![Seo Gyo-rim (left) and Kim Min-sol play together in the opening round of the tournament. [Photo=KLPGA]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/11/07/news-p.v1.20261107.e9c62c35096f484cbc8712eab1de5bb5_P1.jpg)
The opening round of the Daebo Housedi Championship — the season-ending event that will crown the final winner on the KLPGA Tour this year — got off to a grueling start Friday, as cold winds dried out the greens and made scoring conditions exceptionally difficult. The tournament carries a purse of 1.2 billion won ($894,000).
Kim Min-sol and Seo Gyo-rim, the two players battling for the season's top honors, both struggled with the conditions. Playing together, the pair each carded even-par 72 to share 16th place, four strokes behind the co-leaders. Seo Eo-jin, Hong Jin-young 2 and amateur Moon A-rin shared the lead at 4-under-par 68.
Round 1 was held Friday at Seowon Valley Country Club's Seowon Hills West and South courses (par 72, 6,649 yards) in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. The course sits in the northern part of the region, and a combination of strong gusts and chilly temperatures kept players busy pulling on thick padded jackets between shots.
The 18 greens at the venue are already known for their speed, and the persistent strong winds dried them out further throughout the day, causing a string of players to miss short putts. When dry air accelerates moisture loss, the turf firms up and the ball rolls farther with the same force, making distance control on the greens even harder to judge.
With green speeds difficult to read and the wind constantly shifting direction, concentration proved hard to maintain, and a large number of players finished over par. In such conditions, it is not just the direction and distance of approach shots that matter — where exactly the ball lands on the green becomes equally critical.
A misjudged club selection in the wind can leave a long putt or a tricky approach, and on fast greens, controlling the pace of the first putt has a significant bearing on the scorecard. The opening day tested not only players' ability to create birdie opportunities but also their capacity to limit bogeys and manage mistakes.
Kim, who leads the money list, made one eagle and three birdies but gave back every stroke with three bogeys and a double bogey. Seo, who tops the season points standings, traded four birdies for four bogeys. Both players created chances to go low but could not sustain any momentum as errors kept coming.
Given the conditions, even par was far from a poor result — only 15 of the 60 players in the field finished under par, meaning three-quarters of the field ended the day at even or over. However, not every mistake can be attributed to the wind or the greens. After the round, Seo acknowledged that distance control on the par-3 holes had been off and identified it as something to address.
Kim entered the week ranked first on the money list and second in season points, while Seo sat second on the money list and first in points. Starting level, their task for the final two rounds is clear: pick the right holes to attack and the right ones to protect, and avoid letting a single mistake snowball into consecutive bogeys. The season's last title will come down to precision and patience over the remaining 36 holes.
Meanwhile, last year's Player of the Year, Yoo Hyun-jo, produced the round's most dramatic stretch, holing out for an eagle on the par-4 13th and then making a hole-in-one on the par-3 14th, picking up four strokes over just two holes. Yoo finished at 3-under-par 69 to join Kim Min-sun 7, Kim Min-byeol, Choi Eun-woo and Lee Dong-eun in a tie for fourth.
"I was really frustrated because nothing was going my way," Yoo said after the round. "Then the eagle happened and my mood lifted completely, and then the very next shot went in for a hole-in-one — I was genuinely shocked. I checked the prize right after I hit it, and I was so happy to see there was one." Yoo received a luxury bed as the hole-in-one prize.
sports@heraldcorp.com
