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Hyo Joo Kim is an amateur who began making
big noise with her talent as a 14 year old in 2009.
That year, she played brilliantly at two KLPGA
Major championships. At the Hite Cup, she was one of the leaders
after the first round, and was even fifth as late as the start
of the fourth round. At that point she stumbled somewhat,
but still compiled an impressive T-13th result. At the KB
Star Tour Grand Final, she was again in the top five after
the first round, but ended up tied for 34th.
In 2010, she led Korea to a victory at the
Queen Sirikit Cup, an important team event. She also won individual
honors thanks to a final round 65. She was 8 shots ahead of
the next player in the field. Later in the year, she finished
tied for third at the Rush & Cash Charity Classic on the
KLPGA tour.
Despite her quality amateur results, she was
not one of the three golfers chosen to represent Korea at
the 2010 Asian Games. That squad won the team gold and individual
gold without her, showing just how deep they are.
Hyo Joo continued to be a top junior golfer
over the next two seasons. In July of 2010, she won the R&A
Junior Open Girls golf title in Fife, Scotland, by three shots;
Korean New Zealander Cecilia Cho was third.
In 2011, she was again on Korea's squad for
the Queen Sirikit Cup. She finished second, one shot out of
the gold medal spot, but Korea won the team gold by four shots.
Later in the year, she achieved a major coup by claiming the
Callaway Junior World Golf Championship, winning the 15-17
year old division by five shots. She was not able to qualify
for the US Women's Amateur later that summer, however, only
achieving alternate status.
She had some good results on the KLPGA tour
in 2011. In June, she finished tied for 5th at the Woori Investment
& Securities Ladies Championship. She led the Korean Women's
Open after the first and second round, but a poor weekend
reduced her to 15th. She also had a 9th at the Lotte Mart
Women's Open.
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