“It’s unfortunate that I missed out on the championship, but it was a year where I could become stronger.”
Lee Dong-eun (21), who debuted on the Korea Ladies Professional Golf (KLPGA) Tour last season, looked back on her first year like this in a recent phone interview. Dong-eun Lee participated in 30 competitions last season and had a decent year as a ‘rookie’, entering the ‘top 10’ eight times, including two runner-up finishes. They also collected 433.04 million won in prize money and maintained their seeding for the 2025 season at 24th place. Lee Dong-eun said, “Before entering the season, my goal was ‘Let’s just maintain the seeding first,’ so apart from winning, it was fun to play in the first division tour stage that I really wanted to come to.” “I received it, but I had a fun year,” he said with a smile. Lee Dong-eun, who usually has a quiet voice and a quiet personality, is often misunderstood as being inactive, but is famous for her bright and cheerful personality among her acquaintances.
Lee Dong-eun has also clearly reflected on the fact that she did not win the championship last season. Lee Dong-eun said, “Unlike the Dream Tour (Part 2), I definitely felt a big difference in the greens of the first part stage,” and “It was not easy to get a sense of speed, including seeing the breaks on the green.” The Dream Tour often has poor green conditions compared to the KLPGA Tour, so even if you don’t hit the putt as sharply, you will get similar results in most cases. However, in the KLPGA Tour, not only are the green speeds fast, but there are various variables such as pin locations at each venue, so if you lack adaptation to the greens, you cannot easily reduce the number of strokes. Lee Dong-eun ranked 94th out of 115 tour players with an average putting of 30.8, which was below last season’s tour average (30.4).
He said that excessive greed was also the reason that prevented him from winning. On the KLPGA Tour, which has a ‘tough’ schedule with competitions held every week from March to November, physical fitness management is considered the most important factor for players. However, Lee Dong-eun, who is in her first year, was said to have been unable to manage her physical strength well due to her excessive greed at the beginning of the season. Lee Dong-eun said, “I didn’t know in the beginning that a competition is a competition, and a break is a rest.” He added, “You have to rest after the competition to prepare for the next competition, but if you had any regrets in that competition, you had to practice from the next day. “It became ‘poison’ and the shot was ruined, which led to a bad performance,” he said. In fact, Lee Dong-eun missed the cut nine times last season, and more than half of them, five times, were concentrated in the early part of the season from April to June.
The OK Savings Bank competition, which was expected to be a strong winner, was also analyzed to have been missed due to excessive greed. Lee Dong-eun said, “It was the most disappointing competition last season and a competition I want to return to.” At that time, the competition was held in three rounds, and Lee Dong-eun started in a tie for first place in the first round and then rose to the sole lead by three strokes in the second round. Lee Dong-eun said, “The fact that I was aware that I was in first place really made me nervous. “It was a burden because my sisters were following me instead of me,” he said. “Because of this, I played defensively with the thought of ‘let’s just protect the number of strokes,’ so my golf was not good, and in fact, I ended up making a lot of missed shots.” He said. Lee Dong-eun ended up scoring 1 over par in the final round of the tournament and was tied for 7th place, 3 strokes behind the leader. Lee Dong-eun said, “If I could go back, I would hit really boldly,” and laughed out loud, saying, “Rather than hitting timidly and regretting it, it would be better to just hit coolly and then regret it.”
Lee Dong-eun has no regrets about her debut year, but after completing her analysis, her eyes are already turned to the 2025 season. Lee Dong-eun left for field training in the United States on the 12th. Lee Dong-eun said, “Because my drive distance is good enough to place me in 3rd place last season, I will focus on practicing wedge shots within 100m and improving my putt sense,” and added, “If I can get my first win in my debut in the 2025 season, there will be a lot of galleries.” “I want to do it at the Hana Financial Group Championship, which is famous for gatherings,” he said.
Reporter Kim Jeong-hoon [email protected]
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