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So Yeon also played in the 2007 US Women's
Amateur, but though she was 4th in the stroke play section,
she was eliminated in the first round of match play.
In late 2007, at 17 years of age, Ryu turned
pro. In February of 2008, she played in a professional event
on the minor league Cactus Tour and won by six shots. She
then joined the KLPGA tour and made an immediate impact. How
immediate? She won the very first event she played in 2008,
the Sports Seoul Open, with her arch rookie rival Choi finishing
second, four shots back. She didn't play quite that well the
next few events, however.
But when Ryu returned to contending, she did
it with a bang. At the Korean Women's Open, the most important
event of the year, Ryu found herself in a dogfight for the
title with KLPGA superstar Ji Yai Shin. Going into the final
nine, Ryu had carved out a four shot lead. But Shin was relentless,
and by the 17th hole had caught the rookie star. Ryu eventually
lost a three hole playoff to Shin. It was a bitter disappointment,
but still a second place finish at a Major, hardly a bad result.
The loss started a string of nine straight
top tens, including two more seconds and a third. Hye Yong
Choi had several second place finishes herself during that
span, but Ryu maintained her lead in the Rookie of the Year
race. When Choi finally won her first event, the LotteMart
Ladies Open, ironically it was Ryu who finished second.
As the year wound on, however, Choi continued
to play well, while Ryu faded somewhat. A pivotal moment came
at the year's third Major, the 4th KB Star Tour Event. Ryu
was playing well when she made an illegal drop from a bunker
and was disqualified. Choi, meanwhile, charged from behind,
eventually losing a playoff to Shin. Her second place finish
allowed her to pass Ryu in the Rookie standings.
Ryu and Choi both played well at the Saint
Four Ladies Masters, an event co-sanctioned by the Ladies
European Tour. Ryu wound up losing the Rookie of the Year
title to Choi, although she had a chance until the final event
to win it.
In December, Ryu was one of five top stars
who appeared in a dance number (!) at the KLPGA Awards show.
Ryu started her 2009 season with a bang by
finishing tied for 2nd at the ANZ Ladies Masters, her best
showing outside of Korea since turning pro. She missed the
cut at her first LPGA event played in the States, the JGolf
event in Phoenix, but that proved to be only a momentary blip
in a great year.
The start of the KLPGA season was dominated
by Hee Kyung Seo, who won the first Major of the year. But
Ryu kicked her season into high gear at the Doosan Match Play
Championship. She gradually worked her way through the field,
winning three sudden death playoffs on the way to the finals.
Once there, she faced her arch rival He Yong Choi in a match
for the ages. Tied after 18 holes, they played 9 more sudden
death holes before Ryu finally captured the win, 7 hours and
11 minutes after they started. No one worked harder in 2009
to get a win than that.
The win sparked Ryu to brilliant heights.
Just two events later, she won again, then racked up two more
straight wins to become one of the few in KLPGA history to
score three straight victories. She took over the money list
and Player of the Year lead from Seo, and the two would spend
much of the rest of the year duking it out for those titles.
Seo finally secured the title when Ryu lost a playoff at the
penultimate event of the year. But Ryu still made nearly 600
million won and finished second on the money list, second
in Player of the Year points and third in scoring average.
Without any question, in 2009 Ryu established herself as a
bonified superstar.
In December, Ryu and Seo clashed again at
the China Ladies Open, the first event of the 2010 season.
Seo led going into the final round, but Ryu caught her and
forced a playoff, winning after three holes. Amazingly, it
was Ryu's last win on the KLPGA tour that season. She had
several great chances to win during the year, but something
always happened to short circuit her. Sometimes she would
have a few bad holes at the wrong time, other times another
player suddenly got hot and overtook her. But though she would
not be the Player of the Year in 2010, she did have great
results anyway: she made nearly 400 million won and finished
4th on the money list. Overall she had 14 top tens, which
included an agonizing three seconds. She also had her first
professional missed cut, and a total of 5 finishes outside
the top twenty during the season.
Ryu got off to a strong start in the 2011
season. In the very first KLPGA event of the year, the 2010
China Ladies Open, she was in contention right until the end,
but carded yet another second, losing to Hye Youn Kim. But
after that start, she found herself struggling to make top
tens for the next few months. At the Lotte Cantata Open, she
was four shots back after two rounds, and it did not look
like she would be a factor in the outcome. But she blitzed
the field in the final round with a sizzling 64 to cruise
to her first win in a year and a half.
As great as that result felt, it paled before
what happened to Ryu early in July in Colorado Springs, CO.
She was playing in the US Women's Open thanks to her top five
finish on the KLPGA tour the previous year. After two rounds,
she was in decent position. Rain had caused numerous delays,
and she was forced to play nearly two full rounds on Sunday.
By the end of the day, thanks to her brilliant play, she found
herself a shot out of the lead with three holes to play. The
leader? None other than her old rival Hee Kyung Seo, who was
a rookie on the LPGA tour that season.
On Monday morning, Ryu had three holes to
try to catch Seo and win the Major. She scrambled to an up
and down on the 16th hole. On the par 5 17th, she had a great
birdie chance, but burned the edge on her putt. That left
her just one more chance to catch Seo. On the 18th hole, she
hit a great drive, then a superlative iron that rolled to
five feet. The putt was a tricky one, but she nailed it, forcing
the three hole aggregate playoff with her friend. It was the
first time ever that a Major featured a playoff between Koreans.
In the extra holes, Ryu played the same three
holes she had just completed and dominated Seo. After both
made par on 16, Ryu made birdie on 17 while Seo bogied. Then
Ryu hit her approach on 18 even closer than she had an hour
earlier, making a third birdie in the six holes she had played
on this day to beat Seo by three shots. Ryu became the third
youngest woman to ever win the title, behind Se Ri Pak and
Inbee Park. She also became only the second Korean to win
membership on the LPGA tour by capturing a Major (Jiyai Shin
had been the first), and the first Korean to win that membership
at the US Women's Open, the biggest women's golf event in
the world.
Ryu decided she would join the LPGA in 2012,
but there was still unfinished business in Korea. She still
had yet to win a Major over there, and also wanted to finish
atop the money list. But though she led the money list much
of the season, she was not able to reach that goal, finishing
third behind Ha Neul Kim. She also came up short at the Majors;
her best finish there was a third place at the KLPGA Championship.
But regardless of that, Ryu's 2011 had been a brilliant breakthrough
for her. She finished the year with a tie for second at an
Invitational event in Taiwan that featured many of the top
golfers in the world (she was tied with Jiyai Shin and ahead
of Na Yeon Choi).
Ryu's 2012 was brilliant from start to finish.
Even before she played on the LPGA, she shot a 61 at the RACV
Australian Ladies Masters en route to a second place finish.
In her very first LPGA event (the Australian Women's Open),
she had a four foot putt to win, but missed it and lost in
a playoff. Over the next few tournaments, she added three
more 4th place finishes and a 5th. Before even the second
Major had been played, Ryu was already dominating the Rookie
of the Year race.
In all, So Yeon racked up an impressive 16
LPGA top ten finishes in 2012, 12 of which were top fives.
It was one of the most impressively consistent rookie campaigns
a Korean had ever had. Some of the highlights include just
missing a playoff at the Manulife Financial, two fifth place
finishes in Malaysia and Taiwan, and a fifth place at the
British Women's Open in September.
So Yeon had a number of great chances to win,
but only grabbed one trophy, at the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic.
She started the final round tied with three other Korean stars
- IK Kim, Hee Kyung Seo and Jiyai Shin - but shot a blistering
final round 62 to run away with a seven shot victory. Her
62 tied the record for lowest score ever shot in the final
round to win a tournament. The other four women who share
that record are all Hall-Of-Famers!
Besides the Aussie Open and the Manulife,
Ryu's other best chances to win came at the Safeway Classic
and the season-ending CME Group Titleholders. Ryu lost a tight
battle with old rival Mika Miyazato at the Safeway, finishing
4th. At the CME, she battled Na Yeon Choi the entire last
day, but a couple of crucial mistakes cost her, and she finished
second to the Korean star.
Ryu wound up winning the Rookie of the Year
award, an award that had eluded her on the KLPGA tour, with
an incredible 1,448 points. She beat runner-up Lexi Thompson
by over 600 points, and was more than a thousand points ahead
of the third place woman. She was 6th on the money list and
second in scoring average behind Inbee Park. Among her other
statistical achievements: 2nd in putting/green in regulation,
3rd in rounds under par, 2nd in birdies, and 5th in Player
of the Year.
And that wasn't all! Ryu also won her 8th
KLPGA victory at the Hanwha Classic, her sponsor's tournament!
In December, she won both of her matches at the Korea-Japan
Team competition, and finished tied for third at the Swinging
Skirts event to end her year. She finished this epic season
ranked 7th in the world rankings, well above her position
at the start of the year, when she was outside the top 20.
So Yeon had an excellent 2013 season. Although
she would not win a tournament, she stll made almost exactly
the same amount as she had in 2012, while finishing slightly
higher on the money list (5th). Her world ranking climbed
as high as 4th due to her extreme consistency, which saw her
notch ten top tens. Ryu had top four finishes in three of
the five Majors, and had a good shot at a top ten at the British
as well, but faded in the last few holes. She shot a final
round 65 for a solo second at the Nabisco, and was one of
only three players under par at the US Women's Open. But the
Major she had the best chance to win was the Evian: she was
in contention on Sunday, but just couldn't make the charge
she needed and finished tied for 4th.
She had several other good chances for wins
that fell short. At the Walmart NW Arkansas in June, she made
a four putt late to fall into a tie with good friend Inbee
Park, who ended up winning the playoff. She duked it out with
Lydia Ko at the year ending Swinging Skirts, but another four
putt dropped her below the teen prodigy and she finished second.
Her most painful near miss came in defense of her Hanwha Classic
title on the KLPGA. She had the lead for several days, and
was 6 up with 10 to play. But then Sei Young Kim went on an
amazing streak of skill and uncanny luck. She jarred an eagle
on 9 from over 100 yards, then, on the 17th hole, made a hole
in one! The result was a playoff which Ryu lost.
In 2014, So Yeon Ryu had another phenomenal
season on the LPGA tour. She ended up breaking her career
best money earnings with $1.4+ million earned. She also broke
70 for a scoring average for the first time, a feat only a
few Korean golfers have ever managed. She notched 15 top tens,
10 of which were top fives. But although she did manage one
win during the year, she still was winning at a lower pace
than almost any other golfer of her stature.
The one win came at the Canadian Pacific Women's
Open. She went out with a 63 in the first round, and by the
third round had already eclipsed the tournament record. She
looked on her way to a huge win, but she struggled on the
final nine and Na Yeon Choi charged. In the end Ryu held on
by the skin of her teeth, with Choi finishing second and Inbee
Park third.
Among her other good finishes was a solo second
at the Marathon Classic in Toledo (she needed a birdie to
tie Lydia Ko and force a playoff, but missed the short putt);
a tie for 4th at the HSBC; a tie for third place in Portland
(she needed to make par on the final hole, but hit her ball
into the water and missed out on a playoff); and a tie for
third at the Sime Darby. Interestingly, she did not have a
very strong year at the Majors. She did briefly contend at
the US Women's Open, but after an early Sunday charge fell
off the pace. But that was her only top ten in a Major in
2014. Regrettably, she was disqualified at the Evian when
she damaged her putter after a bad shot, then used it to putt
out. Hitting a shot with an altered club is illegal, hence
the DQ.
So Yeon also played on the International Crown
team with her good friends Na Yeon Choi, Inbee Park and IK
Kim. Ryu and Park teamed for two team wins and one loss, but
they had their biggest moment when they teamed to win a playoff
against the US for the final spot in the event's finals. Ryu
also won her singles match on Sunday, but Korea only finished
tied for third because both Choi and Kim struggled all week.
Those three ladies joined Inbee Park for her
wedding in October; they and Ji Young Oh served as Park's
bridesmaids.
Ryu did not win on the LPGA tour in 2015,
but she had another strong season, earning over $1.2 million
and finishing 8th on the money list. She made every cut during
the year, and by the end of the season had the longest streak
of made cuts on tour.
Among her best finishes was a tie for 4th
behind friend Inbee Park at the HSBC Women's Champions, a
tie for 4th at the Manulife, a tie for 5th at the US Women's
Open, a tie for 3rd at the Women's British Open, a tie for
4th at the Meijer Classic, a 4th at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational,
and a tie for second at the Fubon LPGA Taiwan Championship.
Her two best chances to win were in May at the Kingsmill and
in August at the Canadian Women's Open. At Kingsmill, she
entered a Monday finish several shots behind Minjee Lee, but
started her final four holes with three straight birdies and
came up just short of catching Lee, finishing second.
At the Canadian, which took place in Vancouver,
Ryu was defending champ. She played great, but just couldn't
make enough birdies in the final round to catch Lydia Ko,
and wound up tied for third.
Though Ryu did not win on the LPGA, she did
collect two wins on other tours in 2015. At the Mission Hills
World Ladies Championship in China in March, she duked it
out with good friend and defending champion Inbee Park, going
back and forth in the final round before taking the lead for
good on the 17th hole. Her second win came in Korea at the
High-1 Resort Women's Open. She found herself in a tense final
round battle with defending champ Ha Na Jang. Ryu made a spectacular
50+ foot birdie putt on the 12th hole, which unnerved Jang,
who proceeded to bogey the next two holes. So Yeon went on
to win by two.
At the end of the year, So Yeon played the
ING Champions match which pitted the LPGA against the KLPGA.
Her LPGA team won. Paired with Inbee, she halved on the first
day and won a close one on day two. She won her singles match
against Yoon Ji Cho and was chosen the MVP of the event!
So Yeon changed coaches in the off-season
and worked on making her swing better than ever. She succeeded,
and had another incredible year in 2016. Alas, she was not
able to win on the LPGA for a second straight year, nor did
she get any wins on other tours. She also missed out on the
Olympics, but did play on the International Crown team after
her friend Inbee Park had to drop out due to injury.
The first few months of the year were fairly
poor by her standards, but she did manage a tenth at the ANA
Inspiration. She finally upped her game at the Swinging Skirts,
shooting an opening round 63 there and finishing 5th. After
four more top 20s, she contended at the year's second Major,
finishing tied for 4th. She just missed a top ten at the US
Women's Open, finished tied for 11th, but bounced back with
a tie for 8th at the British Women's Open. Four Majors, four
top 11 finishes.
But she had her best Major at the final one
of the year, the Evian. She started with back-to-back 66s
to move into the hunt. After a third round 69, she was several
shots behind leader In Gee Chun. But she brought her A Game,
shot a fourth round 66, and wound up tied for 2nd with Sung
Hyun Park, four shots behind Chun. She had made only one bogey
all week and shot a score that would have won most other years,
but in 2016 had to settle for a second place.
Ryu finished her year with three straight
top fives: a tie for 5th at the Sime Darby, a tie for third
at the Toto Japan Classic, and a solo second at the CME Group
Tour Championship. That last one was painfully close to a
win. After slugging it out with Charley Hull all weekend,
she finally caught her on the 16th hole on Sunday. But Ryu
put her approach on the par 5 17th into the one spot she could
not go: right up against the face of a five foot tall bunker.
She made bogey and that was it for getting the win.
So Yeon still had a great season: a scoring
average of 70.07, and earnings of more than $1.2 million.
She also had 11 top tens. She did not miss a cut all year,
and now has the longest streak of no missed cuts on the LPGA.
Ryu also played in the International Crown,
where she was the undisputed team leader in the absence of
Inbee Park. She and Sei Young Kim lost their first match,
but rebounded with wins over Taiwan and Australia. So Yeon
also stood tall in defeating the top American, Lexi Thompson,
in singles. Korea finished second to the US, however.
At the ING Champions, So Yeon represented
the LPGA team. She teamed with Q Baek to beat Ji Hyun Oh and
Jeong Eun Lee 6 1 up, then teamed with Sei Young Kim to beat
Ji Hyun Oh and Ji Hyun Kim 2 3 & 1. However, she lost
her singles match to the top KLPGA star Jin Young Ko 3 &
2. The LPGA team won 13-11.
2017 was So Yeon's best season to date. At
last she emerged from the shadow of her good friend Inbee
Park to establish herself as one of the great players in the
game. She started the year with 8 straight top tens; including
the three she finished 2016 with, that made 11 straight total.
So Yeon would have 12 total top tens for the year, best in
the league.
As well as she was playing, she was missing
out on wins. She finished second to Amy Yang in Thailand,
then 2nd again to Mirim Lee at the Kia Classic. At the ANA
Inspiration, the year's first Major, she was again in the
hunt, but it looked like she would lose to American star Lexi
Thompson. Then the unbelievable happened: Thompson received
a 4-stroke penalty for improperly replacing a ball on the
green, and just like that, Ryu was back in the tournament.
On the final green, So Yeon needed a birdie to force a playoff,
but her second shot had left her in a tricky spot behind the
green. From there, she hit a miraculous chip to four feet,
then made the birdie putt. Meanwhile, her playing partner
Inbee missed her birdie to join Ryu in that playoff.
In the playoff, Ryu face a hostile crowd very
much on Thompson's side, but she hit a great tee shot, reached
the green in two, then made an up and down for a birdie and
the win. It was her second career Major and first win at this
tournament.
A few months later, So Yeon again won, this
time in Arkansas, thanks in large part to a second round 61,
her career best score. The win not only secured the first
multi-win season of her LPGA career, it also moved her into
the #1 spot in the world rankings. She would remain there
for 19 weeks.
So Yeon ended up making nearly $2 million
for the year, shattering her old best, and finished second
on the money list to only Sung Hyun Park. She also exactly
tied Park for the Player of the Year award, her first post-season
award since her rookie year. Shortly after that, she played
for the LPGA team at the ING Champions, but lost both of the
matches she played, thanks largely to a shoulder injury that
had slowed her down the last few events of the year.
2018 was a mixed bag season for So Yeon. For
the first time, she finished a year with fewer than ten top
tens. She got close to the #1 ranking but never reached it,
finishing the year third in the world. She earned a healthy
$1.43 million, 6th on the money list, and she broke $10 million
for career earnings. Her consistency was definitely off, but
she won an event and came close to grabbing her third Major.
Her win came at the Meijer Classic in June.
She had four rounds in the 60s, including a first round 64.
She earned $300,000, and gave $100K of that to the tournament's
charity; she was the first champion to ever do that.
Her best Major was the KPMG. She was in contention
all week, and on Sunday duked it out with Sung Hyun Park and
Nasa Hataoka for the title. On the 16th hole, Park put herself
into the weeds near the green, but hit a spectacular flop
shot to save par. Ryu then sank a birdie to take a two shot
lead. But immediately after that, she hit her tee shot on
17 into the water and made double bogey. The three players
ended up in a playoff. Ryu and Park birdied the first hole
to eliminate Hataoka, but Park made birdie on the second hole
(Ryu just missed) and thus claimed the title.
So Yeon also made a run at the Women's British
Open, but Georgia Hall was too strong, and Ryu finished third.
She had a tie for 10th at the Evian.
So Yeon also played on the International Crown
team. The Crown took place in Korea, so the pressure was on
for the Sisters to win. Ryu teamed with In Gee Chun for three
team rounds, and they won all three. She then squared her
match with Lexi Thompson in the singles, thanks to a superlative
bunker shot on the final hole to save par. Korea won the Crown!
So Yeon also played on the winning LPGA team
at the OrangeLife Champions Trophy. She teamed with Inbee
Park to win an epic battle against KLPGA stars Ji Hyun Oh
and Hye Jin Choi. She then teamed with Danielle Kang to square
their match. She utterly obliterated Seung Hyun Lee in the
singles. The LPGA won the match 13-11.
So Yeon also won the Japan Women's Open on
the JLPGA, one of their four Majors. She again faced Hataoka,
who was the defending champion and ended up second. At the
end of the season, Ryu was chosen by her LPGA peers to receive
the William and Mousie Powell award, given every year to the
player who best exemplifies the spirit of the LPGA. I can
think of no player who deserved it more!
2019 was in a lot of ways So Yeon's worst
LPGA season to date. She did not win, and she had a career
low for number of top tens, 5. If it hadn't been for a tie
for 2nd at the US Women's Open, the season might have been
a complete washout by her lofty standards. She earned around
$815,000, 23rd on the money list, and her world ranking dropped
to 18th.
So Yeon played at the OrangeLife Champions
Trophy team event, representing the LPGA. She teamed with
Jin Young Ko to beat Ji Hyun Kim and Ayean Cho 3 & 2,
and squared her match teamed with Inbee Park against Jung
Min Lee and Ji Hyun Kim. She lost her singles match against
A Lim Kim 4 & 2.
In 2020, the whole world was rocked by the
Covid-19 pandemic. The LPGA and KLPGA tours canceled and postponed
many tournaments. So Yeon played a couple of events in Australia
in February, then did not play again on the LPGA until December.
She had a great week at the Vic Open, where she got into a
playoff with Hee Young Park and Hye Jin Choi. Park, however,
ended up winning.
When she returned in December, she notched
another tie for 2nd at the Volunteers of America; she tied
with her good friend Inbee Park and young rookie Yealimi Noh.
She had a tie for 20th at the US Women's Open, then a tie
for 13th at the CME Championship. So Yeon earned $320,000
in just five events, 35th on the money list.
Between June and November, So Yeon played
six events on the KLPGA. Her first was the Korea Women's Open.
In a battle with some of the top KLPGA and LPGA stars, including
world #1 Jin Young Ko, So Yeon came out with the victory.
Unbelievably, it was her first career KLPGA Major. Typical
of her, she gave her entire winner's check, around $225,000,
to a Covid charity. She also gave half her winnings at the
Vic Open to a charity to fight the wildfires then ravaging
Australia.
So Yeon also managed a fifth among her KLPGA
finishes. She earned nearly 330 million won for the year,
13th on the money list. She also played a couple of unofficial
events. She teamed with Inbee Park to take on Lydia Ko and
Pernilla Lindberg in an intercontinental screen golf match.
She also played for the LPGA team at the annual KLPGA-LPGA
team event, the OrangeLife Champions. She teamed with Seon
Woo Bae to lose to So Young Lee and Hee Jeong Lim 2 &
1. The second round was canceled due to poor weather. In singles
she took down KLPGA top gun Hye Jin Choi 3 & 1. The KLPGA
won the event 10.5 to 7.5.
It's a measure of how good So Yeon is that
her 2021 season was one of her weakest, yet still fairly strong
by most standards. She did not win, with her best finishes
a pair of ties for third. She had six top tens and earned
~$688,000 for the year; this was 29th on the money list. Though
she tried hard, she came up just short of earning a spot on
the Olympic team for Korea.
So Yeon really struggled in 2022, arguably
her worst season since joining the LPGA. She only managed
two top tens all year. One of them came at the Evian, where
she had three great rounds to start but stumbled to a 73 in
the final round and fell to a tie for 8th. She was so inconsistent
that she failed to qualify for the season-ending CME Championship
for the first time ever, and made just $332,000 all year.
For the first time, she fell to category 3. But though her
results were bad, she seems to have maintained her positive
attitude, and is still hoping to rebound and get back to the
top in 2023.
So Yeon did have one good result in 2022.
She played in a new event in Indonesia called the Simone Asia
Pacific Cup. This event had both a team portion and an individual
portion. She won the team event when paired with her good
friend Bo Mee Lee, and finished second in the individual portion.
So Yeon struggled far more in 2023 than ever
before in her career. She made less than $80,000 on the LPGA
all year, 137th on the money list. She played just eleven
events, making just four cuts. She had only one top ten, a
tie for 7th at the Ascendant. Her results were so bad that
she plunged to category 17 status, jeopardizing her ability
to qualify for tournaments in 2024. It also seems like she
lost her main sponsor Mediheal, although this is not certain.
Hopefully she is not considering retiring; she is still young
enough to keep playing if she can get back on track.
She also played a few events on the KLPGA
in 2023, but didn't have any top 20 results.
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