In the Korean men’s professional golf world, a ‘monster’ with a huge long hit has appeared and is exciting fans. The protagonist of the topic is professional golfer Jung Chan-min (24 years old).
On the 7th, Jeong Chan-min won the GS Caltex Maekyung Open (total prize money of 1.3 billion won) held at the Namseoul Country Club (par 71) in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do on the Asian Pro Golf Tour with a final total of 16 under par and 197 strokes. Chan-min Jung, who won his first major championship in his career two years after his tour debut, has already become a hot topic and became a star in an instant.
Tremendous flying distance since junior
Jung Chan-min started playing golf during the summer vacation of his 3rd year of elementary school, and after following his father to play the ball, he found it interesting and decided to start. He has been attracting attention since he was a junior, and in 2016 and 2017, he won Songam Bae, one of the most prestigious amateur competitions in Korea, for two consecutive years.
In his first win in 2016, he beat runner-up Kim Han-byul by 6 strokes, and in 2017 when defending his title, he was unmatched enough to win by 10 strokes. In 2017, he also reached the top of the Ilsongbae 35th Korea Junior Championships토스카지노.
2016 Song-Am Cup Winner Men’s Chan-Min Jung, President Ki-Jung Woo, Women’s Winner Choi Hye-Jin (from left)
Jung Chan-min’s extraordinary long hitting ability has been famous since high school. In the 2016 Songam Cup held at Daegu CC, Jung Chan-min, who was a sophomore in high school at the time, flew 290m with a 3-wood instead of a driver in the 15th hole (par 5, 448m) of the last round, and then succeeded in lightly two-on with an 8-iron to catch an eagle. I did.
At Namseoul CC, where the Heo Jeong-gu-bae competition was held, two-on was possible in all par 5 holes. Chan-min Jeong remembers his ‘Longest’ record of 370m, and 400 yards at the Young Champions Trophy held at the Royal Liverpool Golf Course in England during his senior year of high school when he was a national representative. It is said that he hit more than .
After the 2nd part tour, entered the 1st part tour
Srixon Tour Chan-min Jeong’s drive shot. (Photo = Provided by KPGA)
However, the professional stage was not so easy.
“Honestly, I was easy on the pros because I hit well in the amateurs. The professional world that I came across easily was definitely different.”
As he said, pros are on a different level from amateurs.
Having served as the national team in 2017 and 2018, he hit a shot on the Srixon Tour for three years from 2019. He took the Qualifying Test (QT) twice in 2019 and 2020, equivalent to the regular tour qualification exam, but suffered the pain of failing both.
He had a hard time contemplating giving up golf, but he persevered with his dream of reaching the top on the Korean Tour, and in 2021, he won two wins on the Srixon Tour, the second part of the tour, and finally succeeded in entering the regular tour of his dreams.
His distinctive long hitting power was still there. Following the long hit king of the Srixon Tour, he also took the top spot on the KPGA Korean Tour, which he entered last year. On the Srixon Tour, he averaged 321.8 yards, and last year on the KPGA Korean Tour, he averaged 317.1 yards. Jung Chan-min is the first player on the KPGA Korean Tour with an average distance of over 310 yards. He averaged a driving distance of 341 yards this year.
From great long hits to elaborate short games
Jeong Chan-min with the championship trophy (Photo = Provided by the GS Caltex Maekyung Open Organizing Committee, Yonhap News)
Namseoul Country Club, where this year’s GS Caltex Maekyung Open was held, was a course where precise shots, short games, and green plays were much more important than long hits, so few people predicted Jeong Chan-min’s victory. In the first round, which was played in the rain, there were many observations that Chan-min Jung would not be able to hold on if the fairways and greens dried up even when he drove 8 under par to take the lead alone.
Even in the second round, which was raining heavily, Chan-min Jeong saved the lead by three strokes by reducing three strokes, and in the final round, when the rain stopped and the pin position was changed to the most difficult, he easily beat the pursuers by six strokes with a brilliant short game as well as long hits.
The skills Jung Chan-min showed this time are, in a word, phenomenal. On hole 1 of the final round, his second shot landed on the fringe of the green. It was a difficult position to make a par save, but he did a great ‘flop shot’ and didn’t lose a stroke. A ‘flop shot’ is a high-level shot that minimizes ‘runs’ by launching the ball high. In the par 5 4th hole, I put a bunker shot as it is and recorded an eagle. It was a demonstration of sophisticated short game skills.
Jung Chan-min’s powerful swing (Photo = Provided by the GS Caltex Maekyung Open Organizing Committee, Yonhap News)
The deadly slugging power was truly terrifying. The par 5 14th hole is 504 yards, or 461m. Jeong Chan-min’s driver shot lightly went over the left bunker. The remaining distance was 136 m. It rained a lot the day before and the terrain was uphill, so even though there weren’t many ‘runs’, he hit a long hit of 325m.
Jeong Chan-min hit the second shot with a wedge, which even over the green. Senior golfers who watched this scene said, “In the past, we had to hit with a fairway wood or long iron for the second shot on this hole to make it two-on. It is unimaginable to aim for a two-on with a wedge on a par 5 hole.” In the 16th hole (489m), the longest par 4 hole, my tee shot was off and pushed to the right rough, but I rode downhill and recorded 354m. The remaining distance was only 135m.
A long hit reminiscent of Kim Joo-hyung in the 1990s
Watching Chanmin Jung play, I was reminded of Joohyung Kim, a professional golfer 30 years ago. The son of famous announcer Kim Dong-gun, Kim Joo-hyung has earned a reputation as Korea’s best long hitter. Called a ‘golf prodigy’, he started playing golf in the first grade of elementary school and boasted such outstanding skills that he was selected for the national team in the third grade of middle school.