|
As an amateur, Hye Jung Choi won the 1999
Korean Junior Championship among other titles.
Hye Jung Choi turned professional in 2002,
but did not join the KLPGA until 2004. She made four top ten
finishes on the 2005 Futures Tour, and gained her LPGA non-exempt
tour card by playing in the 2005 LPGA Q-School and finishing
54th.
Choi decided to focus on the Futures Tour.
She played well there, even winning an event in late April.
She ended up finishing 13th on the Futures Tour money list,
and thus was given a pass into the LPGA's Q-School final round.
She played wonderfully there, eventually tying In-Kyung Kim
for co-medalist honors and thus earning her exempt card for
the 2007 LPGA tour.
In 2007, Choi had a solid season, finishing
in the top 50 on the money list and scoring 4 top ten finishes
in the process. She easily kept her exempt status for 2008.
In addition, she won her first KLPGA tournament at the Hite
Cup Championship.
In 2008 and 2009,, HJ's record was much the
same as 2007. She made some noise with a 65 at the Evian Masters
in 2008.
In 2010, Choi focused on the KLPGA tour most
of the year, and as a result did not maintain membership on
the LPGA tour. She returned to Korea to play full time on
the KLPGA.
That proved to be a good decision on HJ's
part, for she had a fairly good 2011 season in her home country.
She finished 9th on the money list with three top tens. But
by far the highlight of the year for her came at the year's
second Major, the MetLife KLPGA Championship. Choi put herself
into contention through three rounds on a course that was
playing fairly tough. But in the final round, Choi produced
one of the greatest rounds in KLPGA history, a scintillating
10 under par 62. She vaulted past top players like So Yeon
Ryu (who had recently won the US Women's Open) and Soo Jin
Yang to capture the title, her first Major. To put this in
perspective: the next best score all week was Yang's final
round 67.
|
