Monster’ Kim Kyung-tae (37) returns to the Korea Professional Golf (KPGA) tour.
The KPGA Tour recently changed the qualifications for permanent seed holders from ‘over 25 wins in total’ to ’20 wins in total and victory in 4 major tournaments’. As a result, following Choi Sang-ho (68), Choi Kyung-joo (53), Han Jang-sang (83), Park Nam-shin (64), and Yang Yong-eun (51), Kim Kyung-tae acquired a new permanent seed. Kim Kyung-tae has won 6 wins on the KPGA Tour and 14 wins on the Japan Professional Golf Tour (JGTO).
Since his amateur days, Kim Kyung-tae has shown an activity worthy of the nickname ‘monster’. From 2003 to 2006 he wore the Taegeuk mark. In 2005 and 2006, he won the Japan Amateur Championship consecutively, and in 2006, he won the KPGA Tour Pocari Energen Open and Samsung Benest Open in 2006, in which he competed as an amateur. At the Doha Asian Games held the same year, he won gold medals in both individual and team events. 스포츠토토
His professional career was also different. In 2007, at his first competition, the Tomato Savings Bank Open, he wrote the history of the only ‘debut win’ in the history of the KPGA Tour. He also won the GS Caltex Maekyung Open, which followed, for two consecutive weeks, and also reached the top at the Samneung Apple City Open in July. In the first year of his debut, he won the grand prize, prize money king, Deok Chun Award (lowest stroke award), and Myeongchul Award (newcomer award) with three wins.
Since 2008, Kim Kyung-tae has been on the Asian stage, including Japan. In 2010, he became the first Korean player to win the money prize with three wins at the JGTO. In 2015, he won 5 wins and won the grand prize and prize money at the same time. In 2016, he ran his heyday, sweeping 3 wins in 7 tournaments. He won 14 wins until the Casio World Open in 2019, and the accumulated prize money until 2021 alone is 948,298,751 yen (approximately 8.9 billion won). However, for the past two years, he has been plagued by injuries and has not been able to show his skills, and has been given a chance to leap again with the KPGA’s relaxation of qualifications to acquire permanent seed rights.
Kim Gyeong-tae, who has been concentrating on the KPGA tour for the first time in 16 years since 2007, chose the 2023 season held by a sponsor who has been accompanying him for 17 years (Shinhan Donghae Open) as the goal he most wants to win. Kim Kyung-tae said, “I have suffered from a sore back for the past two years. I will definitely play the season in good health this year.” Currently, Kim Kyung-tae is training in Thailand for his return to the KPGA Tour.