After taking a two-year hiatus from the Korean Professional Golf Association (KPGA) Korean Tour in 2021 due to a wrist injury, Uhm Jae-woong marked his comeback by winning the Baeksong Holdings-Asiaad CC Busan Open, his third tournament since returning.
The tournament was held at the Pine-Lake Course (Par 71) of Asiad CC in Gijang, Busan on the 29th. After shaving six strokes off his score in the third round the previous day to take a one-stroke lead over Park Sang-hyun, Uhm Jae-woong lost one stroke on the day but finished with a 15-under-par 269 total to win the tournament by three strokes over “Cas-type” Park.
“I’ve been waiting a long time to win two titles, and I’m so happy that I did,” said Uhm Jae-woong, who is from Busan. “I was trying to focus on the Asian Tour because it was difficult to maintain my seeding on the Korean Tour. But now that I’ve won the Korean Tour, I think I’ll have to reschedule my future plans.”
Especially for the ‘Busan Man’, many fans gathered to cheer him on. “My sponsor, Woosung General Construction, is also a Busan company and my hometown is Busan. Many people gave me a lot of support, so I gained strength and got a good result,” he said, expressing his gratitude.
It was a match-play final. Park was only one stroke behind the leader. Furthermore, Park had come from behind to win the previous Genesis Championship, so he could not afford to let his guard down.
The early momentum was in Uhm’s favor. While Park faltered with a bogey on the second hole, Uhm birdied the fifth to pull within three strokes of Park. However, Park would not go down easily. After a bogey on the sixth, he birdied the ninth to pull back to within one shot, and then birdied the ninth and 10th to take the lead.
The tournament came down to the 16th hole (par-3). It was a hole of horrors as many players’ tee shots were washed away by the strong winds throughout the tournament. Unfortunately, Uhm’s tee shot did not reach the green and slid backwards. He barely missed the water, but par was not an option. Park Sang-hyun, who had bogeyed the 14th to fall one stroke behind, aggressively aimed for the pin, but his tee shot was about a meter short and disappeared into the water. Uhm made bogey and Park double-bogeyed the hole, leaving the gap at two strokes, and the tournament was over.
It had been five years and one month since he won his first Korean Tour title at the Huon’s Celebrity Pro-Am in September 2018, and he was all smiles at the ‘400 million won jackpot’, especially as the tournament offered a cash prize of 200 million won to the winner.
But there was something else that made him even happier. In July 2021, Uhm took a medical leave due to a wrist injury and stopped playing on the tour. He returned to action in July at the Honors K-Solago CC Hanjangsang Invitational in accordance with KPGA rules. With only a handful of tournaments remaining, he was not eligible to defend his seeding on the money list or the Order of Merit.
He desperately wanted to win. The dream became a reality. Uhm Jae-woong didn’t falter until the very end, holding off the chase from the ‘veteran’ to secure his second-year seeding on the Korean Tour, and celebrated with both hands in the air.토토사이트
Of course, it wasn’t ‘luck’. After missing the first half of the year on the Korean Tour, Uhm turned his attention to the Asian Tour and made a triumphant entrance into the Asian Tour with a first-place finish in the qualifying stage in January. After finishing second at the Asian Tour’s New Zealand Open earlier this year, he stumbled, but improved his game with a second-place finish at the most recent International Series event, the Singapore Open, and a tie for ninth at the Macau Open, and kept the momentum going to take home the trophy in his hometown.
Park, who was looking for his 13th career win at the event, finished second. Park got off to a strong start with a “career-low” 10-under-par 61 on the first day of the tournament, but faltered in the second round with a 3-under 68 and a 2-under 69. On the final day, he was unable to pull off a come-from-behind victory after his tee shot went into the water on the par-3 third hole.
Lee Tae-hee, Ham Jeong-woo and Shin Sang-hoon finished tied for third at 9-under par 275, while Kang Kyung-nam, Lee Tae-hoon and Kim Chan-woo tied for sixth at 8-under par 276.