At the Hanwha Life Plus International Crown (total prize money of 2 million dollars), a women’s national golf competition that opens on the 5th (Korean time), each player has a ‘uniform number’, drawing attention.
Uniform numbers are rarely seen in individual golf matches, but in this tournament, uniform numbers were adopted as one of the ways to indicate that it is a ‘team game’.
In Korea, where Jeon In-ji (29, KB Financial Group), Ko Jin-young (28, Solaire), Kim Hyo-joo (28, Lotte), and Choi Hye-jin (24, Lotte) sortie each chose their uniform number.
Jeon In-ji’s uniform number is 8. True to her nickname, ‘Major Queen’, she derives from the number of major tournament victories she has won.
She won three major titles on the US Women’s Professional Golf (LPGA) Tour, two times on the Japan Women’s Professional Golf (JLPGA) Tour, and three times on the Korea Women’s Professional Golf (KLPGA) Tour.
The fact that her birthday is in August (the 10th) is also one of the reasons she chose the number 8.
Kim Hyo-joo chose number 10. Interestingly, she took the shirt number of her favorite soccer player, Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain).
Choi Hye-jin also chose number 23, the uniform number of Michael Jordan, her ‘basketball emperor’, as her own. Added to that is the reason her birthday is on August 23rd.
Ko Jin-young chose her number 7 as her uniform number, which was taken from her own birthday, which is the 7th of July.
Players from other countries each chose the uniform number they wanted.ㅋㅋㅋ벳
Most of the numbers come from her birthday, but Moriya Jutanugarn (Thailand) chose the last two digits of her phone number, number 35. Ariya Jutanugarn (Thailand) picked number 36, the number after her older sister Moriya’s uniform, because ‘she doesn’t like to think about it for long’.
Meanwhile, Korea will play in Group B along with Australia, Thailand and Japan. The top two finishers in the group stage will advance to the semifinals and win the tournament.
Korea faces Australia in a four-ball match on the 5th, the first day. Jeon In-ji and Choi Hye-jin teamed up against Lee Min-ji and Steph Kiriako, and Kim Hyo-joo and Ko Jin-young faced Hannah Green and Sarah Kemp.