wins in a single season for the first time in four years — a feat last achieved by Park Min-ji, who won six times in 2022. It would also mark her second consecutive major title.

A win would also set a new record for the highest single-season prize money total in tour history. Seo, currently second in the prize money rankings, would earn 270 million won ($202,000) for the win, pushing her season earnings to 1.59 billion won. That would break the KLPGA Tour's all-time single-season prize money record of 1.52 billion won, set by Park Min-ji in 2021 — a mark that stood for five years.

In addition, a victory would give Seo a springboard to sweep individual titles. She would reclaim the top spot in the prize money rankings from Kim Min-sol, whom she currently trails by 44.86 million won. She would also gain crucial momentum to take the lead in the season points race.

Kim Min-sol, Seo's rival, opened with a 4-over 76 to sit in a tie for 67th. She managed just one birdie against three bogeys and a double bogey.

Choi Ye-rim, who won last week's OK Savings Bank Eutman Open for her first tour title in nine years since her debut, shot a 1-under 71 to tie for 10th along with Shin Da-in, Kim Min-byul, Lee Se-hee and Bang Shin-sil.


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